Thousands of punters have started to arrive at Tomorrowland 2025, despite a huge fire destroying the main stage last night (July 16).
The incident took place last night, breaking out less than 48 hours before more than 70,000 attendees were due to attend the dance festival in Boom, Belgium. While approximately 1,000 employees were on site at the time, there were no injuries reported, although it did throw uncertainty over whether the festival would be fine to go ahead as scheduled.
Now, tens of thousands of campers have started to arrive at the site following organisers vowing to ensure the festival still goes ahead.
“It is impossible to put into words what we’re feeling,” organisers said on Instagram this morning (July 17), adding that the Orbyz main stage “wasn’t just a stage… it was a living, breathing world.”
Organisers continued, saying that they are “focused on finding solutions”, and Jurgen Callaerts, mayor of Rumst, has said that they are working on finding an alternative to the main stage as “cancelling the festival completely is the last thing we want to do” (via BBC).
Among those set to perform at the 2025 event are David Guetta, Lost Frequencies, Swedish House Mafia and Charlotte De Witte, and there are 14 other stages outside of the main stage, although they are considerably smaller.
When the fire broke out at around 6pm local time (4pm UK time), footage of the destruction was quickly shared across social media. One employee said that it felt “apocalyptic” to see the damage it was causing.
“We suddenly heard bangs and saw fire near the stage, a huge amount of fire,” they told Het Nieuwsblad. “We were just putting the finishing touches on it. One more day and it would be finished. Four weeks of work… gone in half an hour.”
Some residents in the area were evacuated, and firefighters worked to prevent the fire from reaching the surrounding homes or woodland.
It isn’t yet clear why the fire broke out, although some speculate it may be an issue with pyrotechnics, as fireworks were allegedly heard by some people in the area.
Last night, organisers confirmed that the opening of the campsite this morning would be going ahead as planned, and they added they were “focused on finding solutions for the festival weekend” and working on sharing “more updates and detailed information as soon as possible”.
Many took to social media to share their shock at the scenes, including DJ Dimitri Vegas, who is scheduled to perform this year. The artist shared an image on his Instagram account with the Tomorrowland logo in the middle of a broken heart.
Others called for refunds due to the now-tumultuous circumstances, urging organisers to offer them the chance to reach out for refunds now that the main stage has been destroyed.
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