Tomorrowland - One of the biggest festivals in the world.
Where do I even start?
It’s one of those things that if I tried to explain it to you, nothing would even come close to the real thing. And if I gave to much away, well then that would ruin it, wouldn’t it?
Situated in a country town ironically called Boom, the drive in to the festival was almost the strangest thing we experienced all weekend. Being first time Tomorrowlanders we were so unsure of what to expect. As our friends drove us deeper and deeper into the Medieval town, assuring us they knew where to go, our anticipation began to bubble. Not a person in sight, all windows and curtains closed. It was a ghost town. If it wasn’t for the Tomorrowland flags hanging from most of the houses, we would have thought we were in the wrong place.
Before we knew it were weaving our way around 1000’s of campers, some eagerly setting up their humble abodes for the next few days to come, others beginning the antics early. To be frank, the walk was absolutely ridiculous. But once we made it to the centre of Dreamville it was all worth while. Passing the stage that was set up for The Gathering (a warm up event that occurs on the Thursday evening for campers) I asked a group of Australians next to me ‘Do you think that’s the main stage?’. They laughed at me.
Tomorrowland has it’s own currency, pearls. It has all different food stalls from all over the world. It has a hair salon. A tattoo parlour. A grocery stall. A newspaper that gets delivered to your campsite, reflecting on the day that had passed. It even has a drug deposit barrel where you may deposit any naughty things you may have on you when you approach the entrance of the festival. I don’t think anybody put those into good use. And all of this is before you even get inside the gates! It even has the notorious ‘Church of Love’ where couples or newly aquatinted buddies can go and spend a moment of romance in privacy doing whatever they will. Unfortunately, we did not get the opportunity to use this service either- to busy getting down on the dance floor I think!
A common stigma associated with Tomorrowland is that it is all commercial bullshit. This could not be more wrong. 15 different stages that change genre everyday, there is literally something for everyone. When the line up announced there was only a few different artists that I was stoked to see, one rising above them all.. KOLOMBO! I don’t think it was possible to have a bigger smile on my face! Easily the biggest highlight of my weekend. Other noteworthy acts included the very special back-to-back live performance from Eric Prydz and deadmau5, Vini Vici and Neelix. We also discovered some pretty rad artists as well including Smos, who began his career in the early nineties and is now huge in the Belgium and European music scene.
Meeting all different characters and creatures of the night from all over the world is what truely makes the festival so unique. From exchanging stories at the start of the day when you are feeling fresh to nodding because you have no idea what they are saying or what is going on when you’re not so fresh. The absolute legends I met at Tomorrowland is what made it for me.. Including but not limited to the following:
A bunch of sweet Japanese legends
An 87 year old fella from the Netherlands that goes from festival to festival, who’s favourite genre is techno and loves ‘how the music makes him feel'
A random European who had over 40 festival bands on his wrists
An english guy in a bucket hat who loved ketamine, called MDMA ‘magic’ and asked me if I knew a song called ‘Melbourne Sound’.
A loose a f Aussie bloke who insisted someone sculled his beer, that was actually his own piss.. (Oh wait that was my mate)
But above all, the most mind blowing aspect, yet the hardest to verbalise, is the production of the whole weekend. The design and layout of the stages was absolutely fucked. The grounds of the festival are absolutely huge, spread out over grassy green hills and a huge lake, all unique and completely different from each other. It really is something that you have to experience for yourself to understand. A giant toadstool here, a fire breathing dragon there. Secret stages without any signs and even a hole in the ground notoriously known as the ‘rave cave’.
It’s another world. A beautiful, crazy, colourful world where for three days you forget that you even exist on planet earth.
185,000 people from 75 countries gathering in unity over the one language that everyone speaks - Music.
Beats, Rhythm, and Vibrations.
And what an absolute rip snorter of a time it was.
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