Tomorrowland (festival)
Tomorrowland is a Belgian electronic dance music festival held in Boom, Belgium. Tomorrowland was first held in 2005. It now stretches over two weekends and usually sells out in minutes.
History
2005
The first edition of the festival took place on 15 August 2005. Manu Beers, Michiel Beers and ID&T organized the festival. Performers included Push, Erwin Tang Yew Hon, Armin van Buuren, Cor Fijneman, Yves Deruyter, Technoboy, Yoji Biomehanika and Coone.2006
The second festival, on 30 July 2006, hosted Armin van Buuren, Axwell, Marco Bailey, Fred Baker, David Guetta, Ruthless and DJ Zany. The DJ and producer Paul Oakenfold was also announced on the poster, but canceled at the last moment, as he was on tour with Madonna at the time. Emjay, the producer of 'Stimulate', the anthem of 2006, performed on the main stage with The Atari Babies.2007
The third year, the festival lasted two days for the first time in its history, taking place on 28 and 29 July 2007.2008
In 2008, the festival took place on 26 and 27 July. For the first time, more than 100 DJs participated. The number of visitors exceeded 50,000 for the first time.2009
For the fifth event, ID&T led to even more venues, one ski, and much more. Sun has included an "I Love the 90's" stage, where musicians such as Push, Natural Born Deejays and SASH from the dance scene were present. La Rocca performed live at the event for the first time. The special act on the main stage was Moby. Tomorrowland 2009 took place on 25 and 26 July and attracted 90,000 people. The festival saw the use of a theme for the first time - Masker.2010
Tomorrowland sold out days before the event, with a record attendance of 120,000 visitors over two days, in 2010 Dada Life, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Tara McDonald wrote the official anthem "Tomorrow/Give Into The Night", performing the song twice on the main stage after Swedish House Mafia. The track was made by Like Mike, Dada Life and Dimitri Vegas and the vocal melody and lyrics were written and recorded by Tara McDonald. The song reached number 5 in the Belgian commercial charts and is the biggest selling anthem for Tomorrowlands to date. The festival's theme was "Zon " and was nominated for the Best Music Event by the International Dance Music Awards in 2011.2011
2011 marked the festival's expansion to three days occurring on 22, 23, 24 July. Tomorrowland 2011 had the theme "The Tree of Life" and the anthem "The Way We See The World" by Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike featuring Afrojack and Nervo. Only a few days after the official pre-sale of tickets kicked off Tomorrowland was completely sold out and had over 180,000 visitors. David Guetta, Nervo, Swedish House Mafia, Avicii, Tiësto, Hardwell, Carl Cox, Paul van Dyk, RavenTensnake, Laidback Luke, Brodinski, Juanma Tudon, Basto, Mike Matthews, De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig, and dozens of others performed. It was voted the Best Music Event by the International Dance Music Awards for the first time in 2012.
2012
Tomorrowland 2012 took place 27, 28, 29 July 2012, at the De Schorre, a provincial recreation area in Boom, Belgium, 16 kilometers south of Antwerp and 32 kilometers north of Brussels. The line-up consisted of 400 DJs, such as Armin van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Skrillex, Avicii, Marco Bailey, Skazi, David Guetta, Nervo, Hardwell, Swedish House Mafia, Afrojack, Steve Aoki, Juanma Tudon, Carl Cox, The Bloody Beetroots, Paul van Dyk, Martin Solveig, Chuckie, Fatboy Slim, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Pendulum playing on fifteen stages each day. 185,000 people from over 75 countries around the world were in attendance, with 35,000 of them staying in Dreamville. Because of the enormous success of Tomorrowland and the fact that it is a Belgian festival, ID&T decided to give Belgians an exclusive chance with a pre-sale on March 24. In less than one day, all of the tickets sold out and at some moments there were 2,000,000 people on the online waiting list. The worldwide sale started April 7. Within 43 minutes, the other 100,000 tickets sold out. In addition to regular tickets, Tomorrowland partnered with Brussels Airlines to provide exclusive travel packages from over 15 cities around the world. Other highlights of the festival were the Cloud Rider, the highest mobile Ferris wheel in Europe, and the fact that 25 airlines were organized to bring spectators to the festival from all over the world. The festival's theme was "The Book of Wisdom" and had the anthem "Tomorrow Changed Today" by Afrojack, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, and Nervo. The festival again won the International Dance Music Awards in 2013 for the Best Music Event. Tomorrowland 2012 also won the DJ Award for the Best International Dance Music Festival.2013
