PLANT

Trees While You Pay

Bonzai may be a world-famous Tomorrowland-associated record label, but this weekend, you’ll also be encountering Bonsai, a brandnew payment application. The app has fast become a widely accepted method of payment. It is, for example, very easy to use it to exchange euros for Pearls, Tomorrowland’s official currency. Of course, Bonsai wouldn’t live up to their name if they didn’t care for trees. For every ten payments made by one person, a tree is automatically planted and added to an official Tomorrowland forest. That means you can live your life, do your thing, feel good, dance, rave… all while helping Bonsai reach their goal of planting as many as 100.000 trees. Caring for the environment and reducing global CO2 was never this easy. Ready to pay, plant and party? Visit tomorrowland.paybonsai.com to find out more.

If you were here as guests – who would be in charge of what?

Joris: “So I’d be in charge of getting the tickets and booking our trips here – probably building the camp as well. But Stijn would make up for it by getting us the best drinks and awesome food.

Stijn: “Sounds about right! Luckily, we always agree when it comes to what music we want to listen to, so we don’t need to delegate that to anyone.”

Joris, you were flirting with a career as a professional soccer player for a while. Who on the line-up would you pick for your team?

Joris: “Easy! Joris Voorn as the creative and versatile midfielder, 999999999 on attack, because Italians know how to score goals, and then on defense…”

Stijn: “Lilly Palmer! She always has our back.”

NEXT-GENERATION ART LOOKS GOOD ON YOU!

Based on drawings created by the children of the Tomorrowland Foundation x Ek Tara Music & Arts School in India, the Foundation Bucket Hat is a blessing for your own look as well as the next generation: all proceeds of this collection will be donated to the projects of the Tomorrowland Foundation. Get yours at the Official Tomorrowland Stores or store.tomorrowland.com.

ADSCENDO, ARISE!

The story of Adscendo is also the story of Ro, Ameris, Tomas, and their mythical winged friends – the main characters in ‘The Rise of Adscendo’, the first ever full-length Tomorrowland novel, which records the events leading up to Arcadiana’s present society. This weekend, every day, we reveal a few pages of the book’s first chapter. If you want to experience the whole epic story – all 374 pages of it – the second printing of the book can be ordered through the online or onsite Tomorrowland Store, while copies last. And rumour has it this is only the first of many Tomorrowland Tales…

Part 3/4

CHAPTER ONE

The debris had torn through the material of the envelope, destroying the air valve so the whole thing had just dropped out of the sky. Then it had pulverised the gondola underneath. The balloon had come down in a tangle of material and wood, spewing its cargo and passengers across the plain beneath.

The medics triaged survivors and arranged airlift to the nearest infirmary, where the Birdsingers specialised in healing would help with the more serious injuries. Then there wasn’t much left to do.

With every crash, every earthquake, every flood event, every catastrophe on the islands, the Windriders were called to the scene to pick up the pieces as best they could.

It was a thankless task.

They catalogued the dead, removed the bodies in much the same way as the living, although with less urgency.

The members of Ro’s crew were soon the only ones who remained. They searched through the wreckage, matching items found to inventory so that it wasn’t just spirited away by any Guildless who might happen upon the scene. They were notorious for picking through crash sites, often despatching survivors to cover their tracks. Another reason why it was so critical to reach them in time. And why the Windguards went in first.

Sometimes, the rumours went, the Guildless would cause accidents in the first place, just for looting opportunities.

But now all that was left was inventory.

Ro kept her head down and helped haul the remains of cargo and belongings from the broken balloon, prepping it for transport and ignoring the fact that the others barely included her in conversation beyond the necessary. If she wasn’t used to it by now, when would she be?

One broken box spilled out a selection of tapestries, the colours so bright and beautiful that she couldn’t help but pause to look at them. They were master works of the Weavers’ art. She reached out to stroke the soft threads and unrolled one on the ground to get a better look.

The bird portrayed there was like nothing she had ever seen in real life. It was the blue of a cloudless sky, its wings splayed wide as it came in to land on top of a waterwheel. Its long tail split in two, a huge V with trailing feathers on either side, just like the symbol of the Birdsingers’ Guild. It glimmered with golden threads and the eyes glittered in the sunlight. They were little pieces of amber, she realised, stitched into the embroidery. It looked as if, at any moment, it would rouse itself from its world of thread and stitches, and take off, soaring high above them all.

A Golden Auric, one of the most beautiful depictions of one she had ever seen. The myth of the great birds who lived on the furthest of the soaring isles, the High Eyrie, was one every Windrider grew up hearing. So did everyone in her world, she supposed.

Ro had dreamed of them all her life, but never seen them. No one had except fools and liars. The stories said they were the children of Amare, birds of legend, creatures formed of magic and joy.

Even when she was little, before her brothers left, before her parents died, especially back then, when she still had hopes and a future, when she still believed in stories, she had dreamed of them, dreamed of flying alongside such beautiful creatures. Silly fantasies perhaps, but they had shaped everything. All her life, those dreams had been so real.

To be continued...