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It’s a festival I’ve been following since 2017 and I’ve been lucky enough to have attended in 2019 and 2023. There’s a whole host of DJs including David Guetta, Carl Cox, Armin Van Buuren and Tiesto that perform. But this year tragedy struck just hours before the gates opened. The festival started back in 2005 with the idea of bringing Mysteryland from the Netherlands to Belgium. The aim in the first year was to attract 15,000 people, however only around 7,000 attended.
Nevertheless, they pushed on and over the past 20 years they’ve built the festival up to now being crowned the world’s best festival in the DJ Mag Top 100 festivals list. And they haven’t stopped with just the main festival in Belgium, they’ve branched out with various experiences around the world including the recently announced partnership with Insomniac (the company behind several US festivals) to host special shows at the Sphere in Las Vegas. It had been my plan to attend this year but I couldn’t get tickets, which sold out in around 20 minutes. I’d been following the build-up with much excitement to what promised to be yet another great two weekends.
Sadly, this year, the festival started with devastating news.
On Wednesday 16 July, the day before the campsite opened, I returned from Cubs to hear my daughter declaring that the Tomorrowland mainstage had been destroyed by fire. We’re known for practical jokes against each other (like finding a fake spider in my tent) and I thought this was another wind-up.
Rather than call her out, I thought the easier way would be to open Facebook and there it was, second post down, the first of many posts about the fire. I’m sure many of us saw the videos!
Two years of design work, 50 days of construction, all gone within an hour. Once the fire had been extinguished, there was only a minimal shell of metal left. The artwork, speakers, lights, LED screens and other features were all gone. The irony of the ice stage – part of this year’s Orbyz theme – burning down wasn’t lost on many of us.
I was watching everything unfold with two hats on; one as a Chartered PR practitioner and the other a Tomorrowland fan.
My PR hat: How they handled the communications
What followed was, in my view, an expertly driven crisis response from the whole team. Debby Wilmsen and her comms team handled the crisis with excellence. The immediate situation was acknowledged with brief details – and a confirmation that no-one was injured – and expectations of next steps clearly set out with regular updates provided.
Wednesday evening:
“Due to a serious incident and fire on the Tomorrowland Mainstage, our beloved Mainstage has been severely damaged.”
A press conference was held within a couple of hours of the fire and the messaging was clear that the campsite would open as planned the following day. The tone of the messaging was clearly one of shock, yet crucially they knew they had to provide updates.
Wednesday evening:
“More updates and detailed information will be communicated as soon as possible.”
On Thursday morning, in a more relaxed tone, they announced the opening of the campsite and their social media returned to the usual upbeat positivity featuring the party goers arriving. It moved from a shock update to a more controlled and planned message.
Thursday morning:
“Dear People of Tomorrow,
At 10:00 this morning, doors to DreamVille (campsite) have opened to welcome all DreamVille visitors. All Global Journey activities in Brussels and Antwerp will also take place today.
It’s impossible to put into words what we’re feeling.
The Orbyz Mainstage of Tomorrowland Belgium 2025, a creation born from pure passion, imagination, and dedication, is no more.
This wasn’t just a stage. It was a living, breathing world. From the very first sketch on a blank page, to countless hours of conceptual design, artistic collaboration, engineering, crafting, building, every single piece of Orbyz carried part of our soul.
But, we hold on to the magic Orbyz gave us. To the dreams it carried. To the team who gave their all.
We spent the night working on possible solutions for the Mainstage area. No other parts of the festival venue, stages or areas were impacted.
All detailed info about the festival weekend (Friday – Saturday – Sunday) will follow in the upcoming hours.
With love.”
In the afternoon, a more detailed update was provided to inform everyone what was happening behind the scenes. They confirmed the festival would open to everyone the following day with one of two scenarios, quelling the speculation that was growing on social media. This was a powerful move as it put an end to rumours and allowed those planning to attend to know they wouldn’t be turned away at the gates.
Thursday afternoon:
“Meanwhile, hundreds of people are working tirelessly at the Mainstage area to ensure we can open the gates tomorrow. It’s a race against time, but we’re doing this together with the best and most amazing people in the world.”
On Friday morning, the announcement was made that a new stage would be open at the later time of 4pm. Four hours later than originally planned is an outstanding achievement given the work involved, with some of the workers putting in a 20-hour shift. It was touching to watch Nervo start their set with Madonna’s Like A Prayer. And, over the weekend, many messages of admiration for the Tomorrowland team poured in from fans and artists.
My fan hat: How they handled the crisis
This was a textbook example on how to handle a crisis, a topic I covered back in issue 106 (March 2021). The immediate situation was...
