A huge fire has consumed the main stage of Belgium’s world-famous Tomorrowland festival, days ahead of its planned opening on Friday.
“Due to a serious incident and fire on the Tomorrowland Mainstage, our beloved Mainstage has been severely damaged,” festival organizers said in a statement Wednesday evening.
“We can confirm that no one was injured during the incident.”
Video showed thick plumes of black smoke rising from the festival grounds in Boom, Belgium on Wednesday. Fireworks could also be seen and heard going off in the distance.
The festival’s main stage has almost completely burned down, according to Belgium public broadcaster VRT, which added that emergency services are on the scene but the fire is not yet under control.
No festival-goers were on site at the time of the fire, but about 1,000 staff members were present and have now been evacuated, VRT reported.
Tomorrowland spokesperson Debby Wilmsen said a lot of workers were devastated to see the main stage destroyed given that it took years to build, “with so much love and passion.”
The electronic dance music festival was due to start on Friday.
Organizers said in their statement that the site’s “DreamVille” campsite will open on Thursday as planned and they are “focused on finding solutions for the festival weekend.”
“Tomorrow we’re expecting 38,000 festival-goers at DreamVille, at our campsite. We’re really looking forward to it.” Wilmsen said.
“We’re going to make it a great festival. It will be without a main stage. But hopefully, we can do something else, but I can’t say much about that yet,” she added.
Morgan Hermans, who lives near the festival site, told CNN Wednesday that she initially heard fireworks going off, which prompted her to look outside. “There was just a big cloud of fireworks and smoke very near us, so that was a bit scary,” she said.
“It’s one of the biggest events in the entire year. Our town is very small so to welcome people (from) around the entire world, it’s crazy and it’s so much fun. It’s a big deal so everyone in Boom was a bit terrified for a few seconds,” Hermans added.
Local police confirmed the fire in a post on X and encouraged people to stay away from the smoke and give way to emergency services.
It is unclear how the fire started, VRT reported.
Source: CNN
--Agencies
