Tomorrowland Festival

The­re I was, on the third day of the Tomor­row­land fes­ti­val in 2019, stan­ding in the midd­le of a pack of dancing peo­p­le. The bass was going through my who­le body, through all of my bones and mus­cles, and had been the­re for three days.
David Guet­ta DJed in front of me, and I was just ama­zed. Not becau­se of his music, but becau­se of his hair, for which he appar­ent­ly had no time. A tor­na­do must have been raging whe­re he came from. You would think that a DJ who ear­ns half a mil­li­on euros for a gig would have someone to do his hair. Appar­ent­ly, that was­n’t the case. But let’s start from the beginning.

An early surprise

On the 28th of June I was sur­pri­sed by a packa­ge. Our brace­let arri­ved in a beau­tiful box with a well-desi­gned book. I did not expect some­thing so crea­ti­ve. The brace­let, which is hand­ma­de from lea­ther, has an RFID chip in a small metal locket. A nice chan­ge from the cloth bands you know from other fes­ti­vals. You link this chip to your Tomor­row­land account, so you can load money onto the wrist­band. The money is con­ver­ted to pearls (1 pearl = €1.60), an own Tomor­row­land cur­ren­cy. The pri­ces at the tomor­row­land fes­ti­val are given in pearls only. This makes the pri­ces appear lower than they real­ly are. You pay ever­y­whe­re exclu­si­ve­ly with your bracelet.

In addi­ti­on, you can also con­nect your Face­book account to the brace­let.
By hol­ding two brace­lets tog­e­ther, you auto­ma­ti­cal­ly add the other per­son to your Face­book fri­ends.
It’s bril­li­ant when I think about how many peo­p­le I’ve met at other fes­ti­vals, but never seen them again, becau­se we never exch­an­ged contacts.

The book is beau­tiful­ly illus­tra­ted and tells a sto­ry of two young peo­p­le who are torn from their bor­ing lives to have to work as guar­di­ans of the Sto­ried Realms. They have to save the world from a dis­as­ter in which the Tomor­row­land fes­ti­val would be can­cel­led. I enjoy­ed rea­ding the sto­ry. Howe­ver, I was annoy­ed by the cliff­han­ger at the end becau­se now you would need the 2020 book to know how this sto­ry continues.

Thursday

It is 3 am on Thurs­day in the mor­ning. I’m on my way to Boom in Bel­gi­um with a fri­end. The Tomor­row­land Fes­ti­val has been held the­re every year for 15 years. In 2018, it attrac­ted 400,000 visi­tors. Elec­tro­nic dance music is the music style, of which I am actual­ly not a big fan. After all, I was much more inte­res­ted in the stage design, the peo­p­le from all over the world and ever­y­thing else around “the big­gest fes­ti­val of the world”.

I had very high hopes in this regard. After all, the “Glo­bal Jour­ney Ticket” cost me a proud €681. It could also have work­ed out for €365, but for that you would have to be real­ly lucky, becau­se as soon as the­se tickets go online, they are sold out within a few seconds and so it usual­ly hap­pens that you hang end­less­ly in the queue and at the end you get the mes­sa­ge that all tickets are sold out. My bud­dy sat in that queue with five dif­fe­rent IP addres­ses and did­n’t get any tickets, but we tried the fol­lo­wing week for the second sale and were only able to snag one GJ ticket. With this one we got a gym bag, the game Yaht­zee, a note­pad and a bus trip from Eind­ho­ven — Boom (which we did­n’t use) for €325 extra.

The arriving

Around 8 am we arri­ved with the car at the par­king lot and had to wait ano­ther two hours until the gates ope­ned. I had been slight­ly dis­ap­poin­ted, becau­se on the par­king lots were main­ly only Ger­man licen­se pla­tes to see and you also heard the who­le day ever­y­whe­re only Ger­man. I wan­ted to see peo­p­le from all over the world, and not have the fee­ling of being in Ger­ma­ny. Short­ly befo­re the gates of the Tomor­row­land fes­ti­val ope­ned a mar­ching band mar­ched out and play­ed a few well-known songs on real instru­ments. This plea­sed me very much, and I final­ly wal­ked through the wel­co­me rain­bow gate, which seems much smal­ler in real than in the aftermovies.

