The Tomorrowland music festival in Belgium is still scheduled to take place this weekend despite a huge fire that destroyed the event's spectacular main stage on Wednesday (16 July).
Images shared on local news sites and social media showed flames and plumes of black smoke engulfing the stage, which took two years to build, and spreading to nearby woodland. Nearby residents were urged to close all windows and doors until the fire was under control.
With the festival due to begin on Friday (18 July), spokesperson Debby Wilmsen has reassured those attending that the fate of the event rests with authorities, according to the Belga News Agency.
“There’s a lot of fake news going around, but we’re definitely expecting 38,000 visitors at the Dreamville campsite tomorrow. They’re looking forward to it, and we’re looking forward to it, and we’re going to give them a warm welcome,” Wilmsen said despite a site employee describing “an apocalyptic scene”.
“The festival will go ahead, albeit without the main stage,” Wilmsen said. “I can’t yet say how we’re going to handle that.”
In a separate statement, Wilmsen added: “Our showpiece, which took two years to build, is gone. Fortunately, the other stages are intact. The intention is truly for the festival to go on. But we can't work magic, so it will be without the Mainstage. Our production team will now do everything to make something beautiful out of it.”
She continued by declaring that “cancellation was never considered” but said organisers are consulting with authorities about whether the site is safe enough for people to attend.
“If tomorrow it turns out that the site is not safe and we receive instructions from the authorities, we will follow them. Safety is always the priority,” Wilmsen added.
“We suddenly heard bangs and saw fire near the stage, a huge amount of fire,” an unnamed onlooker told Het Nieuwsblad newspaper.
“We were just putting the finishing touches on it. One more day and it would be finished.”
Dozens of emergency teams were seen rushing through the festival grounds just after 6pm in an attempt to extinguish the flames and evacuate those inside the grounds.
There were no members of the public present at the time, but around 1,000 staff members were working on site.
The annual electronic music festival is held in the town of Boom, north of Brussels, draws tens of thousands of visitors from around Europe.
Some of the world's most popular DJs are due to appear on the stage over the weekend, including Martin Garrix, David Guetta, Fisher, Swedish House Mafia and Steve Aoki.
Back in 2017, the festival had to evacuate over 22,000 people after another major fire. The crowds at Barcelona's Tomorrowland Unite were forced to flee just hours before Steve Aoki was due to headline the event.
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