2023-07-23 10:05:00
Dieter comes to Tomorrowland every year. As his friends say, it’s a bit like “his festival”. The man hasn’t missed any edition since 2010, “as soon as I left university” he tells us all smiles in an idiom mixing English, French and his native Dutch. We can already imagine the deal with his parents: “first you finish your studies, and if you succeed, you do what you want with your money”. Opwijk, his home village, is only about twenty kilometers from Boom (Antwerp), so inevitably, on “D” day, the whole family jumps into the taxi to treat themselves to a day of madness.
“I am going for a walk”
It’s more prudent, because at 12 o’clock sharp, the thirty-something makes his appearance at Bar Tabac, a local bar whose main interest is to be located near the main entrance. After which, Dieter and his brother go straight to the Moose Bar where we meet them. Every year, Dieter starts… and ends his festival day in this fake alpine chalet designed as a huge après-ski bar with locally renowned DJs like FRANK, Jelle DK or the unmissable Feest DJ.
Dieter (left) with family at Moose Bar. ©DR
The great beers are served in Bavarian mugs, young women – also dressed in Bavarian style – dance on small podiums, and we toast happily while massacring “Hey Jude”, “La Discoteca” or hopping on Belgian techno classics from the 90s. “This year I will make an effort” Dieter explains to us quite seriously. “I’m going to take a look at the site”.
The event seems exceptional, in normal times, “Amigo” as his friends affectionately call him does not leave the Moose Bar where he feels at home. It is obviously not the only one, the place seems full of regulars and has just been the subject of a report by Het Laatste Nieuws. We would like to salute Dieter for going to discover the other scenes, but the worthy representative of Opwijk plays the harmonica with his phone. We almost want to stay at the Moose Bar, too.
Sixteen scenes and a DJ in the toilets
Outside of this island of culture, the festival is running at full speed. The “Freedom Stage” welcomes DJ’s who all do pretty much the same thing: Tale Of Us, Adriatique and Camelphat. Not sure to tell the difference if the guys are swapping computers. As always, on the other hand, it’s madness on the “Youphoria” stage (“the mushroom-shaped stage”) where ARMNHMR throws a filthy and overpowering dubstep.
Tomorrowland 2023 ©Photo by www.fb.com/FilleRoelantsPhotography
Then there is this amazing surprise. Perfectly calibrated and guaranteed risk-free, Tomorrowland has the good taste to sprinkle its programming with a few strokes of genius. On Sunday, Chet Faker will perform in DJ Set. This Saturday, the pioneers of Groove Armada have been invited. The legendary duo from the London scene of the late 90s took over the small “Rise” stage for a good hour and a half and delivered a marvelous moment of electronica tinged with funk and disco. A little enchanted parenthesis before going to enjoy the indestructible Paul Kalkbrenner and admiring one last time the incredible Mainstage of this 2023 edition, which is particularly impressive at night.
Tomorrowland 2023 ©Tomorrowland
Sunday included, Tomorrowland will have welcomed more than 180,000 festival-goers in front of sixteen stages during this colorful first weekend (second round next weekend). But this count is subject to caution, we do not know if the DJ who mixes… in the toilets located under the Mainstage is counted. The man deserves to be quoted in the program, however, his music is rather qualitative. So much so that it becomes almost difficult to perform the task for which the place was originally designed.
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