Tomorrowland’s main stage burns down 48 hours before the festival begins

16 July, 2025

Drone light show as part of Tomorrowland 2024

A massive fire has broken out on the main stage of Tomorrowland festival. The stage is reportedly destroyed and firefighters are working to stop the blaze spreading to nearby woodland.

The incident has occurred less than 48 hours before more than 70,000 attendees were due to attend the dance festival in Boom, Belgium. The Mirror reports that around 1,000 employees were on site. The cause of the fire is unknown, although the publication’s sources say that fireworks were heard, raising the possibility of an issue with pyrotechnics.

Belgian publication GVA have reported that the stage is “completely burned down”. They have also written that “emergency services are on the scene in large numbers” and people in the area are being advised to “keep their windows and doors closed”.

At 8:30pm local time this evening (July 16), the festival shared the following statement, regarding the continuation of the event:

“IMPORTANT UPDATE

Due to a serious incident and fire on the Tomorrowland Mainstage, our beloved Mainstage has been severely damaged.

We can confirm that no one was injured during the incident.

We can announce that, DreamVille (campsite) will open tomorrow (Thursday, July 17) as planned and will be ready for all DreamVille visitors.

All Global Journey activities in Brussels and Antwerp will take place as planned.

We are focused on finding solutions for the festival weekend (Friday – Saturday – Sunday).
More updates and detailed information will be communicated as soon as possible”.

 

Footage of the blaze has spread on social media, showing the extent of the damage done. Mixmag shared a video of the stage “burning down”, while videos on X (formerly Twitter) reveal large clouds of black smoke and the stage seemingly destroyed completely.

Iconic DJ Dimitri Vegas, a regular at the festival who is scheduled to perform, shared an image on his Instagram account with the Tomorrowland logo in the middle of a broken heart.

 

Since its launch in 2005, Tomorrowland has gone on to become one of the biggest electronic music events in the world, and spans across two weekends each year in the town of Boom in Belgium. This year’s festival is set to take place from July 18-20 and July 25-27.

According to the festival’s official site, the 2025 event has incorporated a theme titled “Orbyz, set in a magical universe made entirely out of ice, (which) will reveal a hidden community that has been existing under a gigantic ice cap for many years”.

This is a developing story.

The post Tomorrowland’s main stage burns down 48 hours before the festival begins appeared first on NME.