# Looking at the way this burned (Tomorrowland festival main stage), was it ever safe? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 17, 2025, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-at-the-way-this-burned-tomorrowland-festival-main-stage-was-it-ever-safe/1020962 "2025-07-17T09:21:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-at-the-way-this-burned-tomorrowland-festival-main-stage-was-it-ever-safe/1020962/1 "2025-07-17T09:21:32Z")
The main stage at the Tomorrowland festival in Antwerp, Belgium, burned to the ground the day before the festival opening: > **[Fire destroys main stage at Belgium’s Tomorrowland festival on eve of opening](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/17/fire-destroys-main-stage-at-belgiums-tomorrowland-festival-on-eve-of-opening)** > > Blaze came a day before thousands of electronic dance music fans were set to descend on the Belgian event According to early reports, this happened during testing of some pyrotechnics, but the question I have is: Looking at the way this went up (there are lots of videos online), was it ever even safe? The flames and smoke being produced look like something oil-based is burning, as though the whole set was constructed from sculpted foam or similar. I don’t know if fire crews just decided to contain it rather than to try to extinguish the blaze, but there was no remnant of the set left at the end - it looks more like it burned so fast and hot that it couldn’t be put out. Fortunately nobody was hurt, but I am sure that would be a different story if this had happened during the event when a crowd would be present. What was this set made from and is it a good idea to mix it with pyrotechnics? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-at-the-way-this-burned-tomorrowland-festival-main-stage-was-it-ever-safe/1020962/2 "2025-07-17T09:40:43Z")
Oh wow. I just found out it’s not the first time this happened… > **[Thousands evacuated after huge fire breaks out at Barcelona festival](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/tomorrowland-unite-edm-stage-fire-latest-barcelona-people-evacuated-stage-a7867141.html)** > > Around 22,000 people have been evacuated from the Tomorrowland Unite festival in Barcelona after a fire broke out on the main stage. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-at-the-way-this-burned-tomorrowland-festival-main-stage-was-it-ever-safe/1020962/3 "2025-07-17T10:00:58Z")
There is a long and tragic history of combining foam with pyrotechnics. That was the root cause of The Station fire in Rhode Island. Among too many others. Yes, the main stage may have been made of some sort of foam, because that’s lightweight, easy to sculpt and color, and less labor and material intensive than many alternatives. It is also an incredibly poor choice to mix with pyrotechnics. They are fortunate it burned before the event and not during. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-at-the-way-this-burned-tomorrowland-festival-main-stage-was-it-ever-safe/1020962/4 "2025-07-17T10:15:13Z")
Yeah, if it had gone up at night time, with tens of thousands of people (in various states of intoxication) in front of it and performers and crew on stage, backstage, etc, there would be a significant death toll from the fire and the ensuing stampede. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-at-the-way-this-burned-tomorrowland-festival-main-stage-was-it-ever-safe/1020962/5 "2025-07-17T10:23:14Z")
Remember people: > Friends don’t let friends dance drunk in firetraps. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-at-the-way-this-burned-tomorrowland-festival-main-stage-was-it-ever-safe/1020962/6 "2025-07-18T00:44:37Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I don’t know if fire crews just decided to contain it rather than to try to extinguish the blaze, but there was no remnant of the set left at the end - it looks more like it burned so fast and hot that it couldn’t be put out. Those flames are multi-stories high. That fire is out of control & **hot!** I doubt you’d find an engineer anywhere who would certify that the metal scaffolding skeleton is still safe to use after being subject to unknown temps for an unknown (exactly) amount of time, & even if you did find one, I doubt any insurance company would sign off on using that again. IOW, that was a huge pile of trash that was burning. There’s no point in putting any firefighters at risk. Nope, fight it defensively. Keep it from spreading (if there’s anything else in the area that could burn) & hit it with a lot of water from master streams from a distance & once it’s knocked down _maybe_ let firefighters go in with hand lines to put out the hot spots, but only then if they feel it’s safe enough; otherwise, they’ll just use tower ladders to pour water on it for a day or so. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-at-the-way-this-burned-tomorrowland-festival-main-stage-was-it-ever-safe/1020962/7 "2025-07-18T01:00:58Z")
