Virtual Event Review: Tomorrowland Around the World Digital Event

Being apart of the live event industry, now the virtual event industry, it’s essential to keep up on live events. I came across the Tomorrowland Around the World Digital Event a couple of weeks ago and was immediately intrigued. For the most part, virtual events have included some live streaming that is shot at home or in a studio. Tomorrowland was the first event that I came across that set-up an entirely digital world just for their virtual event. So, for “business purposes,” I bought the 2-day pass.

Ticket prices weren’t too bad for the weekend-long event. There was a range of ticket prices with different perks and options. Tomorrowland has created exclusivity by only allowing the broadcast to one, be streamed through their platform, and two, attendees only have access to one rebroadcast or “relive” within a week of the show’s conclusion. Upon purchasing a ticket, I was immediately given access to the Livestream link.

Tomorrowland also provided a comprehensive guide on how to watch the event. There was a list of every single way you could stream the event and instructions on how to set that up — user experience thus far; straightforward.

The event started this morning on Central European Summer Time, but there are separate streams starting at more reasonable times for people in the Americas and the Asia Pacific region. None the less, I jumped into “Papilionem” to see what it was all about.

The island, “Papilionem” is pretty incredible. Immediately upon entry, there is a welcome video and a tutorial on how to use/navigate the island. It feels similar to a Sims world, very much in line with Tomorrowland’s overall branding. The virtual island mimics a beautiful picturesque landscape with dense green jungle, roaring waterfalls, and a clear ocean that melts right into the digital horizon. My first impression was, “wow. All of this for a two-day event?”.

There are several stages set-up across the island. I spent most of my time at the Main Stage. Their mainstage is a more extreme version of what their main stages typically look like at their live event. For whatever reason, it looks like there is a giant castle attached to the back of the mainstage. Hey, all the power to ya. The integration between the live stream of the performers and the virtual background was incredibly seamless. You couldn’t tell at all where the green screen ended, and the virtual background started.

I thought it was a pretty solid line-up for day 1. I stopped in and watched Alan Walker, Afrojack, Katy Perry, Ver:West (Tiesto’s new house project), Eric Prydz, Armin Van Buuren, and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. Alan Walker’s set was beautiful. Afrojack and his hype man were very energetic and threw out some new remixes. Katy Perry killed it. Hats off to her for performing while pregnant. That has got to be incredibly difficult. Eric Prydz still has the best visuals in the game. Armin Van Buuren played some new music. Finally, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike played a song with the lyrics, “wash your hands.”

Overall, I was impressed with the energy the performers brought. It has got to be extremely hard to keep up that level of energy with no crowd. I’m assuming there were a couple of people on the sets with them when they were filming, but by no means are you being pumped with the energy of thousands of people jumping around in front of you.

The visuals during the sets are pretty impressive. They mimic all of the lights, lasers, pyrotechnics, and smoke of a live event. Tomorrowland did a great job of including a bunch of camera angles that kept the stream interesting. You could even tell that it was getting later into the evening as the sun started to set throughout the event.

Probably the most unique aspect of the event was the DJ’s ability to still interact with the virtual crowd. Tomorrowland incorporated a call and response with the crowd very similar to how a DJ would interact with a live audience. They even had it where the DJs would cut out the music, and the crowd would continue to sing the lyrics. To me, this was the aspect of the event that made it seem the most real. In all of the other live streams, there is no interaction with the viewers or audience. In Tomorrowland, you feel like you are apart of the crowd.

Tomorrowland is the closest thing that I have seen to an in-person live event in the virtual event space. They completely rewrote the script on how to do a virtual event and engage with attendees in the most unique and meaningful way. I will be interested to see if other events will follow this model or stick to the Livestream and Zoom rooms.

There is still time left if you are interested in purchasing a ticket. I do recommend checking it out if you are into this type of music and these type of festival-style events. I think it will be one of the most unique virtual events we will see this summer and honestly maybe the most unique. In theory, we will be returning to live events here in the next 6–12 months, so building a large-scale virtual event like this one is unnecessary.

So, with that said, go and enjoy the virtual event of the summer!