First Timers Guide to Tomorrowland – The Best Festival in the World

I vividly remember the first time I saw a Tomorrowland after-movie. That day, I knew that one day I had to experience this festival for myself. I was lucky enough to attend Tomorrowland in 2023 and it was by far one of the most amazing festivals of my life. If you’re thinking about going in the upcoming summer, I have the best guide to Tomorrowland for you to make your experience as smooth as possible. And no, it’s never too early to start planning as Tomorrowland sells out in minutes!

In this post, I’ll talk about how to increase your chances of getting Tomorrowland tickets, what to expect from the festival, what to bring with you and how to make the most out of it. I will try to cover everything that I researched prior to the event and everything I wish I had done differently as well.

While Tomorrowland isn’t coming up until July, you have to start thinking about all the logistics way ahead. Pre-sale and tickets come out for sale in the winter and you need to be ready by then. With all that said, let’s get to all the logistics necessary for your optimal Tomorrowland experience!

Note that you may encounter some affiliate links in this post. They will not make anything more expensive for you but rather provide a small commission for me should you choose to book it via the link I provide. 🙂

Things to know before Tomorrowland

What is Tomorrowland?

If you’re reading this, you probably already know what Tomorrowland is, but if you’re just stumbling upon this post, let me give you a brief introduction to this event.

Tomorrowland is an annual electronic music festival that takes place in Boom, Belgium. For the most part, it happens the last two weekends of July. At first, it started as a small local festival in 2005 and grew into an event that draws crowds from all over the world. In 2023, over 400,000 people attended during both weekends!

The festival has the most famous DJs performing all weekend with all types of electronic music sub-genres. There are 14 stages each uniquely decorated with the Mainstage being the biggest and most artistically involved. Tomorrowland grounds include a beautiful set-up, entertainment, food, and most importantly, an amazing vibe from the people coming together.

How to get Tomorrowland tickets?

Before we get into the guide and logistics of what Tomorrowland entails, let’s talk about the tickets. Everyone who plans on going to Tomorrowland dreads this day the most, as it determines if your dreams will be crushed or not. I’m not even going to lie, it’s hard, like REALLY hard to get Tomorrowland tickets, however, it is not impossible. There really isn’t a magic formula to get them so you have to be really prepared in to increase your chances of getting them.

First and foremost, pre-register on the Tomorrowland website so you’ll get all the major announcements regarding ticket sales. Although the timelines are very similar every year, you will need to keep track of all the dates. And yes, you’ll be buying tickets 6-7 months in advance!

Tomorrowland Ticket Sales:

No matter which ticket packages you choose, the purchasing process is the same. You will log into your account at the designated time and wait in a virtual queue until the system allows you to enter the purchasing portal. You cannot have multiple windows open as it will kick you out. I imagine this is only getting to get more competitive and complex as the festival keeps on growing each year.

In my experience during pre-sale, I did not even get into the purchasing stage as everything sold out within 20 minutes of me being online 😉

Here is what you need to know about the different types of Tomorrowland ticket sales:

• Global Journey Sale opens before any other sales. This involves purchasing a whole package including transport and accommodations along with your tickets. It will be the most expensive option but also your best chance of getting tickets.
• The Pre-Sale starts the weekend before the actual global sale so you’ll want to access that before the general worldwide dates. You will need to register for it in order to access it. In 2023, this took place the last weekend of January.
• The General Sale will happen a week after so if you don’t get tickets in pre-sale, you’ll be able to try again during this time.
• The Waitlist happens after everything sells out. This is your last chance to get tickets closer to the festival date as some extra tickets get released. It’s the most risky too as you won’t know if you can attend until pretty much last minute. If you’re traveling internationally, I don’t recommend banking on this.
• Resell Tickets are pretty available on all the major ticket platforms BUT officially Tomorrowland doesn’t allow for this. I personally wouldn’t take the risk of getting these as you’ll hear of multiple accounts of people being scammed.

Types of Tomorrowland Tickets

Generally there 4 types of Tomorrowland Tickets: Day Passes, Full Madness (Weekend Pass), Dreamville, and Global Journey. I would highly recommend getting Full Madness or Global Journey as going to the festival for 1 day is simply not enough to experience it.

Day Passes and Full Madness include just the festival tickets and cost 125 and 295 euros (2023 prices). Comfort tickets (VIP) are slightly more expensive and include access to blocked-off areas that have bars, toilets, and some other cool features like jacuzzis at the MainStage.

