Boom
Last blog day! This blog is different than the rest. I started these blogs writing about cities I would like to visit, only writing about big cities. Now, this blog series will end with a city that is unique from my perspective. This city is small but hosts a big festival. Boom, Belgium serves as the host for Tomorrowland. If you’re not familiar with it, do not worry, I will write about it later. Even though that Boom is a small city with a population of 16,000, it hosts the largest Electronic Dance Music (EDM) festival with an attendance of 400,000. Tomorrowland is definitely at the top of my bucket list.
Tomorrowland
Tomorrowland is a festival born in 2005 in Boom, Belgium. It started as a small festival, having an attendance of only 1000 people. However, it grew fast. In its third edition, Tomorrowland had more than 50,000 attendants. In 2019, the last festival due to Covid-19, the attendance rose to 400,000.
How long does the festival last? The festival lasts for two weekends (in July), in which more than 1000 artists in 16 stages spread over 38 hectares play the best EDM in the world. The festival is so famous that there even is a waitlist to get tickets. More than 2 million registered for only 400,000 tickets. Every country is on the list for tickets, even North Korea.
What is so special about Tomorrowland? I will try my best to answer this from the videos and blogs I have read about it. Getting a ticket is difficult. So, if you could get one, it is a motive to celebrate. Some say the party begins when you get to the airport where other people going to the festival are already celebrating. Your ride in the plane is far from ordinary; the speakers of the airplane blast some music, or even in some cases, you will have a live DJ performance. Once you get to Boom, the real party begins. In Tomorrowland, you have anything you want. You can sleep there in a tent or a luxury hotel. You can get some rest and prepare for the adventure ahead.
When the festival starts, you can choose from 16 different stages. Each stage plays a subgenre of EDM. Basically, in Tomorrowland, there is a stage for every taste in EDM. If you like mainstream EDM, you could go to the main stage. But if you are more into hardstyle, you could go to Q-Dance. Also, if you want to experiment with a different style of EDM, you could go to The Rave Cave; I think the name is pretty self-explanatory.
I hope I was able to convey my excitement for the festival. If Tomorrowland is all that the internet says it is, it will be better than any previous concerts I have attended. If you want to see what I tried to describe above, watch the first minutes of this video.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrowland_(festival)#Stages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boom,_Belgium
https://festivalsquad.com/2019/07/the-16-incredible-stages-of-tomorrowland-weekend-1/
https://thatdrop.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/party-flightsq.jpeg
I never knew that EDM had such a massive following. I had heard of a few different EDM festivals before this, but never about anything as big as Boom. This particular event seems like it would be great for newcomers like myself, as it allows you to explore different genres all at the same time.
This is actually so cool. Imagine living in a place called Boom?? I have found that smaller cities can oftentimes host unique and large-scale festivals and they are always amazing. My hometown has this 80+ year old tradition of having an Apple Blossom Festival and it’s literally two weeks of the city shutting down and essentially having a huge block party it’s so fun. I can imagine that this Tomorrowland festival would be 10x crazier and an absolutely incredible experience for you. I hope you get to go and live it out, it seems like such a fun and unique event!!
The Tomorrowland festival seems like a ton of fun! I have never been a huge fan of EDM music, but in the context of a massive party it is always a welcome sound. I think it is crazy how quickly the size of the festival grew, and that there is such a huge wait for the tickets; even more, it seems like, than the coachella festival in the united states. Great work on this blog!
This looks so freaking fun. I’ve never heard of Boom before nor have I heard of this festival, but it is now something I want to experience at some point in my life. I’d even be happy to pitch a tent for the experience. Overall, great work on these posts! I’ve definitely added some cities and sites I want to visit to my bucket list:)
Hey Andres! Tomorrowland looks SO fun!! I don’t know if I could last as long as it sounds like some of these attendees do, but damn, I would like to try. I like that you get flown over to the concert/festival and that it is so exclusive so you can have an even more fulfilled experience. I wonder what kind of DJs/artists play there? Maybe all? This seems like such a fun bucket list item, and I really hope you get to do it sometime!!! 😀