Hours later and the livestream is still showing tons of happy people. I'm surprised to see the charred old stage in the background so nearby - would have assumed the smell would be too strong that close.
So: Tomorrowland is an annual electronic dance music festival located near Antwerp in Belgium. They have become famous for their elaborate main stage constructions. This year the giant main stage burned down 48h before the opening:
"The answer came quickly. That same evening, a plan was drawn. “We got to work immediately. No time to waste,” says Corthout. The result: a stage with an impressive video wall, 50 meters wide, 6 meters high, and 5 meters deep.
Wouter Van Mierloo, operations director at Stageco, a global event staging company, recalls: “On Wednesday around 5:15 p.m., we received the first fire reports. I was in Madrid for the AC/DC tour at the time. Luckily, none of our crew were on the main stage when the fire broke out,” he says with relief.
Things moved quickly. Van Mierloo went straight to the festival site. “By 10 p.m., we were in a crisis meeting in Boom. Before midnight, we had our first evaluation: what could we build, and what did we need? Our engineers got to work that same evening.”
“We couldn’t use the original main stage structure anymore. It was designed to reach 45 meters high. Now we had to work with other constraints.” — Wouter Van Mierloo
By 4 a.m., the initial project was ready. By 6 a.m., logistics kicked off. Roofs, floors, scaffolding — all had to be collected from various warehouses and sites. “It was a real puzzle. And right in the middle of festival season. Our crews were scattered — some in the Netherlands, others dismantling Rock Werchter. They finished there and came straight to Boom. Some pulled double shifts. Others interrupted their vacations and opened their laptops to get to work,” Van Mierloo explains.
A total of 21 people worked on the new structure, all within the strictest safety regulations. “At one point, our biggest concern was demolishing the old main stage. We really had to know what we were doing,” he adds.
Meanwhile, Prismax was running at full speed. A “war room” was set up at their offices in Mechelen. “With a team of 15, we developed an entirely new design,” says Corthout. “2D and 3D animations, created specifically for this new screen. Over 3,000 loops, mixed live.”
All of it was done without knowing what the DJs would play. “It was pure improvisation. Our visuals must adapt live to the music. We use a special system, but couldn’t use the 3D one from the original main stage. So we adapted. It was like going to war,” Corthout adds.
“We’ve been working on the same site for twenty years. We know the authorities, the terrain, and our suppliers. That kind of relationship is invaluable in a situation like this.” — Debby Wilmsen, Tomorrowland spokesperson
At the festival organization level, nerves were obviously high. “We had to wait for the investigation, the prosecutor’s authorization, and safety checks. Only after we got the green light could we begin. It’s no coincidence that everything moved so fast — we know the people, the place, and the system,” explains spokesperson Debby Wilmsen.
Hours later and the livestream is still showing tons of happy people. I'm surprised to see the charred old stage in the background so nearby - would have assumed the smell would be too strong that close.
So: Tomorrowland is an annual electronic dance music festival located near Antwerp in Belgium. They have become famous for their elaborate main stage constructions. This year the giant main stage burned down 48h before the opening:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpwqewyrw57o
You can see the remainders of the burned down structure in the background.
On the rebuild:
Parts of the sound system seems to have been borrowed from Meticallica's Euroupean tour:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/belgium-tomorr...
I found this article that focuses on the stage, the video wall and its content:
https://www.hln.be/binnenland/mensen-zullen-het-niet-geloven... (paywall)
Via Google Translate (I trimmed some fat):
"The answer came quickly. That same evening, a plan was drawn. “We got to work immediately. No time to waste,” says Corthout. The result: a stage with an impressive video wall, 50 meters wide, 6 meters high, and 5 meters deep.
Wouter Van Mierloo, operations director at Stageco, a global event staging company, recalls: “On Wednesday around 5:15 p.m., we received the first fire reports. I was in Madrid for the AC/DC tour at the time. Luckily, none of our crew were on the main stage when the fire broke out,” he says with relief.
Things moved quickly. Van Mierloo went straight to the festival site. “By 10 p.m., we were in a crisis meeting in Boom. Before midnight, we had our first evaluation: what could we build, and what did we need? Our engineers got to work that same evening.”
“We couldn’t use the original main stage structure anymore. It was designed to reach 45 meters high. Now we had to work with other constraints.” — Wouter Van Mierloo
By 4 a.m., the initial project was ready. By 6 a.m., logistics kicked off. Roofs, floors, scaffolding — all had to be collected from various warehouses and sites. “It was a real puzzle. And right in the middle of festival season. Our crews were scattered — some in the Netherlands, others dismantling Rock Werchter. They finished there and came straight to Boom. Some pulled double shifts. Others interrupted their vacations and opened their laptops to get to work,” Van Mierloo explains.
A total of 21 people worked on the new structure, all within the strictest safety regulations. “At one point, our biggest concern was demolishing the old main stage. We really had to know what we were doing,” he adds.
Meanwhile, Prismax was running at full speed. A “war room” was set up at their offices in Mechelen. “With a team of 15, we developed an entirely new design,” says Corthout. “2D and 3D animations, created specifically for this new screen. Over 3,000 loops, mixed live.”
All of it was done without knowing what the DJs would play. “It was pure improvisation. Our visuals must adapt live to the music. We use a special system, but couldn’t use the 3D one from the original main stage. So we adapted. It was like going to war,” Corthout adds.
“We’ve been working on the same site for twenty years. We know the authorities, the terrain, and our suppliers. That kind of relationship is invaluable in a situation like this.” — Debby Wilmsen, Tomorrowland spokesperson
At the festival organization level, nerves were obviously high. “We had to wait for the investigation, the prosecutor’s authorization, and safety checks. Only after we got the green light could we begin. It’s no coincidence that everything moved so fast — we know the people, the place, and the system,” explains spokesperson Debby Wilmsen.