Tomorrowland 2013 took place on 26 27 28 July and reached 180,000 attendees at De Schorre in Boom, Belgium. Full madness passes sold out in 35 minutes, and the remainder of tickets sold out in a reported one second. Tomorrowland again offered its Global Journey packages with Brussels Airlines which had 140 additional flights from 67 different cities around the world transporting festival goers with 92 different nationalities to Boom, Belgium. The anthem for Tomorrowland 2013 was "Chattahoochee" by Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike featuring Maarten Vorwerk. This year's edition with the theme "The Arising of Life" saw performances from Axwell, Armin van Buuren, Hardwell, Afrojack, David Guetta, and Sebastian Ingrosso.2014
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the festival, and to meet the high demand for tickets, the 2014 edition of Tomorrowland would be held over two weekends; 18–20 July and 25–27 July. The line-up for both weekends would be more or less the same. In April 2014, MTV announced that it would produce two hour-long MTV World Stage specials featuring performances from the festival, and that it would produce a documentary surrounding the 10th anniversary of Tomorrowland. On April 16, composer Hans Zimmer and Tomorrowland announced that they combined forces for the creation of a classical hymn that would premiere during the 10th anniversary edition of Tomorrowland. Veteran DJ Dave Clark, who hosted the second largest stage, believes that “a more diverse lineup that covered a wider range of underground music” was Tomorrowland 2014's top selling point. Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike again were responsible for the Tomorrowland anthem, this year working with W & W for the song "Waves". 360,000 people attended Tomorrowland 2014 which won the International Dance Music Award for Best Global Festival during the ceremony in March 2015.2015
Tomorrowland 2015 took place on 24, 25, and 26 July 2015 and saw 180,000 visitors. The theme for the year was "The Secret Kingdom of Melodia". Performers included Avicii, Hardwell, David Guetta, Tiësto, Armin van Buuren, and Carl Cox. The 2016 edition of the International Dance Music Awards awarded the Tomorrowland 2015 the Best Global Festival for the fifth consecutive year, and the readers of DJ Magazine voted Tomorrowland 2015 the World's Best Festival.2016
Tomorrowland 2016 took place on 22, 23, and 24 July. The theme for the year was "The Elixir of Life" and saw 180,000 visitors. The 2016 edition of Tomorrowland saw a surprise set from Tiësto on the Thursday prior to the weekend and was sponsored by Budweiser. Other performers included Axwell Λ Ingrosso, Martin Garrix, The Chainsmokers, and number one DJs Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike.2017
2017 saw Tomorrowland expand to a two weekend event for the first time since their tenth anniversary in 2014.The theme, "Amicorum Spectaculum", and dates were announced in January 2017, and was scheduled for the final two weekends of July 2017, the 21-23 and 28-30 July. This year, a record number of tickets was sold - 400,000 spanning the two weekends. The festival saw a massive increase in the number of performers to span the 16 stages, including regulars and a lot of artists making their festival debut. Regular headliner Martin Garrix premiered his song "Pizza" as the closing song of his set. The song was originally intended to be a Tomorrowland exclusive however it was released as a single a month later. In 2017, the festival was nominated by the European Festivals Awards and the Electronic Music Awards for World's Best Festival. The festival was also visited by King Philippe and Queen consort Matilda. Towards the end of August Tomorrowland 2017 became the biggest social media music events in the world at the time reviving over 1.2 billion views from over 200 million people. Regular headliners Armin van Buuren and David Guetta released statement regarding the festival's achievement:
2018
The 2018 edition of Tomorrowland saw an attendance of 400,000 people for the second year running across the two weekends. The festival took place on Friday 20 to Sunday 22 July and Friday 27 to Sunday 29 July with tickets for the two weekends selling out in an hour. Mainstage performers included Armin van Buuren, David Guetta, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Martin Garrix.This edition also marked the return of Hardwell who headlined the festival three years after his previous set in 2015. The theme for the 2018 edition of the festival was "The Story of Planaxis". Tomorrowland 2018 also saw a lot of Avicii tributes to commemorate the death of the Swedish DJ three months prior to the festival. Avicii's songs "Levels" and "Wake Me Up" came second and eighth respectively in Tomorrowland 2018's most played songs. Tributes to the DJ came from Axwell Λ Ingrosso, Don Diablo, Nicky Romero, and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. Digital Spy described the event as "the most elaborate festival on earth" with the only downside being the price.2019
