Tomorrowland (festival)

History of Tomorrow

The first edition of the festival took place on August 14, 2005. ID&T organized the festival. Performers included Push (M.I.K.E.), Armin van Buuren, Cor Fijneman, Yves Deruyter, Technoboy, Yoji Biomehanika and Coone.

The second festival, on July 30, 2006, hosted Armin van Buuren, Axwell, Marco Bailey, Fred Baker, David Guetta, Ruthless and DJ Zany. The DJ and producer Paul Oakenfold was also announced on the poster, but canceled at the last moment, as he was on tour with Madonna at the time. Emjay, the producer of 'Stimulate', the anthem of 2006, performed on the main stage with The Atari Babies. The third year, the festival lasted two days for the first time in its history, taking place on July 28 and 29, 2007.

In 2008, the festival took place on July 26 and 27. For the first time, more than 100 DJs participated. The number of visitors exceeded 50,000 for the first time.

For the fifth event, ID&T led to even more venues, one ski, and much more. Sun has included an "I Love the 90's" stage, where musicians such as Push, Natural Born Deejays and SASH from the dance scene were present. La Rocca performed live at the event for the first time. The special act on the main stage was Moby. Tomorrowland 2009 took place on July 25 and 26 and attracted 90,000 people.

Tomorrowland sold out days before the event, with a record attendance of 120,000 visitors over two days, in 2010 Dada Life, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Tara McDonald wrote the official anthem "Tomorrow/Give Into The Night" performing the song twice on the main stage after Swedish House Mafia. The track was made by Like Mike, Dada Life and Dimitri Vegas and the vocal melody and lyrics were written and recorded by Tara McDonald. The song reached number 5 in the Belgian commercial charts and is the biggest selling anthem for Tomorrowlands to date.

2011 marked the festival's expansion to three days. Only a few days after the official pre-sale of tickets kicked off, Tomorrowland was completely sold out and had over 180,000 visitors. David Guetta, Nervo, Swedish House Mafia, Avicii, Tiësto, Hardwell, Carl Cox, Paul van Dyk, Tensnake, Laidback Luke, Brodinski, Juanma Tudon, Mike Matthews, De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig, and dozens of others performed. It was voted the best festival of its kind in the world at the International Dance Music Awards in 2012.

Tomorrowland 2012 took place between from July 27–29, 2012, at the De Schorre, a provincial recreation area in Boom, Belgium, 16 kilometers south of Antwerp and 32 kilometers north of Brussels. The line-up consisted of 400 DJs, such as Armin van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Skrillex, Avicii, Marco Bailey, Skazi, David Guetta, Nervo, Hardwell, Swedish House Mafia, Afrojack, Steve Aoki, Juanma Tudon, Carl Cox, The Bloody Beetroots, Paul van Dyk, Martin Solveig, Chuckie, Fatboy Slim, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Pendulum playing on fifteen stages each day. 185,000 people from over 75 countries around the world were in attendance, with 35,000 of them staying in Dreamville. Because of the enormous success of Tomorrowland and the fact that it is a Belgian festival, ID&T decided to give Belgians an exclusive chance with a pre-sale (80,000 of the 180,000 tickets) on March 24. In less than one day, all of the tickets sold out and at some moments there were 2,000,000 people on the online waiting list. The worldwide sale started April 7. Within 43 minutes, the other 100,000 tickets sold out. In addition to regular tickets, Tomorrowland partnered with Brussels Airlines to provide exclusive travel packages from over 15 cities around the world. Other highlights of the festival were the Cloud Rider, the highest mobile Ferris wheel in Europe, and the fact that 25 airlines were organised to bring spectators to the festival from all over the world.

Tomorrowland 2013 took place on July 26–28 and reached 180,000 attendees at De Schorre in Boom, Belgium. Full madness passes sold out in 35 minutes, and the remainder of tickets sold out in a reported one second. Tomorrowland also offered its Global Journey packages and Brussels Airlines had 140 additional flights from 67 different cities around the world to get festival goers with 214 different nationalities to Boom, Belgium.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the festival, and to meet the high demand for tickets, the 2014 edition of Tomorrowland would be held over two weekends; 18–20 July and 25–27 July. The line-up for both weekends would be more or less the same. In April 2014, MTV announced that it would produce two hour-long MTV World Stage specials featuring performances from the festival (to be aired in August 2014), and that it would produce a documentary surrounding the 10th anniversary of Tomorrowland. On April 16, composer Hans Zimmer and Tomorrowland announced that they combined forces for the creation of a classical hymn that would premiere during the 10th anniversary edition of Tomorrowland. Veteran DJ Dave Clark, who hosted the second largest stage, believes that “a more diverse lineup that covered a wider range of underground music” was Tomorrowland 2014’s top selling point. 360,000 people have attended Tomorrowland 2014.

