Two weekends in a Belgian clay pit that became the most elaborately staged festival in the world
Tomorrowland 2027 is held across two weekends each July at De Schorre, a recreation park in Boom, in the province of Antwerp. It was founded in 2005 by the brothers Manu and Michiel Beers, ran every year until 2019, paused for two years and returned in 2022.
The site is a former clay quarry, which is why the main stage sits in a natural amphitheatre — and why the staging, rather than the line-up, is what people actually come for. Around 400,000 people attend across the two weekends, from well over a hundred countries.
The Belgian edition is the original, but the name now covers a calendar:
The Winter edition is the one worth knowing about if Boom in July does not appeal. It is smaller, the crowd skis by day and the accommodation problem solves itself because Alpe d’Huez is a resort rather than a field.
DreamVille is the festival’s own village next to the site, and it is the single decision that shapes the weekend. Staying there means walking to the stages and back; not staying there means a shuttle or a car at four in the morning, twice a weekend.
Within it the tiers run from a pitch you put up yourself to serviced cabins and the Mansions, which are furnished, staffed and released in very small number. Anyone treating Tomorrowland as a comfortable weekend is either in a Mansion or in Antwerp.
Antwerp is twenty minutes away and is the obvious answer — a serious city with a restaurant scene, which makes the days between the nights worth something. Brussels is about forty minutes. Both fill for the two weekends, and the good hotels are booked months ahead.
The reason Tomorrowland is discussed differently from other festivals is that it builds a set rather than a stage. The main stage is rebuilt from nothing each year around a narrative — a library, a temple, a mechanical city — at a scale that takes months and is demolished afterwards. Fifteen or so smaller stages are each themed separately, and several are as elaborate as headline stages elsewhere.
The consequence is that the line-up matters less than at any comparable event. People who do not follow electronic music go anyway, and people who do often cannot tell you who played. That is unusual, and it is the single most useful thing to understand before deciding whether to go.
Tell us which edition you are thinking of and we will build the weekend around it
Antwerp International is fifteen minutes from Boom and takes private traffic, which during the festival makes it the sensible arrival. Brussels Airport is forty minutes and carries the scheduled routes. Brussels is also two hours from London by rail, which for our British members is usually faster door to door than flying.
One practical note about the two weekends: they are not identical. The first sells out first and carries the larger international crowd; the second is slightly calmer and, in most years, marginally easier to arrange accommodation for. The staging and the programme are the same.
Across two weekends in July, at De Schorre in Boom, Belgium. The Winter edition runs separately at Alpe d’Huez in March.
At De Schorre in Boom, in the province of Antwerp, about twenty minutes from the city and forty from Brussels.
The festival’s own village beside the site, running from self-pitched tents to serviced cabins and furnished, staffed Mansions. Staying there removes the nightly journey in and out.
Four: Belgium in July, Winter at Alpe d’Huez in March, Brasil in São Paulo state and Thailand at Wisdom Valley in Pattaya.
In phases through pre-registration rather than open sale, and the better tiers clear within minutes of opening.
Six months or more. The registration windows sit early in the year and Antwerp hotels are committed well before July.
