Tomorrowland stage burns to ground before festival opening - here's what happened
Around 1,000 staff members were evacuated safely, with no injuries reported despite the stage being "completely destroyed" . Thick black smoke billowed over the town, prompting emergency warnings for residents to close windows and doors.
Over 50 firefighters from Boom and neighboring Antwerp rushed to contain the inferno, preventing it from spreading to nearby woods. Tomorrowland spokesperson Debby Wilmsen confirmed safety as the top priority, coordinating with emergency crews as Boom's mayor, Jeroen Baert, cut short his German vacation to manage the crisis.
Fire officials assured locals the smoke wasn't toxic, though structural damage appeared severe – social media images revealed only charred metal frames remained where the iconic stage once stood.
This marks Tomorrowland's second major stage fire. In 2017, its Barcelona satellite event evacuated 22,000 people hours before Steve Aoki's set. Eyewitnesses suggested the latest blaze began during pyrotechnic tests on the stage's right side, though officials haven't confirmed a cause.
The festival's resilience will be tested anew as crews assess whether rebuilding is possible before Friday's opening.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
5 hours ago
- India Today
TikTok's beloved D-Day veteran 'Papa Jake' Larson dies at 102
D-Day veteran Papa Jake Larson, who survived German gunfire on Normandy's bluffs in 1944 and then garnered 1.2 million followers on TikTok late in life by sharing stories to commemorate World War II and his fallen comrades, has died at animated speaker who charmed strangers young and old with his quick smile and generous hugs, the self-described country boy from Minnesota was ''cracking jokes til the end,'' his granddaughter wrote in announcing his to him quickly filled his 'Story Time with Papa Jake' TikTok account from across the United States, where he had been living in Lafayette, California. Towns around Normandy, still grateful to Allied forces who helped defeat the occupying Nazis in World War II, paid him homage too. 'Our beloved Papa Jake has passed away on July 17th at 102 years young,' granddaughter McKaela Larson posted on his social media accounts. 'He went peacefully.''As Papa would say, love you all the mostest,' she Dec. 20, 1922, in Owatonna, Minnesota, Larson enlisted in the National Guard in 1938, lying about his age since he was only 15 at the time. In 1942, he was sent overseas and was stationed in Northern Ireland. He became operations sergeant and assembled the planning books for the invasion of was among the nearly 160,000 Allied troops who stormed the Normandy shore on D-Day, June 6, 1944, surviving machine-gun fire when he landed on Omaha Beach. He made it unhurt to the bluffs that overlook the beach, then studded with German gun emplacements that mowed down American soldiers.'We are the lucky ones,' Larson told The Associated Press at the 81st anniversary of D-Day in June, speaking amid the immaculate rows of graves at the American cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach.'We are their family. We have the responsibility to honor these guys who gave us a chance to be alive.'He went on to fight through the Battle of the Bulge, a grueling month-long fight in Belgium and Luxembourg that was one of the defining moments of the war and of Hitler's defeat. His service earned him a Bronze Star and a French Legion of Honor recent years, Larson made repeated trips to Normandy for D-Day commemorations — and at every stop, 'Papa Jake' was greeted by people asking for a selfie. In return, he offered up a big hug, to their greatest memorable encounter came in 2023, when he came across Bill Gladden, a then-99-year-old British veteran who survived a glider landing on D-Day and a bullet that tore through his want to give you a hug, thank you. I got tears in my eyes. We were meant to meet,' Larson told Gladden, as their hands, lined and spotted with age, clasped tightly. Gladden died the following his TikTok posts and interviews, Larson combined humorous anecdotes with somber reminders about the horrors of to AP on the three years he was in Europe, Larson said he is 'no hero.' Speaking in 2024, he also had a message to world leaders: 'Make peace not war.'He often called himself 'the luckiest man in the world,' and expressed awe at all the attention he was getting. 'I'm just a country boy. Now I'm a star on TikTok,' he told AP in 2023. 'I'm a legend! I didn't plan this, it came about.'Small-town museums and groups around Normandy that work to honor D-Day's heroes and fallen shared tributes online to Larson, one of their most loyal visitors.'He was an exceptional witness and bearer of memory,' the Overlord Museum posted on Facebook.'He came every year to the museum, with his smile, his humility and his tales that touched all generations. His stories will continue to live. Rest in peace Papa Jake,' it for everything.'- Ends
Time of India
21 hours ago
- Time of India
Was Mona Lisa based on Leonardo da Vinci's male lover? A brief history of queerness
