UPDATED: Tomorrowland organizers plan to move festival worldwide, including North America
In 2012, Tomorrowland drew 180,000 dance music fans from over 75 countries around the world to the small municipality of Boom, Belgium. With international demand booming every year, festival organizers, ID&T, decided to give Belgians an exclusive pre-sale, selling all 80,000 tickets in one day. The worldwide sale took place two weeks later, with the last 100,000 tickets selling out in 43 minutes. To meet the overwhelming demand from abroad, the festival organizers are now thinking about hosting the festival at locations across the globe.
Rarely giving an interview, co-founders of ID&T and brothers, Michiel and Manu Beers, spoke to De Tijd, a Belgian financial newspaper, on the future of Tomorrowland after recieving an award for the best festival in Europe.
“It’s our ambition to organize a Tomorrowland on every continent. We have received requests for versions of Tomorrowland from all over the world e week. From rich Russians and Indians to promoters in Australia, the US and South America. We will do it, but on our conditions, and only in places where we feel comfortable.”
The brothers have apparently added ten additional staff members to ID&T in order to prepare the international enterprise. “Creating a festival like Tomorrowland is complex,” says Manu Beers. “It’s a matter of building a city in three days and creating a total experience; complete with restaurants, bakeries and hamburger stands. Every detail counts. Relocating an entire factory of activity to another country is a damned difficult task. We want to do it well, so we are not committing ourselves to a date.”
The other ID&T co-founder, Duncan Stutterheim, told us he had no intentions to move Tomorrowland to North America yet hoped to bring Mysteryland to the US by 2014. With major festivals already planning expansion this year, one has to wonder if the EDM festival circuit is beginning to become oversaturated. One thing is for sure though, you won’t hear any of us complaining about Tomorrowland.
UPDATED 1/16/2013: Co-founder Duncan Stutterheim has confirmed a joint venture between Live Nation, ID&T and SFX. ID&T plans to expand operations worldwide including North America establishing offices in Brooklyn. For more information read our post detailing the joint venture.
Stayed tuned for more info and follow @dancingastro on Twitter for up to date info and a confirmation as we receive it.
Photo Credit: Rutger Geerling
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