Dreamville Packages include tickets and stay on the Tomorrowland grounds and vary depending on what type of experience you’re looking for. The most basic package starts at around 370 euros and includes a camping spot and goes up to villas for 10s of thousands of euros for a group. There are some great packages for around ~1200 euro a person which include a ticket and locked sleeping pods with beds.

Global Journey Tickets include Full Madness passes as well as pre-arranged accommodations in surrounding towns like Brussels or Antwerp along with initial transport into the city from big global hubspots. This is what I purchased and my ticket included a train from London to Brussels, a hotel in Brussels near the main train station, and a daily shuttle to Boom. I will talk more about my Global Journey experience later on in the post.

All tickets are linked to your online account through which you will be loading up Pearls to, Tomorrowland’s payment system. Once you order your tickets, these will be shipped to your address in July. Living in the US, I had no problem receiving my shipment here.

Tomorrowland Logistics

Tomorrowland transportation

Unless you have the Global Journey package which arranges all your transport, you’ll need to plan for how to get to and from the festival. The festival grounds are in Boom which is located between Antwerp and Brussels.

From Brussels, you can take a train to Mechelen and then a bus from there to Boom. The bus stop is fairly close to the festival entrance but the whole commute takes about 1.5 hours. Otherwise, you can take a Bolt/Uber and the drive will be around 40 min. My recommendation would be to not stay in Brussels unless you have Global Journey.

From Antwerp, you can take a train but the walk from the Boom train station to the festival grounds takes 35 min and then another 30 min to get back to the city. The drive in a shared ride will take about 30 min but the pick up spot will also require some walking. Note that these shared rides will be VERY limited due to the volume of people.

Additionally, there are specific Tomorrowland shuttles in each surrounding city, but you’ll need to pre-book them and they’re usually sold out early as well.

Coming home from the festival also requires you to check whether your connections are running. The Tomorrowland page provides transport logistics closer to the festival as well so you can check if you can purchase a shuttle back if available.

Overall transport to and from Boom is not something you can save for late minute and you can’t wing it either. You need to know your options or you’ll be stuck in the middle of Boom in the middle of the night.

Tomorrowland accommodations

Dreamville is by far the best option in my opinion to experience Tomorrowland. Dreamville is located right on the festival grounds and gives you a unique experience of the festival. However, it is extremely hard to get this package so I would look into multiple options prior to attempting getting Dreamville.

Instead, start looking for Airbnbs or hotels in Boom, Antwerp or Mechelen for the easiest access to the festival way ahead of time. As mentioned above, I would not recommend staying in Brussels because public transport is not easy from there.

Antwerp will be a slightly better option and here are some choices for you:

Is the Tomorrowland Global Journey package worth it?

What does the Global Journey package include:

Global Journey was not my first choice as I really wanted to secure a Dreamville package. However, since everything sold out, I knew my only chance of getting tickets was getting a Global Journey package.

Was it worth it? Yes, I thought I was amazing but knowing what I know today, I would have done it a little differently than I did.

So if you don’t know what Global Journey is, it’s a package that includes:

• Transport on a train or plane to a nearby city like Antwerp or Brussels
• Hotel accommodations usually with breakfast
• Shuttles to and from Boom
• Full Madness Pass
• Invited Pre-Party on Thursday
• Tomorrowland Treasure Chest and Goodie Bag on arrival

Global Journey cost ranges based on when you buy it, the type of transport into Belgium, and accommodation type. We booked a 2-person package train from London-Brussels with two separate hotel rooms and paid ~1400 euros a person. While it seems like a steep price, everything the ticket includes is well-priced and we would have paid more or less the same booking it separately ourselves.

Global Journey experience

The organization and overall experience of Global Journey is excellent. We received all the instructions via email prior to the festival and at each point there were plenty of staff to help you out and assist with the next step.

Tip: If you do GJ, make sure to know the location of where to pick up your custom envelope with your shuttle passes. We missed the pick up at the London train station and had to last minute beg staff for assistance. Although we were lucky enough to get some help, this would have been a huge fuck up and a pain to get these replaced!

In Brussels we were greeted by a welcome band and where we picked up our goodie bags. Then we walked to the hotel where we had a special concierge with all the festival info who was there to answer any questions and walk us to the shuttles.

Another cool thing about Tomorrowland’s Global Journey is the Invited Experience on Thursday before the festival. This year it was at the Gare Maritime which is a stunning large industrial hall in Brussels. At Invited, there were several DJs playing, performers, food vendors along and some awesome drink bars. The best part was certainly the atmosphere and everyone getting super hyped for the upcoming weekend.