I can’t real­ly descri­be what I was expec­ting going in. May­be some­thing magi­cal? Some­thing that is dif­fe­rent from other fes­ti­vals and makes me mar­vel? But the ama­ze­ment fai­led, and I felt at home on a nor­mal fes­ti­val. Only the woo­den flo­or, which was nice­ly laid out and ser­ved as a path at the camp­si­te, was new to me. The camp­ground was also a bit smal­ler than expec­ted.
New for me was also that each cam­ping com­part­ment had its own ser­vice sta­ti­on. The­re was a pump sta­ti­on for air mat­tres­ses, two lar­ge grills whe­re you can grill yours­elf some­thing, and an infor­ma­ti­on desk man­ned by an employee.

The market

Due to our punc­tua­li­ty, we secu­red a good place clo­se to the show­ers, the lockers, the toi­lets and clo­se to the mar­ket. Sin­ce we had not eaten for a long time, we went direct­ly to the mar­ket after set­ting up. The mar­ket con­sis­ted of two sides, on which con­tai­ner hou­ses stood next to each other and were fabu­lous­ly deco­ra­ted. On one side were stores with cam­ping access­ories, mer­chan­di­se, a bak­ery, a jewe­ler, a hair stu­dio, a make-up salon, the in-house Tomor­row­land fes­ti­val radio sta­ti­on and a super­mar­ket whe­re you could only pay with cre­dit card. It was the only store in all of Tomor­row­land whe­re any­thing other than pearls were accept­ed.
On the other side were drinks and snack stands, with a wide varie­ty of dis­hes: Bel­gi­an fries, pas­ta, pas­ta bur­gers, sand­wi­ches, and much more.

Prices for some foods and drinks

The­re was real­ly some­thing for every tas­te, if the wal­let allo­wed it. A por­ti­on of fries with sau­ce cost here 5 pearls (€8) and a small can of Miranda/Cola/water 2 pearls (€3.20). A 0.3 liter beer also cost two pearls, which was quite cheap for a fes­ti­val. Howe­ver, I did not beco­me fri­ends with the Bel­gi­an beer, with the brand Jupi­ler until the end. But the Moji­to for 7.25 pearls (€11.60) was deli­cious. A vod­ka Red bull cost me 7.50 pearls (€12), and you get a cool glo­wing cup that always lights up as soon as the­re is liquid in it. With the pri­ces, it’s no won­der that my 95 pearls (€150), which I had on the brace­let, were com­ple­te­ly blown by Satur­day noon.

The­re was a stage at the camp­si­te that was set up espe­ci­al­ly for Thurs­day. The­re I spent the evening tipsy and tried to dance along and just enjoy the music. I lis­ten­ed to tech­no, house and EDM. Howe­ver, I could­n’t real­ly tell a dif­fe­rence bet­ween the music gen­res and every “song” sound­ed the same to me. They weren’t real­ly dif­fe­rent “songs” eit­her, but more like one who­le long song that went on all night on stage. Even though the DJs always chan­ged after an hour.

I stay­ed until the last DJ ente­red the stage and then had enough for the first day. Thereu­pon I went to my tent and won­de­red about the emp­tin­ess and silence on the tent sites. As if every sin­gle per­son was alre­a­dy slee­ping or more likely still dancing on the stage area. Once on the air mat­tress, I stuf­fed my per­so­nal Tomor­row­land fes­ti­val high­light in my ears (my ear­plugs) and slept good until I was awa­ken­ed by the bru­tal sun the next morning.

Friday

I could descri­be this day with one sin­gle word: Hot! The sun was ban­ging on our heads the who­le day and brought tem­pe­ra­tures around 43 °C. Our only task until the evening was to hide from the sun and drink enough water. Howe­ver, this was dif­fi­cult becau­se almost all the shady places were alre­a­dy occu­p­ied by crowds of peo­p­le and the remai­ning places were quite uncom­for­ta­ble and noi­sy. While loo­king for a place to hide from the sun, we dis­co­ver­ed an open gym with a boxing ring whe­re you could work out for free. Howe­ver, the­re was a mode­ra­tor who was encou­ra­ging peo­p­le with their work out, so you could­n’t work out in peace. The­re was also a tat­too artist and a smart­phone doctor.

