Anyone who listens to one of the many styles of electronic music (yes, there are SO many different styles and vibes) has heard of Tomorrowland. For those who are not on the up and up with music festivals, Tomorrowland is a huge annual music festival held in Belgium every summer. If you’ve ever watched Tomorrowland videos online, you’ve probably thought one of two things.
“That looks incredible.” Or… “There’s absolutely no way it’s actually that good in real life.”
After attending Tomorrowland a few weeks ago, I can confidently tell you this: the videos somehow still don’t do it justice. And after attending for three consecutive years (2024, 2025, and 2026), I can honestly say that Tomorrowland isn’t just another music festival; it’s an experience unlike anything else I’ve ever been to.
Yes, it’s one of the biggest music festivals in the world. Yes, tickets are ridiculously hard to get. Yes, you’ll hear many of the biggest DJs on the planet. But Tomorrowland isn’t famous just because of the lineup. It’s famous because it somehow manages to create an entire fantasy world that feels completely disconnected from reality.
It’s Bigger Than You Can Imagine
What began as a one-day festival in 2005 with 9,000 people has become one of the largest electronic music festivals in the world. Now, 21 years later, the festival attracts around 400,000 people over two weekends every July. It takes more than 15,000 crew members to help operate the festival, and the grounds take over 50+ days to build each year. People travel from more than 200 countries, all gathering in the small Belgian town of Boom for one reason: to dance.
Walking through the entrance gates for the first time, the scale is honestly overwhelming. The festival features around 16 stages, depending on the grounds layout each year, each with its own completely different personality. One might feel like you’re inside a futuristic spaceship, while another looks like it’s been carved into the side of a mountain. Even the smaller stages often have production that would headline festivals elsewhere. Over the two weekends, more than 850 artists perform on these beautiful stages.
Every direction you look reveals another stage, another crowd, another hidden pathway, another giant piece of artwork. Just when you think you’ve seen everything, you stumble upon another area with thousands of people dancing like it’s the festival’s main attraction.
The MainStage Lives Up to the Hype
Let’s address the obvious: yes, the MainStage really is that impressive. (Except in 2025 when it burned down the day before we arrived… but that is a story for another time).
Every year Tomorrowland designs and builds a brand-new stage around a fantasy theme, complete with original lore, custom stage designs, books, and immersive storytelling; the amount of detail is almost ridiculous, and it is considered one of the most elaborate festival stages ever constructed. Waterfalls, moving scenery, giant sculptures, pyrotechnics, lasers, and fireworks all work together for an incredible show.
The 2026 MainStage, called “Consciencia,” was officially described as the largest and most ambitious MainStage ever created, measuring in at 43 meters tall and 140 meters wide, with 2,400 LED tiles, 1,500 lighting fixtures, 232 speakers, 56 lasers, 38 fountains, and two waterfalls.
Photos make it look enormous, because it is. But standing in front of it with tens of thousands of other people? That’s a completely different feeling. In the evening, when the sun begins to set, and the lights slowly take over, you start to understand why so many people return year after year.
DreamVille (Camping) is Basically a Small City
The town where Tomorrowland is held is very small with limited accommodation options, so many people stay in neighboring cities like Antwerp or Brussels and commute to and from the festival on the days they attend. Each year that I’ve attended, I’ve camped in Dreamville. Dreamville is a campground near the festival grounds, and it is an experience all of its own. If you’re considering going to Tomorrowland and camping, don’t picture a muddy field with a few dirty porty potties. While the toilets are technically porta potties, they have running water and are cleaned by staff constantly, and there are over 1,000 of them on the campgrounds, so it’s very rare to have to wait or to encounter a messy bathroom.
For each of these two weekends, Dreamville becomes a temporary home of 38,000 campers staying across these 78 hectares, and it has everything you’d expect from a temporary town: supermarkets, bakeries, bars, restaurants, gyms, fitness classes, cafĂ©s, sports courts, a beauty salon, showers (900 of them!), convenience stores, and even its own opening party called The Gathering that happens on the Thursday before the festival officially begins.
There are 19 different levels of camping accommodation types in DreamVille, ranging from bringing your own tent to luxury lodges. No matter which ticket style you’re lucky enough to fall into, staying in DreamVille means you get to experience not only the festival itself but the unique atmosphere that starts long before the first DJ takes the stage.
One of my favorite parts of staying in DreamVille is that the festival never really feels like it ends. You wake up surrounded by people from every corner of the world, grab breakfast next to someone from a country you’ve never visited, and end the night chatting with your neighbors about your favorite sets of the day.
