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Festival-goers evacuated after stage catches fire at Tomorrowland Barcelona

By | Published on Monday 31 July 2017

More than 22,000 festival-goers were evacuated from the Spanish offshoot of the Tomorrowland festival this weekend after the event’s main stage caught fire.

Belgian dance music festival Tomorrowland this year set up stages in a bunch of other cities around the world, live streaming what was happening on its main stage in Belgium onto large screens in those other cities, with special effects synchronised locally and the promise of a few DJs actually playing records in person.

It was the Barcelona edition of Tomorrowland Unite where the drama occurred. Staging caught fire mid-show on Saturday evening, with local fire officials saying that the stage area was “completely destroyed” and now “runs the risk of collapse”.

But the audience was successfully evacuated as soon as the fire began, so that there were no serious injuries, with about 20 people being treated for minor injuries or anxiety, according to the Associated Press.

A statement from Tomorrowland’s organisers confirmed: “Tonight, July 29th 2017, the Unite Barcelona stage caught fire due to a technical malfunction. Thanks to the professional intervention of the authorities all 22,000 visitors were evacuated safely and without reports of injuries. Authorities will follow up and continue the investigation with the local Spanish organiser of Unite”.

The Tomorrowland Unite show in Taiwan was also cancelled because of a typhoon which prompted local officials to cancel all outdoor activities taking place on Saturday. However, the spin-off proceedings went ahead in places like Germany, Dubai, Israel and South Korea.



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