Tomorrowland

Finally arriving to the airport in Brussels, Belgium during Tomorrowland preparation is anything but ordinary.  You will see Tomorrowland themed planes, buses, and workers already dressed in costume greeting you at every turn in the airport.  Once you make your way to the bus the blaring music over the speakers will instantaneously wake you up as you make your way from Brussels to Boom.  Pulling up to the gates seeing the thousands of people trying to check in with tents, bags, coolers, and drinks in hand is wonderful sight to see.  Our bus had dropped us off on the opposite side of the festival grounds which was not ideal.  I am sure you are thinking, “well that won’t be a bad walk, why is that so bad?” which is what we were thinking.  We were sadly mistaken.  The full grounds of the festival are miles in each direction and someone informs us it will take us about two hours to walk to the opposite side.  Once we get a cab and get to our gate we run into the other half of our group.  We are a mix of people from all across the globe.  We have America, France, London, South America, and Australia to complete our group.

If you purchase the Dreamville pack you are given access to a separate part of the festival.  Dreamville also begins prior to Tomorrowland so you get an extra two days.  They have a lot of food options, more music stages, places to shop, imagine a small town being built over night.  As for sleeping arrangements this is selected when you buy your tickets.  You can bring your own tent, use one of their tents, dream lodges, and houses to rent.  By the time I had been let out of the “waiting room” to buy our tickets a lot of things were already sold out.  Mind you I was logged on seconds after it started, and from what I read online if you were not in the waiting room within three minutes you were not in much luck of getting tickets.  Once in the room it was a quick draw to figure out what to get since you are on a timer, so we opted for the Dream Lodge/Dreamville package.

 

In this you got two twin beds, a cabinet with personal lock, two chairs, side table, electronic plug ins, and access to the Dream Lodge amenities like private showers and their own buffet/bar to purchase from.  After seeing the showers and camping sites of the other options this was worth every penny!  This is by far the most expensive trip I have ever done, however, if you are going for the Tomorrowland experience you should know that you can’t be stingy with this event.  It is physically impossible to do this cheaply as everything is ridiculous expensive.  The buffet itself was $32 for one meal – ouch.  Of course you can do it cheaper and do tents instead of the lodges, that just comes down to personal preference.  You can eat and drink your own food while staying in the lodges/camp sites.  It is once you get into Tomorrowland that they make you take everything out of your packs (if you get caught).  You will have to walk about a mile into town for the convenient store and even have a few restaurants to choose from if you want different food.

As for the festival itself, I find it hard to describe.  Be ready for costumes, elaborate sets, bold colors, bold personalities, and people from all over the globe!  Oh and did I mention prepare for debauchery and mayhem?  Yes… be ready for that too.

There was a total of 13 stages last year and to be honest, I only made it to about six or seven of them.  You tend to get lost in the music to forget there are more stages out there and then the next thing you know you are at main stage and the day is over.  Each morning you wake up out of your tent to a recap of the previous day in a Tomorrowland Newspaper.  It will have interviews, articles, the days activities all written out for you.  A really nice touch in my opinion.

Was this the trip of a lifetime, yes!  Will I make it a point to go to another Tomorrowland?  Probably not.  For the experience and money spent it was truly amazing, but as time has gone on I have added so many more things to my list to experience than to go back a second time.  If you are given the opportunity to go, go!  Do not think twice, just go!  Enjoy yourself, and come back to my page to let me know what you thought!