Having stayed in Dreamville each year I’ve attended, I can’t imagine experiencing Tomorrowland any other way. It’s become one of my favorite parts of the entire Tomorrowland experience, not only because it’s super convenient, but because it creates a sense of community that’s hard to describe until you’ve experienced it yourself.
The Real Magic: the People of Tomorrow
With hundreds of thousands of people and plenty of alcohol flowing, I expected at least moderate chaos. Instead, the atmosphere has always been unbelievably positive in my experiences. People offer to take your photo. Complete strangers strike up conversations while waiting for food. Groups invite solo travelers to dance with them. Of course nothing is perfect, and there can always be a bad apple or two, but in general the people of Tomorrowland act like family and really look out for each other.
No one seems to care where you’re from, what language you speak, or whether you’ve been listening to electronic music for twenty years or twenty minutes. For a few days, everyone is simply there for the same reason and looking to let loose and have some fun.
Get Lost on Purpose
If you’re the type of traveler who likes checking every attraction off a list (like me), Tomorrowland will humble you a lot. You’ll spend hours wandering between stages because something catches your eye along the way. You’ll hear music you’ve never listened to before and end up staying far longer than you planned. You’ll accidentally discover your favorite set of the weekend at a stage you weren’t even trying to find. Trying to create the “perfect schedule” is almost pointless, though the Tomorrowland app does help you try!
Some of my favorite memories came from accepting that you can’t see everything and every artist, and allowing myself to get completely distracted and enjoy the scene. Also, and I can’t stress this enough: remember to put your phone away from time to time. It’s tempting to capture every incredible moment, but don’t spend the entire weekend watching Tomorrowland through a screen. Look around. Take in the people dancing around you, the details you’ve never seen before, and the atmosphere that makes this festival unlike anywhere else.
Let’s Talk Money
Let’s be honest. Experiencing Tomorrowland is not cheap, but the biggest expense is getting through the gates, plus international travel if you’re coming from outside of Europe. But once you arrive, you can experience an unforgettable weekend without constantly watching your wallet; the weekend at the festival doesn’t have to be nearly as expensive as many people expect.
In my three years attending Tomorrowland, I’ve managed to enjoy the entire 4-day weekend only spending €125-175. The festival is completely cashless and has its own currency called “pearls.” Before the festival, you load money onto your bracelet (which is also your ticket into and out of the festival), and you pay for everything with that. I personally love this because I enjoy not carrying a wallet on me all weekend. If you don’t spend all the money you put on your bracelet, it is refunded to you after the festival, so I always load €200, so I don’t have to worry about running out of money and loading more in the middle of the fest.
In Dreamville, you can bring in your own food and drinks, including alcohol, just no glass! In the festival, the food and drinks are surprisingly reasonable compared to many other major events- for example, a beer costs approx €5, and a pizza or pasta plate, big enough to share between two people, costs approx €11- 15. For staying safe and hydrated, there are plenty of spots to fill up your water bottle for free throughout both Dreamville and the festival grounds. When you consider that your ticket gives you access to 16+ stages, hundreds of artists, and one of the most immersive festival experiences in the world, the value is actually pretty incredible.
Is Tomorrowland Worth It?
If electronic music or large crowds really aren’t your thing, maybe not. Though to be honest, I do actually believe everyone has a genre of electronic music they love, or would love, that they don’t even realize falls in the electronic music genre.
If you’ve ever dreamed of attending Tomorrowland, even just once, I think it’s absolutely worth putting on your travel bucket list. Not because it’s the biggest. Not because it’s the most famous. But because for one weekend, an ordinary town in Belgium transforms into one of the happiest places I’ve ever visited.
Somehow, despite all the hype surrounding Tomorrowland, it still manages to exceed expectations for people every year. That’s not something many famous attractions can honestly claim. Unlike many expensive experiences that leave you wondering if they were worth the money, Tomorrowland genuinely feels like you’re getting something you can’t find anywhere else. It’s not just a concert. It’s not just a festival. It’s an experience, and for me, it is completely worth it.
The Hardest Part? Actually Getting a Ticket
This is where Tomorrowland becomes almost legendary. Getting a Tomorrowland ticket is harder than many sporting finals, and tickets disappear within minutes every year. Every year, millions of people pre-register in hopes of buying tickets, but only a fraction succeed.
Tomorrowland does not publicly release exact registration numbers, though demand vastly exceeds capacity. General ticket sales typically sell out within minutes, despite hundreds of thousands of tickets being available. There are a few rounds of ticket sales, open to specific people, that start in the middle of December, selling tickets for the following July. Where you live, whether you attended the previous year, and what type of ticket you want to buy, will dictate which sale you are able to purchase in.
