Tomorrowland ha recibido mal el golpe que el gobierno local de Boom y Rumst le asestaron el pasado día 17, cuando cancelaron el macroevento por la pandemia
Tomorrowland no parece aceptar que Bélgica, en concreto los gobiernos locales de Boom y Rumst, anunciaran el pasado 17 de junio que su festival no se iba a celebrar en 2021.
La situación es simple. El Gobierno central ha asegurado que para el 13 de agosto se podrán celebrar eventos de hasta 75.000 personas – cupo que se puede permitir Tomorrowland – pero no lo ha redactado en el Real Decreto que haría oficial esa medida. A esa no redacción del decreto se acogen las localidades que acogen el festival para decir que no es legal anunciar un festival de esta envergadura y, además, se excusan en la complicación logística que supondría revisar los tests negativos de tantas personas en una cola previa a la entrada.
Parecía que ese fatídico 17 de junio todo estaba acabado y era cuestión de horas que Tomorrowland lanzara su ‘statement’ cancelando el evento. Pero la sorpresa llegó el día 18, cuando los promotores lanzaron su comunicado diciendo que ojo, que no cancelan nada, y que van a buscar soluciones.
«Dear People of Tomorrow,
Earlier this month, Belgium’s national government announced that large-scale festivals can take place from the second half of August. Yesterday, the local government (Boom & Rumst) has decided that the 16th edition of Tomorrowland cannot take place in 2021.
We are very surprised and puzzled by these contradictory messages from our governments. In the next few days we will explore all possible options and try to obtain some clarity for our visitors and suppliers.
The grounds cited for the decision are that the Ministerial Decree regarding maximum capacity (75,000 persons) has not been published. For the time being, according to the mayors, only events up to 400 people can legally be allowed.
However, we have understood from the federal government that both arguments would be resolved very quickly with the publication of the Ministerial Decree and the possibility for the ID check to be carried out by private security, as the latter is a general point of attention for the control of the Digital Green Certificate in Belgium.
Finally, reference is made to a local explanation from the GEMS public health advisory group regarding the advice it has made to the Federal government for the summer plan. The federal government has clearly said that festivals can take place after August 13, provided that extra measures are strictly respected, which we intend to follow at all times.
As Tomorrowland, we first and foremost want to organise a safe festival and we have stated several times that we will always continue to evaluate and anticipate the epidemiological situation.
No Tomorrowland for the second year in a row would in any case be huge disaster for our company, but also for the more than 1500 suppliers involved, many freelancers and our thousands of employees. We are still 100% prepared to organise everything as professionally as possible if the epidemiological situation allows, and to celebrate a great end of the summer together with our visitors.
After 15 years of intensive cooperation, this feels very grim and we find it very unfortunate after the many constructive preparations and conversations and federal commitments that it has come to this point, where we struggle to comprehend what just happened to us and still have to let it sink in a bit. Creating and organising Tomorrowland is our life, and an undertaking on which hundreds of people work every day with great passion for a whole year, day in day out.
We keep looking positively towards the future and strongly believe that music will unite us again.
Live Today, Love Tomorrow, Unite Forever. «
En resumen, van a buscar una solución para que sus cientos de trabajadores, proveedores, freelances y sobre todo, los asistentes, puedan tener su festival y no se queden en el dique seco por segundo año consecutivo.
Van a ser días clave los próximos, donde el Gobierno tendrá que dar un paso atrás o adelante para permitir lo que en su día prometieron: Festivales masivos a partir del 13 de agosto.
Ahora mismo, en Bélgica, el 31% de la población total tiene las dos dosis administradas y 9,5 millones de personas de las 11,5 que habitan en el país tiene al menos una dosis. Son números óptimos para abrir la puertas este verano a la normalidad, pero parece que la cautela y la extrema responsabilidad están jugando en contra de los intereses del festival.
