2005[edit]

Tomorrowland 2005

The first edition of the festival took place on 15 August 2005. Manu Beers, Michiel Beers and ID&T organized the festival. Performers included Push (M.I.K.E.), Armin van Buuren, Cor Fijneman, Yves
Deruyter, Technoboy, Yoji Biomehanika and Coone.[5]

2006[edit]

Tomorrowland 2006

The second festival, on 30 July 2006, hosted Armin van Buuren, Axwell, Marco Bailey, Fred Baker, David Guetta, Ruthless and DJ Zany. The DJ and producer Paul Oakenfold was also announced on the
poster, but canceled at the last moment, as he was on tour with Madonna at the time. Emjay, the producer of 'Stimulate', the anthem of 2006, performed on the main stage with The Atari Babies.
2007[edit]

Tomorrowland 2007

The third year, the festival lasted two days for the first time in its history, taking place on 28 and 29 July 2007.

2008[edit]

Tomorrowland 2008

In 2008, the festival took place on 26 and 27 July. For the first time, more than 100 DJs participated. The number of visitors exceeded 50,000 for the first time.

2009[edit]
Tomorrowland 2009

For the fifth event, ID&T led to even more venues, one ski, and much more. Sun [who?] has included an "I Love the 90's" stage, where musicians such as Push, Natural Born Deejays and SASH from the dance
scene were present. La Rocca performed live at the event for the first time. The special act on the main stage was Moby. Tomorrowland 2009 took place on 25 and 26 July and attracted 90,000 people. The
festival saw the use of a theme for the first time - Masker (Mask). [6]

2010[edit]

Tomorrowland 2010

Tomorrowland sold out days before the event, with a record attendance of 120,000 visitors over two days, in 2010 Dada Life, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Tara McDonald wrote the official anthem
"Tomorrow/Give Into The Night",[7] performing the song twice on the main stage after Swedish House Mafia. The track was made by Like Mike, Dada Life and Dimitri Vegas and the vocal melody and lyrics
were written and recorded by Tara McDonald. The song reached number 5 in the Belgian commercial charts and is the biggest selling anthem for Tomorrowlands to date. The festival's theme was "Zon
(Sun)"[6] and was nominated for the Best Music Event by the International Dance Music Awards in 2011.[8]

2011[edit]
2011 marked the festival's expansion to three days occurring on 22, 23, 24 July. Tomorrowland 2011 had the theme "The Tree of Life" [6] and the anthem "The Way We See The World" by Dimitri Vegas & Like
Mike featuring Afrojack and Nervo.[7] Only a few days after the official pre-sale of tickets kicked off Tomorrowland was completely sold out and had over 180,000 visitors. David Guetta,  Nervo, Swedish House
Mafia, Avicii, Tiësto, Hardwell, Carl Cox, Paul van Dyk, Raven Tensnake, Laidback Luke, Brodinski, Juanma Tudon, Basto, Mike Matthews, De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig, and dozens of others performed. It
was voted the Best Music Event by the International Dance Music Awards for the first time in 2012. [9]

2012[edit]

Tomorrowland 2012

Tomorrowland 2012 took place 27, 28, 29 July 2012, at the De Schorre, a provincial recreation area in Boom, Belgium, 16 kilometers south of Antwerp and 32 kilometers north of Brussels. The line-up
consisted of 400 DJs, such as Armin van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Skrillex, Avicii, Marco Bailey, Skazi, David Guetta, Nervo, Hardwell, Swedish House Mafia, Afrojack, Steve Aoki, Juanma Tudon, Carl Cox, The
Bloody Beetroots, Paul van Dyk, Martin Solveig, Chuckie, Fatboy Slim, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Pendulum playing on fifteen stages each day. 185,000 people from over 75 countries around the world
were in attendance, with 35,000 of them staying in Dreamville.

