Just two days before the Tomorrowland festival was scheduled to begin, the main stage of the festival in Belgium was damaged by fire.
According to a statement sent by the event organizers on Wednesday evening, “Our beloved main stage has suffered severe damage.”
As stated in the statement, there were no reports of injuries occurring during the fire, the reason of which is yet unknown.
The event of electronic dance music is scheduled to begin on Friday in the town of Boom, which is located south of Antwerp. It is anticipated that 400,000 people will attend the festival over the course of two weekends.
The event is scheduled to include performances by hundreds of musicians, some of which are David Guetta, Lost Frequencies, Swedish House Mafia, and Charlotte De Witte.
On Wednesday, the fire began at around 18:00 local time, which is roughly 16:00. There was a dense, gray smoke that engulfed the stage in videos that were shared on social media.
“An apocalyptic scene” was described by a worker who had been working on the site at the time the fire broke out.
“We suddenly heard bangs and saw fire near the stage, a huge amount of fire,” the guy who wished to remain anonymous said in an interview with the daily Het Nieuwsblad.
As we were putting the final touches on it, we were just about done. In only one more day, it would be completed altogether. After four weeks of labor, it was over in a quarter of an hour.
In an effort to prevent the fires from spreading to neighboring houses and woodlands, firefighters are now working. The evacuation of certain residents has taken place.
According to an update that was published on the website of the event, the organizers said that the campground will continue to open on Thursday as scheduled, and that the primary emphasis was “on finding solutions for the festival weekend and beyond.”
In addition, they said that the event would go even without the main stage.