The cons of Global Journey

Although I would say that the overall Global Journey package was amazing and planned way better than what I would have planned myself, there is one major drawback of this option. This really surprised me as you’d think that something as big as Tomorrowland would have figured this out better than it did. Global Journey transportation into the festival is a major PITA.

There are only two shuttles per day included in your package: one that takes you to the festival at noon and one that returns you to Brussels after the festival. For the first day you should absolutely be there as early as you can but on day 2 and 3 you may want to sleep in a little. The journey from Brussels takes about 45 mins too so you have to account for travel time. If you miss the noon shuttle, you have to arrange your own transportation. There were some additional shuttles during the day but you needed to buy tickets for these and when we tried to, they were already sold out. So I’d say that having a couple more options of shuttles should absolutely be included in the package.

The second thing is the shuttle to get you home. It only leaves after the festival ends for the day which is 1am or midnight on the last day. I don’t think anyone leaves before that so the timing isn’t an issue, however, the bus station to get you back home is located 40 minutes away by foot from when you exit the festival. Exiting alone takes about 20 mins so you have to walk 1 hour to the bus and then take the 45 minute shuttle back. So in all, it takes about 2 hours to get back to Brussels each day.

What to pack for Tomorrowland

On to the next major item on your prep list. Packing for Tomorrowland is important. You’re going to a 3-day (4-day if Global Journey or Dreamville) festival so being prepared will make your experience a lot less stressful than scrambling last minute.

Here are some absolute essentials I would pack:

• Festival Outfits – More on that in the next section.
• Comfortable Day Pack – I got this one on Amazon and loved the anti-theft zipper which allowed me not to worry about being in crowds. And I personally don’t think you need a water pack as water is super affordable at the festival.
• Shoes – You will be doing a TON of walking so make sure to pack shoes you can survive in for the weekend. I am personally more comfortable in sandals than sneakers so I wore my Reef Slips all weekend without getting a single blister. Although not a conventional choice, my feet were in mint condition after 4 days of wearing these 12+ hours a day.
• Poncho – I cannot stress enough about how important this is. I personally did not pack one and on the last day when it started down pouring and the festival ran out of them, I was miserable. Belgium doesn’t have the best weather so I would not skip this at any cost.
• Evening Jacket – If the temperature is expected to drop at night, grab a jean or any other jacket to get you home. While the areas with crowds are warm, you will need to walk to your transfer home and the last thing you want to be in the middle of the night is cold!
• Recovery Items – Liquid IV, Salon Pas, Tylenol, Bandaids will be your best friends. My arm and neck muscles would be sore from dancing so much that a pain relief patch was necessary each day 🙂
• Flag – Since this is a very international festival, I would absolutely recommend bringing your country’s flag for the group shots or even some cool shots representing you!
• Power bank – You will be taking a ton of photos but you will also need to be in contact with your crew so a back up charger is a must.

What to wear to Tomorrowland

I’ve been going to festivals for a while and I watched the dress code change dramatically throughout the recent years. I personally don’t love the current trends in festival wear and I find that most of them lack creativity. Most people look very similar and nothing about these outfits stands out to me. If you go to festivals often, you know what I am talking about.

However, the good news about Tomorrowland is that you can wear whatever you soul desires! People dress from typical EDM style outfits, to creative costumes, to group themed ones to just simply wearing t-shirt/shorts. I would encourage you to get creative though rather opt-ing out for the safe option as it makes the experience a little more fun!

I was happy with my choice of outfits, a statement cat skirt, a feather top and a chill Sunday outfit but next year I know I want to get a little more creative. As mentioned before, my major regret is not taking the weather more seriously and not being prepared with a poncho. Being soaked from the rain for most of Sunday was truly a nightmare.

What will make or break your Tomorrowland experience

Another major thing to consider is who you want to go to Tomorrowland with. I was very fortunate to go with a person who was as equally excited to be there as me. We had similar expectations for how long to stay at the festival, which DJs to see and what the overall weekend would look like. Because we were on the same exact page for the festival, both of us had a wonderful time without any tension or conflict.

So when you’re planning on who to go with, make sure you have a conversation about the points I mention above. If there is a person in the group who wants to leave before the day ends or arrive only at night for the main sets, your experience might not be as smooth and you’ll spend a lot of your time irritated rather than fully immersed in the festival.

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Your Guide to Tomorrowland

Now that you know everything to consider before the festival, let’s talk about what to expect when you get there. This complete Tomorrowland guide is meant to cover everything you need to know prior to attending the festival!

