This year marked the 20th edition of the [Tomorrowland music festival](https://www.tomorrowland.com/home/) held in Boom, Belgium. I saw some people I knew checking in over there, and immediately had to think about the edition that has fortunate enough to get some tickets. For in case you don't know Tomorrowland, this is the biggest European electronic music festival with annualy 400.000 visiting guests over 15 stages, divided in two weekends. Getting tickets to access Tomorrowland, that is an issue on itself. Even though the went from 1 to 2 weekends per year, which doubles your chances on getting tickets, this still is a drag. First of all, a large chunk of tickets is reserved for locals (which is really good as they have to deal with the issues from the festival, they should also be the ones to have access) and an even larger chunk for Belgians. Next to that you also have that the first 100 subscribers from every single country will guaranteed have tickets. That means that when I am a resident of a small island, I have a gigantic chance of getting tickets, and if you are say...from the Netherlands, you chances are severely slimmer on getting tickets. And there a lot of countries in the world with from access to the first 100 tickets.
https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Collage-Maker-22-Jun-2022-06.00-PM.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1 [Variety.com](https://variety.com/2022/music/news/tomorrowland-festival-novels-1235300786/)
I remember sitting with a couple of friends behind our computers and all pressing the F5 button like maniacs, and all of a sudden one of us got through. High fives were everywhere and we were ready to go! The camping was gigantic, and already the camping stage was way bigger than any other stage I had ever been to. There were so many cultures, so many people, and there were so many good vibes. Also the whole surrounding of the festival is just entirely finished. Every detail is just looked into and paid attention to. Whether if this is the walking paths which are all engraved in wood or the arm bracelet that comes in a gift box to your home. Everything is just crazy. And so were the memories from back then...

## Armin van Buuren and MH17 https://youtu.be/aDbB8Wyxjnw?si=I3A2QAp7FrPgS-M4
Now this was really something if you asked me. Just a day before the festival had started the MH17 plane going from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur had been shot down. By the time we were leaving towards the festival it was only clear that the plane had gone off of the radar. During the time here it became more and more clear that the plane had been shot down and it also became more and more clear that everyone in Holland knew someone who knew someone on that plane. In the Netherlands the six degrees of separation isn't so challenging in the end. But it felt abstract, because we were in a fantasy world called Tomorrowland. It wasn't until this show of Armin from Buuren at the main stage where he talked about it and asked for a minute of silence and *this while crowd went silent* that it started to hit everyone that this was something real. A weird and impressive moment....

## Vitalic after Carl Cox and the rain https://youtu.be/ZCTjSJkQd4U?si=BcRO2w3ute-jyyCS
At a different stage which was more techno minded we went to check out Carl Cox, the legend of legend who always makes a decent set and never a hit miss. The weather was shifting at that moment and it started to rain and we seeked shelter in a part of the building around the stage. The building literally felt like like an attraction in an amusement park and so was the inside hiding as well. Then Vitalic started to play and it wasn't ringing any bells to me at all. But what I did know is that a certain point he started playing the song 'Stamina' and the sun started to shine through the rain again and we came out of our hiding spaces... And boom... It was like this show was on fire, the energy was high, the beat were big and it felt like we were all back and rejuvenised again ever though this was on day 4 of dancing our asses off already.

There was so much more ofcourse, there was Alesso doing the vocal songs, there Stevi Aoki passing by on more stages on more days throwing pies than you could handle, and of course Dutchies Hardwell, Tiesto, Afrojack and all other big names were there. Now clearly this is normally not my choice of music hearing so much EDM. But Tomorrowland is something different and it is because of the vibe. It didn't matter the music was not all that, it didn't matter that it was 35 degrees celsius or that had rained. It was just one big experience where everything was in place to make you feel like you were in a different world. And that totally worked. Even though if it isn't your style, you should visit Tomorrowland just at least once in your life.

tml

Experts