For its fifteenth anniversary, Tomorrowland returned to The Book of Wisdom as its mainstage theme, previously used in 2012. The festival took place on the 19 to 21 and 26 to 28 July and saw regular performers like The Chainsmokers, Armin van Buuren and David Guetta return. Non-EDM artists like Bebe Rexha and ASAP Rocky were also on the lineup however the latter had to cancel following his arrest in Sweden. The mainstage design featured a tribute to the late DJ Avicii who died in April 2018. Tribute to whom were also paid the previous year. Supergroup Swedish House Mafia were rumoured to close the event following Steve Angello's claim in the autumn of the previous year that the group would play at the festival "by any means necessary". Rumours became even stronger when the group's signature "three dots" appeared on the Tomorrowland lineup. However, the "three dots" were announced last minute to be 3 Are Legend, leading many to believe that the group pulled out last minute. Axwell and Steve Angello claimed that the group were never booked for the festival.2020
The year after the anniversary Tomorrowland chose "The Reflection of Love" as its theme, which was already secretly revealed in the 2019 mainstage, as there was a book with the exact theme title near the right center of the mainstage, also stating 2020 in Roman numerals. On 15 April, Tomorrowland announced that the 2020 edition of the festival would not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 4 June, Tomorrowland announced a virtual festival would go ahead in place of the 2020 edition. The event named Tomorrowland Around the World will take place on July 25th and July 26th.Editions' Summary
TomorrowWorld
On March 20, 2013, ID&T Belgium and SFX Entertainment announced that it would begin organizing an American spin-off of Tomorrowland, known as TomorrowWorld. The festival is held at the Bouckaert Farm in Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia, located 48 kilometers southwest of Atlanta. The site was specifically chosen due to its resemblance to the Boom location in which Tomorrowland is traditionally held.The inaugural edition of TomorrowWorld, held 27–29 September 2013, reused the "Book of Wisdom" design used for the main stage at Tomorrowland in 2012. The festival played host to over 140,000 attendees over the weekend. TomorrowWorld brought more than music, dancing and stunning visuals to the area that year - it brought an economic boost. Officials reported TomorrowWorld 2013 brought $85.1 million into the Georgia economy, including $70 million directly to Atlanta. That $70 million matches the impact the city got from hosting the NCAA Final Four in 2013.
Nearly 140,000 attended the event, and their direct expenditures added $28.7 million into the local economy in areas such as lodging, restaurants and sight-seeing, TomorrowWorld officials said.
The 2014 edition of TomorrowWorld was held on 26-27–28 September 2014. The theme was "The Arising of Life," and used the volcano main stage which debuted at Tomorrowland in 2013. The festival hosted a pre-festival concert called "The Gathering" on Thursday 25 September 2014 for attendees staying in Dreamville, the camp grounds of TomorrowWorld. Over 40,000 people camped at Dreamville, selling out the basic camping option. More than 160,000 people attended TomorrowWorld 2014.
The third and final edition of TomorrowWorld was held on the weekend of September 25, 2015. The event descended into chaos after being marred by inclement weather. Rain showers resulted in muddy terrain at the festival grounds, and entrance roadways to the grounds becoming unusable. On Saturday, due to the road conditions, organizers restricted shuttle service for attendees traveling back to Atlanta; those who were not stranded without shelter at the grounds overnight were required to hike miles towards areas where taxi cab and Uber drivers offered rides back to Atlanta at high prices. The following morning, festival organizers announced that the remainder of the festival would only be open to those who had camped on-site, and that refunds would be issued to those who were affected by the transport issues or had bought tickets for day 3.
On March 2, 2016, the official TomorrowWorld Facebook page announced that the festival will not be held in 2016.
Tomorrowland Brasil
As announced on July 20, 2014, by David Guetta's streamed Tomorrowland set to Brazil, and on the Tomorrowland website, the next edition to Tomorrowland Brasil was held on May 1–3, 2015 in Itu, São Paulo. Various DJ's performed such as W&W, Hardwell, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Showtek, Steve Aoki, and many more main stage performers. Some of the stage hosts were Revealed Recordings, Dim Mak, Smash The House, Q-Dance, Super You & Me and many more.The mainstage again reused the "Book of Wisdom" theme. All 180,000 tickets sold out one day after being announced.
The second edition of Tomorrowland Brasil took place once again at Itu in São Paulo, Brasil during April 21–23, 2016. The lineup included Axwell & Ingrosso, Ferry Corsten, Laidback Luke, Loco Dice, Markus Schulz, Afrojack, Alesso, Armin van Buuren, Chris Lake, Infected Mushroom, Nicky Romero, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Solomun, Steve Angello, and many others.