Tomorrowland Festival

Once you arrive via train, bus or car, you’ll have to cross three entry checkpoints. First one just checks if you have the proper bracelet, second is a bag check and third is the actual scan into the festival. Expect these take a little longer on the first day as everyone is getting acquainted to the flow. We waited about ~10-15 min at the last point to enter. Relatively speaking, that’s extremely impressive based on the amount of people there.

It’s hard describe how amazing the Tomorrowland experience actually is. If you’re into EDM, it is absolutely something you have to do at least once in your life. The production level is next level and the overall organization of the festival is by far the best I have seen anywhere.

The crowd energy is another level. Everyone is very respectful, excited to be there and just happy. The atmosphere alone should be the reason to go there.

The whole festival grounds is a one giant park with colorful installations, lights, performers and obviously stages. There are 14 stages (also one secret one), which bring different genres of EDM. They each have a unique theme and you should absolutely visit all of them. The Mainstage is the most grand and some other big ones include The Library, Freedom Stage or Rose Garden.

Pearls – Tomorrowland’s currency

If you want to buy anything at the festival, you will need to load up your bracelet prior to the festival. The conversion rate varies on the currency but to give you an idea, I loaded 100 euros and got 60 Pearls with a bonus. I ended up adding 25 euros on the last day as well but didn’t end up using it all. For my 3 days there, it was enough to feed me 2 meals a day and have ~3 beers per day.

How much you decide to load your bracelet with obviously depends on who much you’re planning to eat and drink there but remember that there are multiple top-off stations at the festival so you can always add more!

Food and drinks at Tomorrowland

There is an abundance of food choices at Tomorrowland at reasonable prices for what you get. Your choices of meals range from pizza, hot dogs, burgers, falafels to fancier meals in the Mesa Garden. A hot dog or burger is 6.75 pearls which is around 11 euro and that is filling enough for meal. A large beer is 3.75 pearls of 6 euro.

Compared to what you pay at American festivals, this was more than reasonable. The more fancy spots and beer gardens will cost ya more but it’s worth splurging for at least one of your meals.

How to plan your DJ line-up

The main reason why people love this festival is because it brings the most known DJs to one place. So imagine going to an amazing concert multiple times per day for the entire weekend! That’s how it feels to be at Tomorrowland.

Tomorrowland has an app which should be your best friend the entire weekend. Not only does it have the lineup but also a map with your current location to properly navigate yourself. You can create your own calendar of people that you want to see.

While the most known and mainstream DJs will be playing at Mainstage during evening hours, you want to make sure not to miss the day performances on the other stages but other major talent. You’ll also want to spend time at other stages as each is amazing in its own way!

When you’re planning who to see, you also need to consider the distance between the stages. For example, if you want to see a DJ at Freedom Stage at 4pm and then catch a set at the Mainstage at 5pm, consider that you’ll need a 15-20 min walk between the two. A lot of traffic at Tomorrowland goes one way only to control crowds, so you’ll need extra time to reach your stage.

Also Mainstage crowds start gathering 3-4 sets before the end of the day. So if you find yourself a spot at 9pm there, expect to stay until 1am 🙂

Random tips for Tomorrowland

• While you might be tempted to end your night everyday at the Mainstage, don’t be afraid to venture off to other stages for the last set at least one day of the festival.
• Bathrooms are abundant and actually decent throughout the festival.
• Have a meeting point for your group. There will be times where people want to go to the bathroom or see a set that no one else wants to. It’s ok to separate but make sure to have a time, and place to meet back up as well as a contingency plan if you lose each other.
• Surprisingly there is excellent cell service at the festival.
• Plan to come early (12/1pm) for at the very least one day of the weekend. Tomorrowland grounds are so cool and you don’t want to miss exploring them.
• There are random attractions like a tattoo parlor or a giant ferris wheel.
• You can nap on lawns, beer gardens or chill out areas.
• Push through! On a Sunday night you might be all out of energy but keep reminding yourself that this might be a once in a lifetime kinda deal. I almost gave up and left early Sunday but looking back I am so happy I didn’t.
• Front row or even lower level at Mainstage is not worth it. The lawn is where it’s at! You can see everything perfectly, dance without getting pushed and be able to exit comfortably for bathroom or drink!

Final Thoughts on Tomorrowland

I have only attended this festival once in 2023. I went with someone who attended before so I was lucky to have a guide and someone who knew all the tips and tricks to make our experience easier. However, if you’re a regular at this festival and you have other tips to add for all future attendees, make sure to leave a comment!