Iconic Belgian music festival to make China debut

Tomorrowland, one of the largest and most iconic electronic music festivals in the world, is set to make its China debut with its first-ever indoor music showcase in Shanghai in November, in partnership with Hero Esports, INS Land and Budweiser, organizers announced on Thursday.

Launched in 2005 and taking place annually in July in Boom, Belgium, Tomorrowland now stretches over two weekends and welcomes around 400,000 audiences from all over the world. It caters to all genres in electronic dance music with hundreds of renowned artists performing across more than 15 different stages.

Named "The Magic of Tomorrowland", the inaugural event in China will take place Nov 22 at the newly built Hero Dome on Shanghai's Bund waterfront in the city's Huangpu district. 

Blending Tomorrowland's world-renowned production with cutting-edge technology and cultural artistry, the showcase will bring together music, innovation, and storytelling in a fully immersive indoor experience. Themed "Paperworld", the show invites fans to enjoy fantastic live entertainment and cocreate a shared journey with imagination, sound and technology.

This show will also mark the start of a long-term partnership between INS Land and Tomorrowland's artist agency, or One World Artist, with the shared goal of introducing Chinese artists to global stages while introducing Tomorrowland's international talent to China's dynamic music scene.

"This won't be a traditional outdoor festival. This will be a fully immersive indoor show — designed specifically from the ground up to create intimacy, intensity and impact regardless of the weather or the world outside," said Clinton Lau, head of Music Festivals at Hero Esports and head of Music at INS Land.

Highlighting the "peace, love and unity" of the fan community at Tomorrowland, Lau added that the audiences at the Shanghai show will experience the sound, the stage design, the storytelling and all the signature elements that define the globally renowned festival, which will be reimagined through the lens of China and brought to life in one unforgettable space.

"We are incredibly proud to bring the Magic of Tomorrowland to China, for the very first time, and even more special: to debut our first-ever indoor show. China has an incredibly dynamic and fast-evolving music, entertainment and nightlife scene. There's a growing appetite for meaningful experiences and that's exactly what Tomorrowland stands for," said Bruno Vanwelsenaers, CEO of WEAREONE.world, the organization behind Tomorrowland.

Dino Ying, founder of Hero Esports and INS Land, has seen a similar trend among Chinese electronic music fan crowds and is looking to enhance cultural exchanges with the whole world and help shape the future of entertainment in China with the new show.

"As a loyal fan of Tomorrowland, I went to the festival almost every year. Over the past ten years, I have clearly seen increasing Chinese audiences at the festival in Europe and that gave us much confidence to land it in China. We hope to combine world-class music with cutting-edge technology, boosting cultural tourism and setting new global standards for immersive experiences," said Ying.