There's an uncanny resemblance between da Vinci's John the Baptist and his Mona Lisa: Were they modeled after the same person? (Photos: In 1476, a young Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was investigated by the Florentine moral authorities. Someone had anonymously accused him of fornicating with a 17-year-old sex worker. But the charges were dropped because of a lack of evidence. German literary historian Dino Heicker, the author of a book about the history of queerness," says there are contemporary sources that prove Leonardo loved men and was particularly taken with an apprentice 28 years younger than him named Gian Giacomo Caprotti, whom he nicknamed Salai ("little devil"). They lived together for many years. A few years ago, Italian art historians thought they had found proof that the world-famous Mona Lisa was not a depiction of Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a Florentine merchant, but of Caprotti instead. He modeled for da Vinci several times and researchers say that the resemblance is unmistakable. Additionally, the letters L and S (for Leonardo and Salai) can even be seen in the eyes of the Mona Lisa, as well as the endearing words, "mon salai," which could also be an anagram of "Mona Lisa. " But the Louvre Museum, where the world-famous painting hangs, isn't convinced of the theory? Da Vinci and his companion took their secrets to their graves. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like AirSense 11 – Smart tech for deep sleep ResMed Buy Now Undo In 1550, Leonardo's first biographer, Giorgio Vasari, wrote that the painter took "peculiar pleasure" in the beautiful boy, the word "peculiar" functioning as a euphemism for da Vinci's queerness. The biblical city of Sodom as a den of iniquity "When a majority defines what is normal and abnormal and declares a binary gender model to be the norm, this creates a difficult environment for minorities who feel differently," Heiker says. In his book, he lists some of the draconian punishments that were inflicted upon queer, non-binary or transgender people in the past. They were accused of indulging in what was referred to at the time as an "unnatural" lifestyle and at times put in chains, stoned, castrated or even burned at the stake. Those meting the punishment sometimes used the Bible to legitimize their persecution of queer people, especially the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah — these cities were destroyed by God because of "sinful" behavior. The term "sodomy" has also been used as a synonym for homosexuality. This story "provided the blueprint for centuries of stigmatization toward other kinds of people." In 1512, the Spanish conquistador Vasco Nunez de Balboa ordered his dogs to maul Indigenous people in America, accusing them of having committed "the horrible sin of sodomy." Varieties of love in antiquity On the other hand, there were also societies in which many forms of queerness were generally accepted. For example, during antiquity, it was common for men to have a male lover in addition to wives. The Roman emperor Hadrian was so heartbroken by the death of his beloved Antinous that he had him posthumously declared as a god, and erected numerous statues and places of worship to honor the beautiful youth. The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC) said that lawmakers on the island of Crete had come up with something very special to celebrate new births: pederasty, or "boy love," when an older man took a young man into his home to train him sexually. "Sexual favors were expected from the younger man, but this was not viewed disparagingly by society," explains Dino Heicker. Love between women was also commonplace. On the island of Lesbos, the poet Sappho paid homage to the beauty of the female form in her verses. And models for a variety of different kinds of love were found in the world of the gods — especially Zeus, the father of the gods, and the epitome of queerness. This term did not exist at the time, but he transformed himself into women, animals, and even a cloud in order to have sex with the object of his desire. In ancient times, there was nothing considered wrong with men having sex with other men or boys, "as long as they played the active role," says Heicker. "The penetrated man, i.e. the inferior man, was considered effeminate and was considered socially inferior." In the Roman Empire, people liked to accuse their political opponents of being sexually passive, because "it was a way of tarnishing their honor." A 'crime against nature' The spread of Christianity brought an end to the leniency towards same-sex love. The bishop and Benedictine monk, Petrus Damiani (1006-1072) was one of the most influential clergymen of the 11th century. He railed against fornication, which he saw spreading even in monasteries: "The befouling cancer of sodomy," he wrote, "is, in fact, spreading so through the clergy or rather, like a savage beast, is raging with such shameless abandon through the flock of Christ. " Sodomy, he was convinced, was the result of diabolical whispers. Among the samurai warriors in Japan and at the Chinese imperial court, there was a more relaxed attitude towards queerness; same-sex love was common among men. In 1549, the Jesuit priest Francisco de Xavier noted: "The Buddhist priests constantly commit crimes against nature and do not even deny it. They openly admit it." The LGBTQ+ who's who In later centuries and modern times, various