Whensday: Tomorrowland

You might not think that music would have that much to d with small countries. But both the Netherlands and Belgium are or have been home to some of the bigger names in certain genres of music and continue to host festivals that entertain hundreds of thousands of people every year. In our area in the Netherlands, Pinkpop is held every year on the Pentecost weekend (which is why it is “pink”, for “Pinksteren” or Pentecost). 

In Belgium Bruce Springsteen just played at Werchter, just a stone’s throw from where some of our members in Maastricht live in Belgium. And the largest or best known electronic dance e festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Tomorrowland is being held this weekend and next in Boom (pronounced like “home”), Belgium, just outside of Antwerp. 

These weekends are a time to look forward to for music lovers - or at least for lovers of this particular style of music and entertainment. It is a festival where dj’s are king, playing dance music for everyone present. The festival is held on a recreational domain. Many people from around Europe and further plan for and look forward to this weekend as the height of their calendar.

For those whose tastes don’t reach to dance music in Belgium there are plenty of other things to do in these weekends. Belgium has a National holiday on July 21 (there is a Walloon holiday and a Flemish holiday as well on other days). In the village of Spa near our Bible camp they have a French-language music festival, usually during the week that our oldest teenagers are doing their week of camp. The Belgian Grand Prix for Formula 1 is also just around the corner in Francorchamps in the weekend that we will be beginning our week of camp with the youngest kids, the Benjamins. You can hear the whine of the cars whenever you are outside - a different sort of music.