Tomorrowland 2025 will go ahead, festival confirms

Tomorrowland 2025 will go ahead, festival officials have confirmed.

In a press conference this evening (17th July), Tomorrowland spokesperson Debby Wilmsen confirmed that the Belgian festival will proceed this weekend – 18th to 20th July – without its main stage, which was completely destroyed in an enormous fire yesterday. “We’re devastated,” she said. “But we’ve received so many wonderful reactions. And we’re working hard now. We’re going to keep going, we’re going 100 percent!”

“We can also throw a party without a main stage,” she added. “We’re really going to keep working now, tonight and tonight. But of course, it also has to be safe.”

In an official statement shared to the festival’s website and social media, Tomorrowland shared: “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. What we can confirm is that we will be able to welcome everyone tomorrow.”

Explaining how the festival intends to proceed without its enormous main stage, the festival outlined two possible scenarios. “Scenario 1: If the Mainstage area can be secured and a new setup completed, the festival grounds will open as planned for all visitors and all ticket types.”

“Scenario 2: If we are unable to open at full visitor capacity, DreamVille and the festival grounds will function as two separate areas on Friday to ensure the safety of all guests.”

If scenario 2 is the case, the Gathering Stage at DreamVille will host the main stage artists originally scheduled for Friday, 18th July.  DreamVille visitors will not be able to access the festival grounds. Meanwhile, the festival grounds – without the main stage – will be open to all other visitors (Friday Day Pass, Global Journey Hotel Packages, and Full Madness Pass holders).

In either case, doors will open at 2 PM, rather than the originally planned 12 PM. Read Tomorrowland’s full statement below. 

The news comes after a tense day of deliberating between Tomorrowland’s organisers, local police, the fire department, and the mayors of Boom and Rumst to find a solution to the lack of main stage.

The cause of the blaze, which broke out around 5pm (CEST) on 16th July, remains unknown and is currently under investigation. Around 1,000 staff and crew members were on site at the time. All were evacuated to safety and no injuries were reported. 

According to reports from Belgian news outlet HLN, the first DJ sets are now in full swing at the DreamVille site for The Gathering opening party, with the area’s adjacent campsite continuing to fill up. 38,000 festival goers are expected to arrive today, with 400,000 visitors expected to attend Tomorrowland across both weekends.

In a statement shared this morning, Tomorrowland wrote: “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.”

Images shared on local news sites and social media showed flames and plumes of black smoke engulfing the stage, which was reportedly in the final stages of being built before the festival opens tomorrow (18th July).

We will continue to report on all Tomorrowland updates in our live blog.