Anybody else think this thread was about that stage that rises out of the ground at Disneyland’s Tomorrowland? I had nightmares about people getting trapped on that stage when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-at-the-way-this-burned-tomorrowland-festival-main-stage-was-it-ever-safe/1020962/8 "2025-07-18T01:03:05Z")
I listen to podcasts from Above & Beyond and Armin van Buren every week. I wonder if this week’s shows will make any comments. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-at-the-way-this-burned-tomorrowland-festival-main-stage-was-it-ever-safe/1020962/9 "2025-07-18T01:41:47Z")
I certainly agree w @Spiderman’s professional perspective. It was darn handy this was an uninhabited structure fire and not an inhabited mass casualty evolution to boot. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-at-the-way-this-burned-tomorrowland-festival-main-stage-was-it-ever-safe/1020962/10 "2025-07-18T08:05:23Z")
Absolutely agree - nobody needed rescuing and it was a structure in the middle of an open space - it makes perfect sense to contain the blaze rather than try to extinguish it - which seems like it would be really hard to do anyway - but doesn’t this make the point? - there was no mode in which this thing could ever have burned other than _rapidly and uncontrollably_, which I think supports the argument it was always inherently an unsafe construction. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-at-the-way-this-burned-tomorrowland-festival-main-stage-was-it-ever-safe/1020962/11 "2025-07-18T14:44:50Z")
Remember: **The show must go on!** > Belgium’s Tomorrowland electronic music festival was set to begin on Friday with an alternative set-up for the main stage after the original burnt down in a huge fire earlier this week. Europe’s largest electronic music festival was scheduled to open its gates at 2 pm (1200 GMT), with the alternative main stage to open at 4 pm. From Saturday, the entire festival site is expected to be open to visitors from noon, the festival team said. Its organizers scrambled to create an alternative set-up for the main stage after a fire tore through the original late on Wednesday evening. [https://www.msn.com/en-ca/entertainment/music/tomorrowland-festival-opens-with-alternative-main-stage-after-fire/ar-AA1IR0qU](https://www.msn.com/en-ca/entertainment/music/tomorrowland-festival-opens-with-alternative-main-stage-after-fire/ar-AA1IR0qU) ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-at-the-way-this-burned-tomorrowland-festival-main-stage-was-it-ever-safe/1020962/12 "2025-07-18T14:55:27Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Anybody else think this thread was about that stage that rises out of the ground at Disneyland’s Tomorrowland? I’ve never been to Disney_land_ but I did think that this was going to be about the permanent stage that is near Carousel of Progress and Space Mountain at Disney_world_. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-at-the-way-this-burned-tomorrowland-festival-main-stage-was-it-ever-safe/1020962/13 "2025-07-18T14:56:50Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > According to early reports, this happened during testing of some pyrotechnics, Now I’m wondering: Do we consider this to be a successful test? “Yep, pyros **will** burn this thing down, better not use them…” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-at-the-way-this-burned-tomorrowland-festival-main-stage-was-it-ever-safe/1020962/14 "2025-07-18T15:33:20Z")
Certainly it’s a test that yielded results. This much cannot be denied. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-at-the-way-this-burned-tomorrowland-festival-main-stage-was-it-ever-safe/1020962/15 "2025-07-18T15:41:20Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > > [@Mangetout](#): > > > > According to early reports, this happened during testing of some pyrotechnics, > > Now I’m wondering: Do we consider this to be a successful test? > > “Yep, pyros **will** burn this thing down, better not use them…” 😃 Nonsense. Pyrotechnics have been used in many shows without catastrophic fires. Just as the vast majority of commercial jets arrive at their destinations without incident. Safety rules inhibit innovation and cost money. /s ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-at-the-way-this-burned-tomorrowland-festival-main-stage-was-it-ever-safe/1020962/16 "2025-07-18T15:42:45Z")
Quick! To the submersible! Surely we’ll be safe from the fire there.