TomorrowWorld: Belgium successfully exports its hit dance music festival to the US

The US edition, just outside Atlanta, included many of the original festival’s popular features: gourmet food, clean showers and pristine camping sites. American festivalgoers had never seen anything like it, reported the US Business Insider.

Another winning formula was the 300 DJ line-up. Megastars such as David Guetta, Tiësto, AfroJack, A-Trak and Steve Aoki were joined by Belgian mixmasters Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Sem Thomasson, Coone, Skream, Breach and Cajmere along with a host of local names.

The location, Chattahoochee Hills, all natural lakes and rolling hills, was the perfect setting for the fairytale, escapist event. Music fans donned fantasy costumes to match the spectacular decor that has become the trademark of Belgium and Europe’s most successful festival.

Tomorrowland is a festival phenomenon. From an unpromising 10,000 visitors in 2005, it’s become one of Europe’s largest dance music festivals, now selling out in seconds to 180,000 fans around the world. Festival founders Manu and Michiel Beers are brothers and music fans from Antwerp who staged the first loss-making one-day event in 2005, when it was attended by fewer than 10,000 people. Following the first global spin-off, more festivals on other continents are planned for next year.

The cross-Atlantic move was also the latest in a series of entrepreneurial moves that has rocked the electronic dance music scene this year. The success of the Beers brothers and the pioneering Amsterdam-based electronic music experience company ID&T, in which they have a 50% share, had not gone unnoticed by music promoters around the world. After months of speculation, in March US company SFX Entertainment bought a 75% stake in the global business of ID&T for around $97.5 million (€74.5 million).

Back in the late 1990s, SFX built up a portfolio of concert promoters, producers and venues. CEO Robert Sillerman subsequently sold the company in 2000 for $4.4 billion to Clear Channel, the predecessor of concert promoter Live Nation. In mid-June the Flemish daily De Standaard broke the news that the pair had bought back the shares from SFX, making them Tomorrowland’s majority shareholders. In return for the low share price, the brothers agreed to work with SFX in developing the brand globally, so strong is the belief in the future and profitability of the genre.

It’s no fluke that Belgium has become the mecca for EDM. It has had a pioneering role in the genre since the 1980s and remains a hotbed of original talent. “For years it has been the dance centre of the world. There is no other country with so many music festivals, and now we have this massive dance festival,” says Kevin McMullan, press officer of Brussels concert hall Ancienne Belgique. The other important aspect, he says, is the creation of a unique fairytale world. “No other festival in the world does this. Festival-goers get into this trance state with the beat of this repetitive music and then all this crazy stuff happens, like aeroplanes flying over dropping thousands of rose petals,” he says. “They provide the whole experience and they do it really well. They are going to have to do something crazy in the states as well.” The growing appeal of electronic music experienced in a festival context is probably a generational need for a feeling of community combined with escapism, he believes.

ID & T spokesperson Debby Wilmsen acknowledges that it is a “modern-day Woodstock. There is an amazing holiday atmosphere; you hear so many languages and people fly their national flag.” One reason for Tomorrowland’s popularity among fans and promoters is that the event team pays enormous attention to detail, quality and creativity. These were the initial priorities of the Beers brothers when they first launched the festival as a welcoming daytime alternative to the then late-night scene that characterised electronic dance music. “When they designed the festival it was all about flowers, smiling, colour and no queues,” says Wilmsen. They were equally determined that the food and drinks would be of a high quality, and creature comforts were important from the start: “Wooden floors for wearing heels, tables and chairs for eating, and clean toilets. When people travel from as far as Australia they appreciate a certain level of comfort.”

For Wilmsen, the passion of the young festival team outweighs the hard work. “There are no arguments despite the stress. I don’t sleep for a week before the start of the festival, worrying mainly about the weather,” she laughs. She has also learnt to play coy when asked at parties what she does for a living. “Everyone wants to come to the festival and I get about 1,000 calls. So now I just say I’m a press agent.”

www.tomorrowland.be