To read the full article, you’ll need to have a physical copy of the magazine which you can sign up for here for 6 issues delivered to your door from just £16!
https://store.promobile.online/products/pro-mobile-magazine-6-issue-1-year-subscription
Nevertheless, they pushed on and over the past 20 years they’ve built the festival up to now being crowned the world’s best festival in the DJ Mag Top 100 festivals list. And they haven’t stopped with just the main festival in Belgium, they’ve branched out with various experiences around the world including the recently announced partnership with Insomniac (the company behind several US festivals) to host special shows at the Sphere in Las Vegas. It had been my plan to attend this year but I couldn’t get tickets, which sold out in around 20 minutes. I’d been following the build-up with much excitement to what promised to be yet another great two weekends.
Sadly, this year, the festival started with devastating news.
On Wednesday 16 July, the day before the campsite opened, I returned from Cubs to hear my daughter declaring that the Tomorrowland mainstage had been destroyed by fire. We’re known for practical jokes against each other (like finding a fake spider in my tent) and I thought this was another wind-up.
Rather than call her out, I thought the easier way would be to open Facebook and there it was, second post down, the first of many posts about the fire. I’m sure many of us saw the videos!
Two years of design work, 50 days of construction, all gone within an hour. Once the fire had been extinguished, there was only a minimal shell of metal left. The artwork, speakers, lights, LED screens and other features were all gone. The irony of the ice stage – part of this year’s Orbyz theme – burning down wasn’t lost on many of us.
I was watching everything unfold with two hats on; one as a Chartered PR practitioner and the other a Tomorrowland fan.
My PR hat: How they handled the communications
What followed was, in my view, an expertly driven crisis response from the whole team. Debby Wilmsen and her comms team handled the crisis with excellence. The immediate situation was acknowledged with brief details – and a confirmation that no-one was injured – and expectations of next steps clearly set out with regular updates provided.
Wednesday evening:
“Due to a serious incident and fire on the Tomorrowland Mainstage, our beloved Mainstage has been severely damaged.”
A press conference was held within a couple of hours of the fire and the messaging was clear that the campsite would open as planned the following day. The tone of the messaging was clearly one of shock, yet crucially they knew they had to provide updates.
Wednesday evening:
“More updates and detailed information will be communicated as soon as possible.”
On Thursday morning, in a more relaxed tone, they announced the opening of the campsite and their social media returned to the usual upbeat positivity featuring the party goers arriving. It moved from a shock update to a more controlled and planned message.
Thursday morning:
“Dear People of Tomorrow,
At 10:00 this morning, doors to DreamVille (campsite) have opened to welcome all DreamVille visitors. All Global Journey activities in Brussels and Antwerp will also take place today.
It’s impossible to put into words what we’re feeling.
The Orbyz Mainstage of Tomorrowland Belgium 2025, a creation born from pure passion, imagination, and dedication, is no more.
This wasn’t just a stage. It was a living, breathing world. From the very first sketch on a blank page, to countless hours of conceptual design, artistic collaboration, engineering, crafting, building, every single piece of Orbyz carried part of our soul.
But, we hold on to the magic Orbyz gave us. To the dreams it carried. To the team who gave their all.
We spent the night working on possible solutions for the Mainstage area. No other parts of the festival venue, stages or areas were impacted.
All detailed info about the festival weekend (Friday – Saturday – Sunday) will follow in the upcoming hours.
With love.”
In the afternoon, a more detailed update was provided to inform everyone what was happening behind the scenes. They confirmed the festival would open to everyone the following day with one of two scenarios, quelling the speculation that was growing on social media. This was a powerful move as it put an end to rumours and allowed those planning to attend to know they wouldn’t be turned away at the gates.
Thursday afternoon:
“Meanwhile, hundreds of people are working tirelessly at the Mainstage area to ensure we can open the gates tomorrow. It’s a race against time, but we’re doing this together with the best and most amazing people in the world.”
On Friday morning, the announcement was made that a new stage would be open at the later time of 4pm. Four hours later than originally planned is an outstanding achievement given the work involved, with some of the workers putting in a 20-hour shift. It was touching to watch Nervo start their set with Madonna’s Like A Prayer. And, over the weekend, many messages of admiration for the Tomorrowland team poured in from fans and artists.
My fan hat: How they handled the crisis
This was a textbook example on how to handle a crisis, a topic I covered back in issue 106 (March 2021). The immediate situation was...
To read the full article, you’ll need to have a physical copy of the magazine which you can sign up for here for 6 issues delivered to your door from just £16!
https://store.promobile.online/products/pro-mobile-magazine-6-issue-1-year-subscription
The full review can be found in Pro Mobile Issue 133, Pages 22-25.