Chill-out zone

In the cover­ed “chill-out zone” we found our shady spot. We chan­ged bet­ween the cool asphalt ground and the cool mea­dow. Stan­ding, sit­ting or lying down. Ever­y­thing see­med uncom­for­ta­ble after a few minu­tes. We also bought a bot­t­le of water for €3.20 about every hour to not die of thirst. The way to the camp­ground whe­re the free water was too far to walk. The place has not ear­ned the name “chill-out zone”, becau­se even the­re the music was tur­ned up so loud that I felt every bass bump.

After we suc­cessful­ly hid from the sun until 4 pm, it was time to head towards the Tomor­row­land fes­ti­val area. On the way we got a free para­sol. The­se were dis­tri­bu­ted free of char­ge to ever­yo­ne by the TML crew. Some­what pro­tec­ted from the sun, we con­tin­ued on our way. Along the way we dis­co­ver­ed other cam­ping com­part­ments. The­re was an “Easy Tent” com­part­ment start­ing at €1000, with pre­fa­bri­ca­ted tents that you just had to move into. Group camp­si­tes “Fri­end­ship Gar­den” from €4200, in which a cer­tain place was cordo­ned off for a group of 10. The­re were also expen­si­ve com­part­ments such as the “Relax Rooms” start­ing from €1600. The­se were con­tai­ner cot­ta­ges with two beds and ever­y­thing neces­sa­ry for camping.

Gimmick bikes

The forest envi­ron­ment on the way was beau­tiful­ly staged like a fairy tale. A few old pie­ces of fur­ni­tu­re were quite enough for this. A very crea­ti­ve thing were the gim­mick bikes. The­se could be bor­ro­wed for free from the begin­ning of the path to the fes­ti­val area to the ent­rance and back. If you were lucky, you could shor­ten your 10-minu­te walk. They were not nor­mal bicy­cles. Each had its own kind of loco­mo­ti­on. On one, a car stee­ring wheel ser­ved as the stee­ring wheel, on the other, you had to pump your stee­ring wheel or sadd­le up and down to move for­ward. One had no solid frame bet­ween the front and the rear wheels, so you felt like you were going to fall the who­le time. After a bit of prac­ti­ce, though, it went pret­ty well and was also fun.

Once at the ent­rance, we had to wait until ever­yo­ne in front of you and you yours­elf were che­cked. You were only allo­wed to take a small emp­ty drink bag/drink back­pack onto the grounds, which you could fill up at seve­ral free water sta­ti­ons (which were con­stant­ly over­flowing). The pri­ces on the fes­ti­val grounds were no dif­fe­rent from tho­se at the camp­ground.
The first thing I noti­ced when I wal­ked in was the loud­ness and the big crowds.

To get an over­view, we first wal­ked around all the stages. Ther­eby the stage design was very bla­tant. Many diver­se stage designs were the­re. From a dra­gon with a moving head, which brea­thes fire. A giant sword and many more. 

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The main stage

But the high­light was the main stage. It was enorm­ously lar­ge and very authen­ti­cal­ly deco­ra­ted accor­ding to the mot­to “fantasy/books”. A lar­ge book, which was clo­sed at the begin­ning, was the cen­ter of the stage.
At the ope­ning, the book was ope­ned by two lar­ge screens. It loo­ked like book pages slow­ly exten­ded and Then a face was seen in the pages and a voice wel­co­med us all. At that moment I got goo­se bumps. It was that magi­cal fee­ling I was tal­king about before.