In November 2016, it was announced that Tomorrowland Brasil would not return due to concerns over the country's economic stability.
Tomorrowland Winter
In March 2018, Tomorrowland announced the coming of a new festival, Tomorrowland Winter, to take place annually during the second or third week in March in Alpe d'Huez in the French Alps.The first Tomorrowland Winter took place between 9 and 16 March 2019 and used the theme "The Hymn of the Frozen Lotus". It featured Martin Garrix, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Armin van Buuren, Martin Solveig, Afrojack, DJ Snake, Steve Aoki and others. For the participants, the choice of 4 or 7 day passes were available for packages including accommodation and skiing.
On 13 August 2019, Tomorrowland announced that Tomorrowland Winter would return to the Alpe d'Huez for the 2020 edition which will be on the 3rd week of March with ticket sales opening in September. On 5 March 2020, the French Government decided to cancel this year's edition due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unite with Tomorrowland
Tomorrowland has also organized Unite with Tomorrowland events in other countries, which serve as a satellite link to the main event in Belgium featuring live streams from the festival with synchronized effects, joined by in-person headliners. Unite with Tomorrowland currently operates in the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Spain, Lebanon, Taiwan, Malta, South Korea, Greece, and Israel.Incidents
On the 29th of July 2017, the Unite event in Parc de Can Zam, Barcelona, Spain was cut short after the stage caught fire due to a "technical malfunction" causing over 22,000 people to be evacuated. Firefighters on the scene hypothesised that the fire was caused by a failed pyrotechnics display however this was never officially confirmed. Twenty five percent of the stage was destroyed and twenty people were treated for minor injuries or anxiety.In a statement, Tomorrowland said:
Promotion and economy
Sponsorships and social media
Tomorrowland currently has twenty six official partners including Pepsi Max, Budweiser, and Brussels Airlines which do various work to promote the festival. Since 2011, Tomorrowland has been filming the event and posting the sets on YouTube. The filming is also used to make an official aftermovie in which extra emphasis is put on the festival goers aiming to expand ticket sales for the following year. The film crew is made up of about 200 editors, producers, and camera people. Tomorrowland's YouTube channel has 37.4 million views and over 250,000 likes as of August 2015, and over 9.1 million subscribers as of May 2020. Elsewhere on social media, Tomorrowland has over 6.3 million followers on Instagram, and over 2.4 million followers on Twitter.The 2012 edition of Tomorrowland saw the debut of the Tomorrowland's Global Journey packages in partnership with Brussels Airlines. The package includes a weekend ticket in addition to flights and hotels and saw 25 flights carrying 2,000 passengers from 17 departure cities. 2013 saw a large increase in popularity for this package seeing 140 flight carrying 8,000 passenger from 67 cities with the top five flight destination being Basel, Tel Aviv, Geneva, Oslo, and London. Buyers of the Global Journey packages had the option to upgrade to party flights of which there were twenty, ten standard, eight with streamed music and two with live DJ sets. Previous Global Journey setlists have come from Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Yves V, and Romeo Blanco. Since 2017, Tomorrowland has been partnered with Dance FM UAE allowing live setlists from the festival and exclusive interviews with the performers to be broadcast on the station.
- ;YouTube Creator Awards:
Employment and economic impact
Tomorrowland Top 1000
To celebrate it's 15th anniversary in 2019, the "People of Tomorrowland" voted on their top 1000 tomorrowland anthems, which has since become a yearly chart.2019
| Pos. | Song | Ref. |
| 1. | Swedish House Mafia - "One" | |
| 2. | Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Moguai - "Mammoth" | |
| 3. | Avicii - "Levels" | |
| 4. | David Guetta featuring Sia - "Titanium" | |
| 5. | Martin Garrix - "Animals" |
2020
| Pos. | Song | Change | Ref. |
| 1. | Avicii - "Levels" | Up 2 | |
| 2. | Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Moguai - "Mammoth" | No change | |
| 3. | David Guetta featuring Sia - "Titanium" | Up 1 | |
| 4. | Swedish House Mafia - "One" | Down 3 | |
| 5. | Martin Garrix - "Animals" | No change |
Awards and nominations
[DJ Awards]
[DJ Mag]azine
| Year | Category | Work | Result | |
| 2015 | World's Best Festival | Tomorrowland - Boom, Belgium | ||
| 2019 | World's Best Festival | Tomorrowland - Boom, Belgium |
[European Festivals Awards]
[Electronic Music Awards]
Festicket Awards
| Year | Category | Work | Result | |
| 2016 | Best EDM/Dance Festival | Tomorrowland |