Christopher BarrettYouTube is to bring live sets from Belgian electronic music festival Tomorrowland to a global audience with live streamed shows by acts including Steve Aoki, Swedish House Mafia, David Guetta and Amelie Lens available to view on the Tomorrowland YouTube channel.
The event, which takes place across two weekends in Boom, in the province of Antwerp, from 19-21 July and 26-28 July is expected to welcome around 400,000 people from more than 200 countries.
Featuring more than 400 acts across 16 stages, tickets for the dance music extravaganza sold out in one day, with a reported 200,000 tickets reserved for Belgian citizens selling out in less than 30 minutes when they went on sale in February.
First launched in 2005, Tomorrowland has grown to become one of the largest music festivals in the world. It is organised and owned by the original founders, brothers Manu and Michiel Beers.
Along with the streaming activity, YouTube will have a precense on the ground at the event, with a dedicated area called YouTube House hosting performing artists, members of the industry, and YouTube creators.
YouTube said its Main Stage live stream will run 24/7 between 19-28 July with live performances and highlights of sets. There will also be a livestream of the Freedom Stage, which will run for the duration of both weekends of the festival, while the One World Radio studio will feature video interviews with artists at the festival, and live audio sets from DJs.
Following the festival, Tomorrowland will upload each artist’s set as a permanent video on 29 July for people to watch as videos on the Tomorrowland YouTube channel.
YouTube will also run a ‘Yoodle’ – an alternate logo on the YouTube main page – in the UK, France, Germany, Brazil, Canada, Latin America, Japan, and Australia. The Yoodle will link to the Tomorrowland live streams.
Sam Vergauwen, head of YouTube for the Benelux region said, “YouTube is the place to experience the most iconic moments in music, whether it’s Tomorrowland in Boom or Coachella in California – we’re continuing our tradition of bringing the biggest music festivals to a global audience with this live stream of Tomorrowland’s 20th anniversary. The livestream will also be part of a YouTube Yoodle celebrating the DJ Livestreaming community, bringing the festival’s magic to even more people than ever before to allow fans who cannot attend the festival in person to experience its electrifying performances. We’re thrilled to see this partnership grow and evolve over the years.”