The Belgian government has made a pivotal decision to green-light festivals of up to 75,000 attendees.
The new provision goes into effect on the August 13th, effectively allowing Tomorrowland to move forward with their originally planned dates over two weekends: August 27-29 and September 3-5, respectively. As IQ notes, the motion also paves the way for Pukkelpop and the Formula 1 Grand Prix race, among other events scheduled to take place this year.
“We are very happy to receive this news, but we will wait for the conditions and rules before we will communicate about the organization of the festival,” a Tomorrowland spokesperson said. “We are very positive, and we look forward to organizing a festival at the end of August.”
The mainstage at Tomorrowland 2017.
The conditions surrounding this announcement are where numerous questions arise for prospective attendees. In mid-May, Minister of Health and Social Affairs Frank Vandenbroucke made public stipulations indicating what he deems it would take in order for the country to safely host large-scale events.
One condition is the need for festival-goers to provide proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID test. Additionally, the scale at which the festival is able to operate, Vandenbroucke said, is incumbent upon organizers’ ability to conduct testing of all attendees on the premises each day of any given event.
While the ability to conduct testing at scale poses a bottleneck on its own, it is exacerbated by the fact that only European Union citizens and tourists from “countries that have the coronavirus under control” may be able to attend.
Such limitations, if implemented, could certainly curtail the scale and experience of one of dance music’s most illustrious annual gatherings, leaving numerous questions as to what Tomorrowland 2021 will actually look like.
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