LGBTQ+ figures — including among royalty — achieved fame. Heicker's book lists the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), the Irish writer and playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), the US writer James Baldwin (1924-1987) and also Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, two Irish women who retreated to a remote valley in Wales around 1780 and who were eyed suspiciously as the "Ladies of Llangollen." They were all just trying to find happiness in their own way. The diaries of Anne Lister aka 'Gentleman Jack' The English landowner Anne Lister (1791-1840) left behind a set of diaries that was added to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2011. "In these 26 volumes, she writes in detail about lesbian sex and her relationship with women," explains Heicker. Lister developed a secret code so that no uninitiated person could read her confessions, which were not deciphered until 1930. In her village, she was often referred to as "Gentleman Jack" but was largely left undisturbed. Lister's writing had a significant influence on the direction of British gender studies and stories about women. The third gender From the Mahu on Tahiti to the Muxes of the Zapotec people in Mexico, the Hijras in South Asia and the Lhamanas of the Zuni culture in north America: for thousands of years, across cultures, people have felt they belonged to the third gender, identifying neither as men nor as women. "There was much greater diversity than the narrow, binary gender model would have us think today," says Heicker. "The Zuni, for example, do not assume that gender is innate, rather they see it as a social construct. " In Germany today, the third gender is referred to as "diverse." "Queer people, especially in Germany, have had to fight for freedoms previous generations could only dream of," says Heicker. "In 1994, Paragraph 175( which criminalized sexual acts between men, Editor's note ) was finally removed from the penal code. Same-sex marriage has been legalized, and sexual discrimination is now an offence. On the other hand, and here comes the big but: these achievements must continuously also be protected, especially in the face of attempts to turn back the clock."
News18
2 days ago
- News18
Punjab Board 10th, 12th Compartment Exam 2025 Dates Announced, Check Schedule
Last Updated: PSEB Compartment Exam 2025: The exams are scheduled to begin on August 8 and end on August 29. It will be held in a single shift from 11 am to 2:15 pm. The Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) has released the classes 10, and 12 compartment exam 2025 datesheet today, July 19, 2025. The exams are scheduled to begin on August 8 and end on August 29. It will be held in a single shift from 11 am to 2:15 pm. Students who were unable to pass one or two subjects in the main board examinations are eligible to appear for the compartment exams. Those who are set to appear for any of these examinations can check the timetable by visiting the official website of the Punjab Board at PSEB Class 12 Compartment Exam 2025 Schedule Aug 8, 2025 — General Punjabi, Punjab History & Culture Aug 11, 2025 — Political Science, Accountancy Aug 12, 2025 — History Aug 13, 2025 — Computer Applications Aug 14, 2025 — Philosophy, Chemistry, Agriculture Aug 18, 2025 — General English Aug 19, 2025 — Physical Education and Sports, NCC Aug 21, 2025 — Economics Aug 22, 2025 — Sociology, Public Administration; Business Studies Aug 25, 2025 — Psychology, Biology, Fundamentals of e‑Business, Defence Studies, NSQF Vocational Subjects Aug 26, 2025 — Computer Science Aug 27, 2025 — Geography Aug 28, 2025 — Home Science Aug 29, 2025 — Multiple elective and language subjects including Music, Media Studies, French, German, Dance PSEB Class 10 Compartment Exam 2025 Schedule Aug 8, 2025 — Home Science Aug 11, 2025 — Hindi / Urdu (Alternate Language) Aug 12, 2025 — Computer Science Aug 13, 2025 — Science Aug 14, 2025 — Punjab-A, Punjab History and Culture-A Aug 18, 2025 — Music (Tabla) Aug 19, 2025 — Mathematics Aug 20, 2025 — English Aug 21, 2025 — Social Science Aug 22, 2025 — Health and Physical Education Aug 25, 2025 — Playing Music Aug 26, 2025 — Punjab-B, History and Civilisation of Punjab Aug 28, 2025 — Languages – Sanskrit, Urdu, French, German, NSQF Vocational Subjects Aug 29, 2025 — Music (Singing) How to Download PSEB Compartment Exam Date Sheet 2025? Step 1 — Visit the official website of PSEB – Step 2 — On the home page, click on the compartment exam date sheet link as per your class 12th/10th. Step 3 — View the date sheet (PDF) in the new window that opens. Step 4 — Download the PDF file and take a print out of it for future reference. To pass the PSEB board exams, students must get a minimum score of 33 per cent. Candidates must acquire their original mark sheets from their respective schools after the results are out. The marks increased or decreased in the compartment exam will be considered final. Stay updated with the latest education! Get real-time updates on board exam results 2025, entrance exams such as JEE Mains, Advanced, NEET, and more. Find out top schools, colleges, courses and more. Also Download the News18 App to stay updated! First Published: Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
