Tomorrowland is hands down the best music festival I have ever been to in my whole entire life. It is located in Boom, Belgium and has 27 stages. Each stage is hosted by a separate record label each day. For example, the stage may be Heldeep one day and then Sexy by Nature the next. There are so many stages that it is just impossible to enjoy all of them in one weekend. My friend Jordan and I would be walking and would open up a random door that would lead us downstairs to a random techno stage. Every single stage is absolutely breathtaking and you literally feel like you are in a fantasy land. One day, we sat on this mountain and watched these huge robot bugs crawling through the crowd. They would even dive in after people as if they were going to eat them, it was wild sight to see. Another amazing thing about Tomorrowland is the amount of cultural diversity. You hear languages from every angle. Over a hundred countries represented at Tomorrowland and you can definitely see that with the flags that are held up.
Many people think that Tomorrowland is just too hard to get in to, which believe me it is. It took me three years to be able to make it happen. It took a lot of research and planning to get a ticket, since they sell out within minutes.
Here are some pointers:
1. Register and Join the Tomorrowland Waiting List. In order to receive email reminders, you must register during the appropriate time frame. Sign up for their emailing list so that you are in the know.
2. Be at your computer 10 mins prior to when the tickets go on sale. Tickets sell out instantly so it is important to be prepared for when they go on sale. If you are unable to get a ticket, don’t be discouraged. For three years, this happened to me. I ended up purchasing tickets for $400 each off Viagogo, which brings me to my next pointer…
3. Do not buy tickets of Viagogo. Viagogo is like the European stub hub. Many people have had positive experiences with them but many have not. The sketch part about this site is that they sell more tickets than they actually have, so if people choose not to sell their ticket on Viagogo, then there could possibly be a shortage. I purchased the tickets and started to get concerned when we never received them. They have no customer service phone line and are unresponsive to emails. I ended up reporting these tickets as fraud to my bank and received a full refund.
4. WE MADE IT ON THE WAITLIST. It was an incredible day when I received the email that we had been approved for the wait list. They only give you a certain amount of time to cop a ticket so it is important to have your money ready and make the purchase. It ended up being $600 a person but honestly so worth it. Tickets are usually $200 when they first go on sale but these were the remainder of people who ended up giving their tickets away or not registering.
5. Sign up for Festicket. Festicket is an authorized third party seller of Tomorrowland tickets. Make sure that you look at the list on the Tomorrowland website to see who is an authorized third party seller, otherwise you may be scammed. Festicket has tickets for sale as well as packages.
6. So you still didn’t get a ticket? If you really must go and don’t mind paying a ton of money, then I recommend looking into the Global Journey packages. Global Journey packages are on the Tomorrowland website and usually don’t sell out until right before the festival begins because they are so expensive. However, you get to fly in with their package on a plane with a bunch of other Tomorrowland attendees, which I’m sure you can imagine is lit. The only downside is you must fly in to the destination that the Global Journey takes off. For example, you might need to fly into New York or Amsterdam.
7. So you finally got a ticket, how do I get camping supplies out there? It would be way too expensive to fly out camping gear so we ended up staying the night in Belgium the night before and bought some camping stuff at the local mall. It was expensive so we only got one tent, two sleeping bags (one for the group and one as our blanket) and we used our back packs as pillows. We were ballin on a budget but you of course can get whatever camping supplies you see fit. Don’t forget to lock up your tent, just like you should at any camping festival. They also have tents that you can purchase beforehand and pick up at the event. We ended up donating our supplies at the end to their recycling camping supply system that they offer.
8. How do I get there? Jordan and I were already on a Euro backpacking trip but your best bet would be to fly into London or Amsterdam and then fly into Belgium. We stayed the night in Belgium for one night and then took the hour long train to Boom. We were soooo lost because the language was really hard to understand but we met some other people that were going to Tomorrowland and they helped us out. Once you arrive in Boom, they have a free shuttle that will take you to Tomorrowland. P.S. the walk from the shuttle, while carrying all of your gear is brutal and we low key were dying.
9. What do I bring? The first two days were really sunny but the last half was freezing cold. I recommend bringing a variety of clothes because you never know what it might be.
10. WIFI and Charging your phone. If you’re social media whores like Jordan and I, we needed to post all of our Snapchats and Instagram stories the following day. Tomorrowland has free WIFI for only 15 mins in the food area. They also offer portable chargers that you can go and exchange for a fully charged one each day. If you return it at the end, they will give you the deposit back.
11. Tomorrowland Currency. This was a pointer I wish I knew when we went to Tomorrowland. You are unable to use cash or card at the festival. You must purchase “Pearls”, which are loaded on your wristband. I heard of some people who lost their wristband and all of their pearls were taken, so be careful and make sure your wristband is on tight. The exchange of dollars to pearls is ridiculous. We would spend about $100 a person each day just on food because of the exchange rate. Make sure you add this into your budget!
Overall, Tomorrowland was an incredible experience that I will cherish forever. I hope that you can experience it one day.