A huge fire at Belgium’s Tomorrowland music festival site has “severely damaged” the main stage two days before the event was due to start, organisers said.
No one was injured in the incident.
Images shared on local news sites and social media showed flames and plumes of black smoke engulfing the stage and spreading to nearby woodland.
The annual festival in the town of Boom, north of Brussels, which is scheduled to start on Friday (Saturday AEST), draws tens of thousands of visitors from around Europe.
The festival’s main stage has almost completely burned down, according to Belgium public broadcaster VRT, which added that emergency services were on the scene but the fire was not yet under control.
No festival-goers were on site at the time of the fire, but about 1000 staff members were present, who have now been evacuated, VRT reported.
Organisers said in their statement that the site’s “DreamVille” campsite would open on Thursday as planned and they were “focused on finding solutions for the festival weekend”.
‘’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.”
Morgan Hermans, who lives nearby to the festival site, told CNN that she initially heard fireworks going off, which prompted her to look outside.
“There was just a big cloud of fireworks and smoke very near us, so that was a bit scary,” she said.
“It’s one of the biggest events in the entire year. Our town is very small so to welcome people (from) around the entire world, it’s crazy and it’s so much fun.”
“It’s a big deal so everyone in Boom was a bit terrified for a few seconds,” Hermans added.
Local police confirmed the fire in a post on X and encouraged people to stay away from the smoke and give way to emergency services.
