With Tomorrowland 2017 rapidly approaching, the concern that nobody likes to discuss is terrorism. As Europe has experienced a rash of terror attacks over the past year, attendees and organizers are naturally taking every precaution. This year Tomorrowland has kicked up its own security to a surprising degree. Tomorrowland proactively screened all ticket buyers without them even knowing it.
Belgian media are reporting that Federal Police in Belgium have confirmed the fact that all 400,000 ticket holders were screened, and 38 were refused access based on that screening. All staff were screened as well. The police had clear criteria to refuse entry to individuals, and it was not related to drug offenses. They were looking for anybody who had signs of radicalization. Each Tomorrowland ticket is tied to a named person and their country of origin. You can imagine the Federal Police can find out quite a lot with that information and the cooperation of other agencies. Permission to do this screening was granted by the mayors of Boom and Rumst.
Below you will see an email received by one of the 38 confirming their denial. You can read the full story for yourself below, however you will likely need Google Translate to do so.
Ik zag dit weekend enkele #tomorrowland ticketweigeringen voorbijkomen en de privacycommissie geeft nu meer uitleg. https://t.co/dHkslcKoY1 pic.twitter.com/7f0g8mxBjy
— Herman Maes (@Dailybits) July 10, 2017
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story indicated that concrete barriers were installed. Tomorrowland let us know that there is a “perimeter where we do not allow vehicles without credentials but we did not install concrete blocks.”
Source: DS Nieuws  Antwerp Gazette
