'Completely different scenario' if Tomorrowland fire broke out during event
The electric dance music festival is scheduled for two weekends starting from Friday, with many wondering if it would go ahead following the main stage blaze on Wednesday.
Fortunately, no one was hurt but things could have been a lot different had a fire broke out when the 400,000 festival attendees were on the site of the Belgian event. Tomorrowland is going ahead without the use of their main stage following a huge fire which engulfed the 'phenomenal' work of art on Wednesday evening. Pic:Concert Leaks/X
Mark Breen, Strategic Director at Safe Events Global admitted that it was 'lucky' the fire broke out in the run-up to the festival.
Speaking to Extra.ie, Mr Breen said: 'You'd have loads of staff around because it's two days from show and a massive show, the fact that a fire that big took hold and nobody even working on it got hurt, is phenomenal.
'Had that happened while there was a full audience, it would be a completely different scenario.'
BREAKING: A fire has broken out on the @tomorrowland mainstage, one day ahead of the festival. pic.twitter.com/kXXYgYnmI9 — We Rave You (@weraveyou) July 16, 2025
The events expert noted that not only would there by attendees close by, but there would be 'way more' people on the stage and back stage during the festival.
He added that the smoke from a fire that big would be a bigger issue than the flames if the fire broke out during the festival.
'Because there's so much cladding, so much creative, so much scenic attached to it [the stage], no matter what materials they used, it's going to be black, horrible, toxic smoke and that fire would rage for hours and hours.' Paying homage to Tomorrowland and the Main Stage, Mr Breen told of how the stage is 'known as one of the most creative and ambitious' within the industry.' Pic: Shawn Hendrix/X
If the fire was confined to one stage, it could still affect other stages if the smoke was bad enough.
Paying homage to Tomorrowland and the Main Stage, Mr Breen told of how the stage is 'known as one of the most creative and ambitious' within the industry.'
A statement from Tomorrowland organisers have since confirmed the festival is still going ahead but the main stage is 'no more.'
The festival will rely on the 15 other stages spread over the 34 hectare land in Boom, in the north of Belgium, but Mr Breen surmises that there would have been endless phone calls following the fire to rejig the schedule to accommodate the loss of the stage set to host the likes of Steve Aoki and David Guetta.
Noting it wasn't as 'straight forward' as cutting sets, Mr Breen explained that some of the bigger name acts would likely have certain stipulations within their contract.
With a background working on the likes of Dublin Pride and MDLBEAST in Saudi Arabia, Mr Breen noted that the smaller acts would be happy to play smaller sets, the same might not be the case for the bigger bookings.
'A lot of them will stipulate how long the set has to be because they'll have built a festival set,' he explained.
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