Unfort­u­na­te­ly, the DJs who play­ed on the main stage had not been the best, so short­ly after the ope­ning we went on to explo­re the fes­ti­val site. My bud­dy real­ly wan­ted to have a gol­den Tomor­row­land flag, which was limi­t­ed to 5000 pie­ces and actual­ly alre­a­dy sold out ever­y­whe­re on the site. Howe­ver, he was lucky and got a flag for €45. He spent about €200 on merch alo­ne that weekend. I thought he was cra­zy, but if I had known that all the­se parts are now worth at least twice as much, I might have “inves­ted” my money the­re too. Alo­ne the pre­vious­ly men­tio­ned Red Bull cups, which you got for €1.60 extra when you bought a vod­ka Red Bull, later sold for 30 times more.

Armin van Buuren and the Chainsmokers

Sin­ce I did not know all the DJs, I ori­en­ted mys­elf to the tas­te of my bud­dy. So we went to see Armin van Buuren and the Chains­mo­kers that day. I found their per­for­mance quite okay, becau­se they used a lot of parts from songs I know. That was my second per­so­nal high­light of the Tomor­row­land fes­ti­val: The first 10 seconds of a song, whe­re I can shout along the first ver­ses of e.g. “Don’t stop me now” by Queen, befo­re it goes into elec­tro­nic music again. I also lik­ed the Chains­mo­kers becau­se they used their own instru­ments for a few songs. But at some point it was time to run back to the tent and final­ly get some peace in my head.

Saturday

The mor­ning of the next day was hard­ly dif­fe­rent from the pre­vious one. Awa­ken­ed by the heat, I took out my ear­plugs only to hear the same three songs from the mar­ching band again. Remem­ber the mar­ching band from the first day? Well, I think they could only play three songs in total and had to play them to ever­yo­ne every mor­ning. They made their rounds around the camp­ground to remind even the last slee­ping Joe whe­re he was at the moment. What I thought was cool in the begin­ning was now get­ting annoying.

Ever­y­whe­re you went you were fol­lo­wed by music. When going to the show­er, when going to the toi­let, in the show­er, in the toi­let. It was loud ever­y­whe­re, and it never died down at any time. At our camp­si­te the­re was a free show­er and one that cost 2.50 pearls (€4). At the free one, one put ones­elf under a jet, which was simi­lar to a small water pis­tol, and had to share this water with five other peo­p­le. This show­er was public and the­r­e­fo­re crow­ded in the mor­ning and the who­le camp­si­te could watch you, which is why ever­yo­ne wore a bathing suit / biki­ni. The other show­er had lockable stalls with hot water. The­re were also mir­rors and hair dryers.

The toi­lets, on the other hand, were very clas­sy for a fes­ti­val. Becau­se ins­tead of por­ta­ble WCS with pla­s­tic seats, they were toi­let con­tai­ners with por­ce­lain seats, like you are used to at home.

After the show­er, we hea­ded back to the “chill-out zone” to hide from the sun. On the way we picked up our dai­ly free Tomor­row­land news­pa­per at one of the booths. Every day the­re was a news­pa­per, with news and adver­ti­sing about the cur­rent day around the festival.

Finally rain!

After it was hot all mor­ning and noon, it sud­den­ly star­ted rai­ning in the after­noon. So we went back to our tents and tried, as long as it was cool due to the rain, to get drunk on a bit. In the pro­cess we made fri­ends with our camp­ground neigh­bors who were cool and open. They were good to drink and talk with and we all had a lot of fun. Just what I nee­ded after my 150 days wit­hout alcohol.

So it hap­pen­ed that we were only around 8 pm on the fes­ti­val site. The­re we met a resi­dent of Boom. He told us that Tomor­row­land gives the resi­dents once a year, during the con­s­truc­tion and dis­mant­ling a flight ticket of choice, a free ent­rance ticket to the fes­ti­val, as well as a fan box and pearls worth €100. In addi­ti­on, bet­ween the weekends when the­re are no visi­tors on the site, a neigh­bor­hood par­ty will be held the­re. Sin­ce the con­s­truc­tion and dis­mant­ling with the fes­ti­val takes about 3 months, the noi­se would not be worth this com­pen­sa­ti­on to me.