Tomorrowland 2015 has taken place on 24–26 July 2015 and has followed the first chapter of the new theme Melodia. The 2016 'The Elixir of Life' edition introduced the new dragon stage. In 2017, Tomorrowland will consist of two weekends again. The first weekend will take place 21–23 July 2017, followed by a second weekend July 28–30.

TomorrowWorld

In March 20, 2013, ID&T Belgium and SFX Entertainment announced that it would begin organizing an American spin-off of Tomorrowland, known as TomorrowWorld. The festival is held at the Bouckaert Farm in Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia, located 48 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Atlanta. The site was specifically chosen due to its resemblance to the Boom location in which Tomorrowland is traditionally held.

The inaugural edition of TomorrowWorld, held 27–29 September 2013, reused the "Book of Wisdom" design used for the main stage at Tomorrowland in 2012. The festival played host to over 140,000 attendees over the weekend. TomorrowWorld brought more than music, dancing and stunning visuals to the area last year - it brought an economic boost. Officials reported TomorrowWorld 2013 brought $85.1 million into the Georgia economy, including $70 million directly to Atlanta. That $70 million matches the impact the city got from hosting the NCAA Final Four in 2013.

Nearly 140,000 attended the event, and their direct expenditures added $28.7 million into the local economy in areas such as lodging, restaurants and sight-seeing, TomorrowWorld officials said.

The 2014 edition of Tomorrowworld was held on 26-27–28 September 2014. The theme was "The Arising of Life," and used the volcano main stage which debuted at Tomorrowland in 2013. The festival hosted a pre-festival concert called "The Gathering" on Thursday 25 September 2014 for attendees staying in Dreamville, the camp grounds of TomorrowWorld. Over 40,000 people camped at Dreamville, selling out the basic camping option. More than 160,000 people attended TomorrowWorld 2014.

The third edition of TomorrowWorld was held on the weekend of September 25, 2015. The event was marred by inclement weather; rain showers resulted in muddy terrain at the festival grounds, and entrance roadways to the grounds becoming unusable. On Saturday, due to the road conditions, organizers restricted shuttle service for attendees traveling back to Atlanta; those who were not stranded without shelter at the grounds overnight were required to hike miles towards areas where taxi cab and Uber drivers offered rides back to Atlanta at high prices. The following morning, festival organizers announced that the remainder of the festival would only be open to those who had camped on-site, and that refunds would be issued to those who were affected by the transport issues or had bought tickets for day 3.

On March 2, 2016, the official TomorrowWorld Facebook page announced that the festival will not be held in 2016.

Tomorrowland Brasil

As announced on July 20, 2014, by David Guetta's streamed Tomorrowland set to Brazil, and on the Tomorrowland website, the next edition to Tomorrowland Brasil was held on May 1–3, 2015 in Itu, São Paulo. Various DJ's performed such as W&W, Hardwell, Iraj and Naveen Attygalle, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Showtek, Steve Aoki, and many more main stage performers. Some of the stage hosts were Revealed Recordings, Dim Mak, Smash The House, Q-Dance, Super You & Me and many more.

The mainstage again reused the "Book of Wisdom" theme. All 180,000 tickets sold out one day after being announced.

The second edition of Tomorrowland Brasil took place once again at Itu in Sao Paulo, Brasil during April 21–23, 2016. The lineup included Axwell & Ingrosso, Ferry Corsten, Laidback Luke, Loco Dice, Markus Schulz, Afrojack, Alesso, Armin van Buuren, Chris Lake, Infected Mushroom, Nicky Romero, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Solomun, Steve Angello, and many others.

In November 2016, it was announced that Tomorrowland Brasil would not return due to concerns over the country's economic stability. However, the festival does plan to return in 2018.

Awards and nominations

In 2015 Tomorrowland won the inaugural award from DJ Magazine for The World's No.1 Festival. This was chosen by voters of DJ Magazine's Top 100 Clubs Poll.mad