Because of the enormous success of Tomorrowland and the fact that it is a Belgian festival, ID&T decided to give Belgians an exclusive chance with a pre-sale (80,000 of the 180,000 tickets) on March 24. In
less than one day, all of the tickets sold out and at some moments there were 2,000,000 people on the online waiting list. The worldwide sale started April 7. Within 43 minutes, the other 100,000 tickets sold
out. In addition to regular tickets, Tomorrowland partnered with Brussels Airlines to provide exclusive travel packages from over 15 cities around the world. [10] Other highlights of the festival were the Cloud
Rider, the highest mobile Ferris wheel in Europe, [11] and the fact that 25 airlines were organized to bring spectators to the festival from all over the world. [12]

The festival's theme was "The Book of Wisdom"[6] and had the anthem "Tomorrow Changed Today" by Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. [7] The festival again won the International Dance Music Awards in 2013 for the
Best Music Event.[13] Tomorrowland 2012 also won the DJ Award for the Best International Dance Music Festival.[14]

2013[edit]
Tomorrowland Mainstage 2013

Tomorrowland 2013 took place on 26, 27 and 28 July and reached 180,000 attendees at De Schorre in Boom, Belgium. Full madness passes sold out in 35 minutes, and the remainder of tickets sold out in a
reported one second.[15] Tomorrowland again offered its Global Journey packages with Brussels Airlines which had 140 additional flights from 67 different cities around the world transporting festival goers with
92 different nationalities to Boom, Belgium. [10] The anthem for Tomorrowland 2013 was "Chattahoochee" by Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike featuring Maarten Vorwerk. [7] This year's edition with the theme "The
Arising of Life"[6] saw performances from Axwell, Armin van Buuren, Hardwell, Afrojack, David Guetta, and Sebastian Ingrosso.

2014[edit]

Tomorrowland Mainstage 2014

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the festival, and to meet the high demand for tickets, the 2014 edition of Tomorrowland was held over two weekends; 18–20 July and 25–27 July. The line-up for both
weekends was more or less the same. In April 2014, MTV announced that it would produce two hour-long MTV World Stage specials featuring performances from the festival (to be aired in August 2014), and
that it would produce a documentary surrounding the 10th anniversary of Tomorrowland. [16]

On April 16, composer Hans Zimmer and Tomorrowland announced that they combined forces for the creation of a classical hymn that would premiere during the 10th anniversary edition of Tomorrowland.
Veteran DJ Dave Clark, who hosted the second largest stage, believes that “a more diverse lineup that covered a wider range of underground music” was Tomorrowland 2014's top selling point. [17] Dimitri
Vegas & Like Mike again were responsible for the Tomorrowland anthem, this year working with W & W for the song "Waves".[7] 360,000 people attended Tomorrowland 2014 which won the International
Dance Music Award for Best Global Festival during the ceremony in March 2015. [18]

2015[edit]
Tomorrowland Mainstage 2015

Tomorrowland 2015 took place on 24, 25, and 26 July 2015 and saw 180,000 visitors. The theme for the year was "The Secret Kingdom of Melodia". [6] Performers included Avicii, Hardwell, David Guetta,
Tiësto, Armin van Buuren, and Carl Cox. The 2016 edition of the International Dance Music Awards awarded the Tomorrowland 2015 the Best Global Festival for the fifth consecutive year, [19] and the readers
of DJ Magazine voted Tomorrowland 2015 the World's Best Festival.[20]

2016[edit]

Tomorrowland Mainstage 2016

Tomorrowland 2016 took place on 22, 23, and 24 July. The theme for the year was "The Elixir of Life" [6] and saw 180,000 visitors. The 2016 edition of Tomorrowland saw a surprise set from Tiësto on the
Thursday prior to the weekend and was sponsored by Budweiser.[21] Other performers included Axwell Λ Ingrosso, Martin Garrix, The Chainsmokers, and number one DJs Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike.[22]

2017[edit]
Tomorrowland Mainstage 2017

2017 saw Tomorrowland expand to a two weekend event for the first time since their tenth anniversary in 2014. The theme, "Amicorum Spectaculum", [6] and dates were announced in January 2017, and was
scheduled for the final two weekends of July 2017, the 21-23 and 28–30 July. This year, a record number of tickets was sold - 400,000 spanning the two weekends. The festival saw a massive increase in the
number of performers to span the 16 stages, [23] including regulars and a lot of artists making their festival debut.