In the night David Guet­ta DJed on the main stage. After three days of con­ti­nuous EDM sound, it beca­me exhaus­ting for me to lis­ten. While the stage design was stun­ning and the 10 seconds of my music was some­ti­mes, it was get­ting slug­gish. The­re was also not­hing posi­ti­ve to be gai­ned from the con­stant rain and the resul­ting mud. At least the­re were rain capes for free, which you could get almost ever­y­whe­re. After David Guet­ta and Dmi­t­ri Vegas & Like Mike, the penul­ti­ma­te day came to an end, and I was real­ly exhausted.

Sunday

Woken up by my favo­ri­te mar­ching band, the last day star­ted rela­xed for me. Out­side ever­y­thing was wet and mud­dy, and it rai­ned in bet­ween now and then the who­le day. We deci­ded to take down our tents and car­ry all our stuff into the car alre­a­dy, so we could go straight home after the closing.

After our stuff was in the car, we wal­ked through the beau­tiful city of Boom to the fes­ti­val area. The city­scape and the hou­ses were very clean and beau­tiful. You could often see Tomor­row­land flags han­ging out of the win­dows. You could feel the love of the inha­bi­tants for the festival.

Arri­ved at the Tomor­row­land fes­ti­val area, we dis­co­ver­ed a Silence Room from ING. In a group of ten you went into a small box whe­re you sat down and got head­pho­nes. You were sup­po­sed to clo­se your eyes and for five minu­tes a voice whispe­red in your ear, how to tune out and relax. If all the noi­se from the fes­ti­val had­n’t been heard through the head­pho­nes, it could have been a posi­ti­ve expe­ri­ence. Also, it sound­ed to me like the spea­k­er was eating a yogurt cup while speaking.

Symphony of Harmony orchestra

What I found real­ly soot­hing was the Sym­pho­ny of Harm­o­ny orches­tra. A real orches­tra, which trans­po­sed well-known and modern songs with vio­lin, pia­no and co. Unfort­u­na­te­ly (for­t­u­na­te­ly!) they did not play my three favo­ri­te songs from the mar­ching band. At some point, two DJs jum­ped on stage and play­ed their set along­side and with the orches­tra. It was a cool idea. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, I did­n’t find the com­bi­na­ti­on suitable.

Later, Lil Klei­ne has made his appearance. A Dutch­man who raps in Dutch. This was the second show I saw from him and alt­hough I did­n’t under­stand a word, I thought the gene­ral mood and his per­for­mance was great.

Steve Aoki

The name Ste­ve Aoki (Pur­su­it of Hap­pi­ness, Pro­ject X), who we heard next, also said some­thing to me. His show was­n’t bad eit­her. Even though I did­n’t under­stand the vide­os that were play­ing in the back­ground at all and just mar­ve­led and won­de­red how someone could pro­du­ce such a mind­fuck. But pro­ba­b­ly it was meant for peo­p­le who enjoy­ed them­sel­ves with some­thing other than alcohol.

I thought Tomor­row­land was a fes­ti­val whe­re a lot of drugs were con­su­med. That was one of the reasons why I always had a bad atti­tu­de towards the fes­ti­val. But it was not as bad as I expec­ted. Of cour­se, you could see that many peo­p­le were taking drugs, but I did­n’t think it was too much com­pared to other fes­ti­vals. Twice I saw obvious­ly pas­sed out women being car­ri­ed out. Once I also was offe­red coca­i­ne when I sat down alo­ne on a bench to relax a bit.

The closing

The clo­sing included a sur­pri­se per­for­mance by “3 are legend”. A group con­sis­ting of Ste­ve Aoki, Dmi­t­ri Vegas and Like Mike. At the clo­sing, it felt like all the peo­p­le from all cor­ners of the fes­ti­val were gathe­red at the main stage. A huge fire­works dis­play and the clo­sing of the book on the main stage ended the Tomor­row­land fes­ti­val.
Thereu­pon a big traf­fic jam for­med at the exit and so it took us about an hour to get to the car ins­tead of 20 minu­tes. We went home, with many coll­ec­ted impres­si­ons, and I could suc­cessful­ly clo­se the chap­ter Tomor­row­land 2019 for me.