The main stage at Tomorrowland festival in Belgium has been “severely damaged” in a huge fire.
The annual festival in the town of Boom, north of Brussels, which is scheduled to start Friday, draws tens of thousands of visitors from around Europe.
Images shared on local news sites and social media showed flames and plumes of black smoke engulfing the stage and spreading to nearby woodland. Nearby residents had been urged to close all windows and doors until the fire was under control.
At least three-quarters of the spectacular stage is believed to have been damaged.
“Due to a serious incident and fire on the Tomorrowland Mainstage, our beloved Mainstage has been severely damaged,” the organisers posted on the event’s website.
“We can confirm that no one was injured during the incident.”
The statement said the focus is now on “finding solutions” for the festival weekend. The cause of the fire was not given.
“We can announce that, DreamVille will open tomorrow as planned and will be ready for all DreamVille visitors,” they added.
“All Global Journey activities in Brussels and Antwerp will take place as planned. We are focused on finding solutions for the festival weekend.”
Dozens of emergency teams were seen rushing through the festival grounds just after 6pm in an attempt to extinguish the flames and evacuate those inside the grounds. There were no members of the public present at the time but around 1,000 staff members were working on site.
Some of the world’s most popular DJs were set to appear on the stage over the weekend, including Martin Garrix, David Guetta, Fisher, Swedish House Mafia and Steve Aoki.
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