What happens to Tomorrowland and our Belgian music festivals 2020 in this special era of C?
By Frank. .
Have you also noticed that some of the biggest European music festivals in such as Glastonbury in the UK and Roskilde in Denmark have been cancelled?
We at checklistchannel.com are actually located in Belgium, the birthplace of the modern music festivals. We try to get a good idea where this is going. It is very likely that the coronavirus pandemic will have a major impact on the complete festival season . We are closely monitoring the status of the major music festivals in Belgium, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Most of the Belgian music festivals in May have already been cancelled. And the festival organizers have reported that very few tickets have been purchased since early March. But the tickets of the biggest festivals were already sold out months ago.
The big question is what will happen with Tomorrowland, the biggest music festival in Belgium and certainly the one of the most reputable ones in the world. And what with the festivals that are scheduled much later in the year e.g. late August and September 2020.
The outlook for Tomorrowland is not very good.
The festival takes place at the domain Schorre. The mayors of the nearby villages Boom and Rumst (HLN.be) have already given a negative advice to the government more than a week ago. But in the end it is the Belgian national government that will make the final decision.
The Secretary Of State, Minister De Crem, has already communicated to the press that he is against opening up the festivals but the formal decision still has to be taken and the event organizers are involved in this too. For sure they are also discussing the financial ramifications.
The National Security Council will meet and this topic has been put on the agenda. The decision will either be to cancel all significant events for the rest of the year , or to forbid them for a few months to come e.g. May June July, and to evaluate again in a few months time.
The festivals depend heavily on the world tours of various famous artists and more and more artists, such as Pearl Jam, are staying at home as well. So even if the government does not forbid the festivals completely there will be no (famous) artists to book.
If you are going to attend a music festival this year then it will probably be a digital event.
This is a unique opportunity to explore what is possible in the digital world of streaming.
We would like mention one digital event on Twitch of last weekend: the charity Esports all-dayer (April 5th). They raised money for the World Health Organization COVID-19 Response Fund. More info at djmag.com. Some of the artists were Dimitri Vegas, Like Mike and Afrojack. Perhaps the stream is still available online.
Discover more Electronic Music Live Streams on Twitch.
Do you also want to know which festivals have been cancelled or postponed?
We have compiled an overview of the music festivals that will still happen as planned and which ones have been cancelled, postponed or already have been rescheduled. We update this list on a regularly basis:
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