Regular headliner Martin Garrix premiered his song "Pizza" as the closing song of his set. The song was originally intended to be a Tomorrowland exclusive however it was released as a single a month later. [24]
[25][26][27]
 In 2017, the festival was nominated by the European Festivals Awards and the Electronic Music Awards for World's Best Festival.[28] The festival was also visited by King Philippe and Queen consort
Matilda.[29]

Towards the end of August Tomorrowland 2017 became the biggest social media music events in the world at the time reviving over 1.2 billion views from over 200 million people. Regular headliners Armin
van Buuren and David Guetta released statement regarding the festival's achievement: [30]

“It’s an amazing feeling to know that while you’re getting goosebumps at the MainStage in Belgium, literally millions of people around the world are watching my performance, even organizing home parties
and having an amazing time as well.” - Armin van Buuren

“Not only has the growth of the event itself been amazing but also the content that they produce, like the live registration and after-movie. It just gets better and better each year. I think it’s great that people at
home can watch the live stream and experience the festival as if they were there themselves.” - David Guetta

2018[edit]
Tomorrowland Mainstage 2018

The 2018 edition of Tomorrowland saw an attendance of 400,000 people for the second year running across the two weekends. The festival took place on Friday 20 to Sunday 22 July and Friday 27 to Sunday
29 July with tickets for the two weekends selling out in an hour. [31] Mainstage performers included Armin van Buuren, Black Coffee, David Guetta, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Martin Garrix. This edition also
marked the return of Hardwell who headlined the festival three years after his previous set in 2015. The theme for the 2018 edition of the festival was "The Story of Planaxis". [6] Tomorrowland 2018 also saw a
lot of Avicii tributes to commemorate the death of the Swedish DJ three months prior to the festival. [32][33] Avicii's songs "Levels" and "Wake Me Up" came second and eighth respectively in Tomorrowland 2018's
most played songs.[34][35] Tributes to the DJ came from Axwell Λ Ingrosso, Don Diablo, Nicky Romero, and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. Digital Spy described the event as "the most elaborate festival on earth"
with the only downside being the price.[36]

2019[edit]

Tomorrowland Mainstage 2019

For its fifteenth anniversary, Tomorrowland returned to The Book of Wisdom as its mainstage theme, previously used in 2012. [6] The festival took place on the 19 to 21 and 26 to 28 July and saw regular
performers like The Chainsmokers, Armin van Buuren, KSHMR and David Guetta return. Non-EDM artists like Bebe Rexha and ASAP Rocky were also on the lineup however the latter had to cancel following
his arrest in Sweden.[37] The mainstage design featured a tribute to the late DJ Avicii who died in April 2018. Tribute to whom were also paid the previous year. [38]

Supergroup Swedish House Mafia were rumoured to close the event following Steve Angello's claim in the autumn of the previous year that the group would play at the festival "by any means necessary". [39]
[40]
 Rumours became even stronger when the group's signature "three dots" appeared on the Tomorrowland lineup. [41][42] However, the "three dots" were announced last minute to be 3 Are Legend, leading many
to believe that the group pulled out last minute. Axwell and Steve Angello claimed that the group were never booked for the festival. [43][44]

2020[edit]
The year after the anniversary, Tomorrowland chose "The Reflection of Love" [6] as its theme, which had been surreptitiously revealed on the main stage in 2019, as there was a book with that theme title near
the right center of the stage with "2020" in Roman numerals. On 15 April, Tomorrowland announced that the 2020 edition of the festival would not take place due to the  COVID-19 pandemic.[45] On 4 June,
Tomorrowland announced a virtual festival would go ahead in place of the 2020 edition. The event named Tomorrowland Around the World took place on July 25 and July 26, using Unreal Engine 4 to
create this virtual festival.[46][47] On 6 August 2020, Tomorrowland released Official aftermovie of their first Virtual Music Festival.
In 2020, Tomorrowland also organised a virtual New Year's Eve festival scheduled for 8pm to 3am for each time zone. [48]

2021[edit]
After much speculation, on 17 March 2021, Tomorrowland announced it would delay the return of the festival until the final weekend of August and the first weekend of September. The move was an attempt to
make the festival more secure aimed the declining rates of COVID-19 and the recent vaccination programme of the last three months. The move would have seen the festival occur five weeks later than its
usual dates at the end of July.[49] In April, Tomorrowland announced that a second edition of Tomorrowland Around the World would take place during the traditional July dates. [50]

On 17 June 2021, despite Belgium planning to allow large-scale outdoor events with up to 75,000 people beginning 13 August, the mayors of Boom and Rumst jointly announced that they would deny
permission for Tomorrowland to be held due to health and safety concerns, citing international visitors and Delta variant.[51][52][53] On 23 June, the festival was therefore cancelled. [53]

2022[edit]
In December 2021, Tomorrowland announced that the festival would expand from two to three weekends in 2022. Tomorrowland 2022 will now take place on July 15–17, July 22–24, and July 29–31. [54]