Tomorrowland, the Belgian dance music festival which lost its main stage to a massive fire last week, went ahead as planned over the weekend, thanks to... Metallica.
Truly, saviours don’t come more unlikely than the thrash metal veterans. But with the main stage reduced to a smouldering cinder just hours before the festival was set to open on Friday, organisers brainstormed and asked if they could borrow Metallica’s stage, which just happened to be in storage in Austria. One phone call later and the stage was air-lifted to Belgium in time for Friday evening.
The DJ Martin Garrix, who played the festival on Friday, took to Instagram and posted a photo of himself with Lars Ulrich: "I cannot believe I’m actually typing this… but my set at Tomorrowland is still happening!" he wrote. "Massive love and a big shoutout to the incredible Tomorrowland team for pulling off miracles – and to Metallica for coming through with the new stage parts."
And Metallica responded in the most Metallica way possible - answering with a single black heart emoji.
The stage was being kept in Austria after the band’s M72 world tour finished at the London Stadium a couple of weeks back. Rather than take it back to the US, the band decided to keep it in storage in Europe before they resume the tour in Australia this autumn.
Anyway, the Tomorrowland punters were stoked that the fest went ahead as planned. One wrote on social media: “Metal + Dance Music unite forever!” Whilst another posted: “Makes me so proud to be a Raver AND a Metalhead.”
“Imagine all the hate Metallica or Lars gets all the time,” wrote another. “This is why their peers are always talking positively about them. Metallica has been doing stuff like this behind the scenes for years. They have their own charity @allwithinmyhandsfoundation . I just wish the fans would be more appreciative.”
