FESTIVAL FOCUS
TOMORROWLAND Stageco sets the stage for the festival’s 15th anniversary.
Honoured to be a part of the colossal production for the past eight years in a row, Stageco has delivered Tomorrowland’s sprawling main stage, as well as up to three other extravagantly designed stage constructions and several more site structures of varying sizes. For its 15th anniversary, Tomorrowland returned to The Book of Wisdom as its main stage theme, resurrecting a winning formula from seven years ago. Taking place as usual over the two consecutive weekends of 19 to 21 and 26 to 28 July, the 2019 edition also saw the return of The Chainsmokers, Armin van Buuren and David Guetta, as 400,000 people from more than 200 countries descended on the Belgian town of Boom for the party of a lifetime. This year’s project began when We Are One World, the organising body behind Tomorrowland and the the recently introduced Tomorrowland Winter, confirmed an agreement for Stageco to build the impressive main stage and two other featured stages – the Lotus stage, previously known as Organ of Harmony, and the steel grid structures in the 32m-high Atmosphere tent. In addition, Stageco erected a number of scaffolding structures across the site, including a variety of dance decks, front of house and VIP platforms, valley towers and scaffold stairs. In January, the first meetings were held with Tomorrowland’s head of production, Jurgen Nuytemans and his technical colleagues Bart Denies and Patrick Bellens. The event team’s vision for the design concept was explained and detailed renderings of the Book of Wisdom: The Return
theme were presented to a focus group. “It was clear that the biggest challenge was the inclusion of three automated LED ‘books’ with motion control engineered by Frontline Rigging,” said Stageco’s Project Manager Roel Voeten. “The central book weighed 11 tonnes and the two either side were nine tonnes each. “Our draftsman Manolis Kassanis, who works on Tomorrowland every year, took care of all the drawings and designed the custom parts and associated elements, and Gert Hulsmans and Jelte Smets, our R&D engineers, looked after all the structural calculations.” In the middle of June, no fewer than 60 trucks of equipment were loaded and dispatched to the Boom site. Responsible for 40 crew, three stages and the many other structures, crew chief David Van Assche worked three full weeks to complete the construction. In the meantime, Antonio Duarte Da Cruz and his team spent three days on the building of a threetower roof for the Lotus stage. “We’re very proud of everyone’s efforts,” commented Roel Voeten. “In fact, I’m delighted to report that working with our client, We Are One World, has been a constant for us during 2019. In between designing and drafting this year, we also travelled together to the French Alps where, in the snow and February’s freezing conditions, we built the main stage of Tomorrowland’s first winter edition. “We look forward to more exciting times when Tomorrowland Winter 2020 takes place next March in Alpe d’Huez.” TPi Photo: Tomorrowland www.tomorrowland.com www.stageco.com 44