I’m in a handful of Tomorrowland Facebook groups, and I constantly see people say they’ve tried for 5, 8, or even 12+ years without getting tickets. I still have no idea how I got lucky enough to score mine on my first try in 2024! One of the best ways to increase your chances is through a Global Journey package, which combines your festival ticket with round-trip transportation and accommodations. We’ve purchased Global Journey packages the last three years, even though we didn’t actually need the transportation part of it. This package also comes with fun extras like a special-edition Treasure Case, souvenir bag, and daily festival newspaper.
Five Tomorrowland Tips From Someone Who Has Gone Three Years in a Row
1. Pre-register the second registration opens
Tomorrowland tickets aren’t like buying tickets to a typical concert. They’re some of the most sought-after festival tickets in the world. Your first step is to create a Tomorrowland account and pre-register as soon as registration opens. Pre-registration is required to participate in the ticket sales, so don’t wait until the last minute. Once you’ve registered, make sure all of your account information and payment details are up to date before sales begin.
On ticket day, log in early, join the queue before the sale starts, and be patient. If you’re going with a group, everyone should be logged in when ticket sales open, ready to jump on the opportunity to buy. One person can purchase up to 4 tickets, so you don’t all need to break through. Discuss in detail what ticket options you are okay with the purchaser buying, way before ticket day, because it happens very quickly and having those conversations in the moment is not feasible. While there’s never a guarantee you’ll get tickets, being fully prepared gives you the best possible chance.
2. Decide where you’re staying before ticket day
Whether you’re planning to stay in DreamVille, book a hotel, rent an Airbnb, or commute from another city, have your accommodation plan figured out before tickets go on sale. If you’re camping, decide which DreamVille option you want, or would be open to, as your options can be limited during the rush of the sales. If you’re staying off-site, research transportation and book your accommodations as early as possible, as prices often rise once Tomorrowland dates are announced.
3. Camp in DreamVille
Staying onsite, the festival doesn’t just happen during the hours the stages are open; the community starts the moment you arrive. After staying in three different versions of Easy Tent Dreamville three years in a row, I truly can’t recommend the experience enough. If your budget and travel plans allow for it, camping at Tomorrowland makes the entire experience easier, more social, and more immersive. It adds an entirely different dimension to the weekend, and you don’t have to worry about long transportation times to and from your hotel in another city after dancing all day and night, finding your way back to a hotel, or missing out on the atmosphere happening outside the festival gates. If you’d like me to do an entire post about the ins and outs of Dreamville, what to expect, what to pack, and how to navigate it, please tell me by messaging me here!
4. Choose Comfort Over Fashion
You’ll be on your feet for hours, walking between stages, dancing, and exploring Dreamville. In 2026, my watch logged 78 miles of dancing & walking over the weekend. Pack (two pairs of) comfortable shoes that you’ve already broken in and wear clothes suited to the weather rather than just the photos. Belgium’s weather can change quickly, so dressing in layers is always a smart move. Trust me, you’ll absolutely appreciate being comfortable far more than having the perfect festival outfit by the end of the day. If you’re used to the rave culture in the USA, consisting of really elaborate outfits, Tomorrowland is different.. of course you are welcome to dress however youd like, but it’s much more common to see people in comfortalbe shorts, a tank top, and sneakers than it is to see people decked out the types of outfits that are almost expected of you at festivals like EDC in the USA.
5. Don’t try to see everything, and appreciate the details of the smaller stages
Tomorrowland is simply too big to conquer in a day or two, though if you do the full weekend, it is possible! With around 16 stages, hundreds of artists, and countless hidden corners to explore, trying to cram everything into your schedule will leave you exhausted and constantly rushing from one place to the next, spending much of your time walking between stages. Instead, pick a few “must-see” artists each day, then leave plenty of time to wander.
Some of my favorite memories have come from stumbling across a stage I wasn’t planning to visit, discovering a new artist, or simply getting distracted by the incredible atmosphere. The Tomorrowland app is great for keeping track of set times, but don’t feel like you have to follow your schedule to the minute. Sometimes the best experiences are the ones you never planned for.
The MainStage gets most of the attention, and for good reason, but don’t make the mistake of spending your entire weekend there. One of the things that makes Tomorrowland so special is that the attention to detail doesn’t stop at the MainStage. Every corner of the festival has been thoughtfully designed, from the stage decorations and hidden pathways to the performers, artwork, and small touches that make each area feel unique. Even the smaller stages have a level of production that would be impressive at many other festivals.
If you have specific questions about Tomorrowland, I would be more than happy to answer them! You can contact me here if you’d like to know more or suggest helpful additions to this blog. Thanks for taking the time to stop by, happy travels!
The Ambitious Passport 