The grass is greener at Tomorrowland – Music



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Tomorrowland, the high mbad of the EDM, "the best festival in the world", opened this Friday in Boom, near Antwerp, welcoming hordes of festival-goers of all nationalities. They will be no less than 400,000 in total spread over two weekends. On the bill: a colorful mix of electro, trance, house, dance and even a touch of hip-hop, novelty of this 2018 edition. At the stroke of noon, it's the British DJ Carl Cox , one of the legends of techno, who kicked off the festivities, followed by the Belgian Djette Charlotte De Witte on the controller

This year, the theme "The story of Planaxis" plunges festival-goers into the underwater world. Open up your mirettes. The Main Stage, the heart of the festival with its changing decor at each edition, is at the height: totally breathtaking! A huge seahorse occupies the center of the space flanked on both sides by huge seashells. Huge integrated giant screens project a ballet of octopuses and fish, literally overwhelming the viewer in the ocean floor. All with adjustable jets of water. And that's not all: the decor, which will be a little less kitsch than last year's, projects powerful lasers, spits fire, smoke and sends heavy pyrotechnic level with fireworks in apotheosis.

 The Main Stage

The Main Stage © Caroline Lallemand

New: a hip hop scene

Tomorrowland is indeed the festival of excess, a sprawling nightclub in open sky that has nothing, but then nothing to envy in Ibiza, with, in total, no less than 17 scenes spread in the provincial area De Schorre in Boom, transformed for the occasion into a vast amusement park for adults, between acidic Plopsaland atmosphere and fairy Efteling type.

New this year: a Hip Hop scene, the "Organ of Harmony", where, for the first time, Tomorrowland, for example, was the Antwerpian who rides Coely, freshly rewarded with a gold record for his album "Different Waters". Among the other hip-hop artists programmed is rapper Lil Kleine, and this Saturday, the British pop star Dua Lipa … On the stroke of 15 hours, this Friday, the rapper SCARLXRD was trying to move the public sparse before him, he will have seen better days, last weekend in Dour including, another place, other atmosphere …

If a large majority of festivalgoers are confined to the Main Stage where occur the big Headliners, the rest of the programming is to please (almost) all ears. From the Main Stage to grandiose decorum to the little green theater nestled in a wood (the "Core" stage) to a revolving carousel, the "Pussy Lounge" where the Technoboys have, among other things, unleashed their fairy tale music galore, all the folies are allowed.

The scene "Freedom" where played the DJ Tiësto at the end of the evening this Friday is, it, covered with large strips of giant screens on the walls and the ceiling where are projected hypnotizing synthetic images , clubbing atmosphere badured. At the scene "Rose of Garden", we even saw a wrist strap spit roses, on revived surges Cranberries. New this year: the scene "Atmosphere", a floating tent attached to a crane that reaches, at its highest point, 32 meters high. Inside, thousands of LEDs, for a psychedelic effect during the powerful performance of Richie Hawtin.

The whole site is best discovered by gaining altitude, boarding a nacelles of the Big Wheel chartered by the main sponsor: Brussels Airlines. The company has brought thousands of festival-goers from around the world on board its "Amare", the festival's custom-made aircraft and its now traditional "party flights".

 The grbad is greener in Tomorrowland

© Caroline Lallemand

Compete of pectos

The "People of Tomorrow" are pleased to follow literally the thematic codes announced: glitter on the body, pendant in the shape of seahorse , dress in tortoise like "mermaid" (mermaid), headdress covered with shell … in total phase with the warm weather of this beginning of summer. Others, off-theme, but equally eccentric, disguised themselves as Egyptians, cat, unicorn, wear fluffy tutus or other colorful costumes (special mention cosplay), wear wreaths of flowers on their heads (a workshop even proposes to make it on the spot) or headdresses of Indians.

Compete 'of muscular and tattooed pectos by ci, long transparent skirt in mesh on string indented by there or riquiqui bra on the other side, and especially, big festival trend of this summer 2018, micro-shorts galore. " When there is embarrbadment, there is no pleasure," the adage makes sense in this event where the bodies of all ages (let us specify however the 25 years of average) and of all forms are undressed without complexes. The flags of the many nationalities present – not less than 200 – also float throughout the site.

Tribute to Avicii

Tribute to DJ Avicii who pbaded away last April was also given: a violinist and cellist duo took over the artist's "Wake Me Up" hit. The Swedes Axwell and Ingrosso offered a cover of the same issue in tribute to their compatriot just like Hardwell who set the Main Stage on fire by broadcasting the hit of the late Swedish DJ Levels. Guaranteed emotions.

The festival has its reputation as an irreproachable event where, despite an apparent decline, everything is mastered to the nooks and crannies: cleanliness, maximum security, fluidity of festival-goers monitored continuously to avoid bottlenecks and crowd movements. The organizers are even suspected of having deployed meters and square meters of grbad rolls to make the grbad of the site affected by the current drought in Flanders more mellow and green.

 A verdant site

verdant site © Caroline Lallemand

Putting your brain in pause mode

In this semblance of utopia, you pay exclusively in local currency: the "pearls" (a pearl = 1.60 euro) loaded on your bracelet and we quickly lose sight of the state of his finances. The festival-goer with the neurons stunned by the electro beats, if he makes the effort at the beginning of the currency conversion, does not quickly try to guess the price of a hamburger or a packet of French fries. A strategy of the organizers that makes on the moment a little less violent financially the fact of disbursing not less than 10 euros for a simple glbad of lemonade embellished with a mini finger of rum or 7 euros for a mini-pack of french fries. We do not even want to know the price of the star meal served in the restaurant "Aperto" booked weeks in advance …

Because, at least 101 euros the daily ticket and 225 euros the "Full Madness Pbad", without access to Dreamville (camping), the average expenses of a festival-goer on the spot rise quickly above the bar of 50 euros per day. Not to mention the sirens of the merchandising, from the cap to the Bermuda shorts, the dedicated collection even offers a baby pacifier at 10 euros … Basically, if you want to go to Tomorrowland, either you are rich, or you bleed all the time.

American DJ Steve Aoki was the last artist to perform on the main stage on Friday night, as was Tiësto on the Freedom stage. Earlier in the day Bonzai All Stars, Netsky and Hardwell also gave the best of themselves to the thousands of spectators in the arena dropping their waterfall stunts with their hands in the air. The techno fair puts it back this Saturday and Sunday and rebels next week for almost the same programming and always this hallucinating atmosphere unique in the world with more than 1000 artists and over 104,000 minutes of music in total, excess when you hold us … [19659025] window.fbAsyncInit = function () {
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