Brussels. Tomorrowland. Belgium

It has been a delayed entry for the Captain. Often, he has found himself picking up the ink and feather to write of the escapades that took place in the summer of Belgium 2018, but his emotions seem to take control of him. Unable to start to comprehend the emotion and transcribe the events, he is overwhelmed and often finds himself tucking away the tools. A coward of his emotion. It was not until a long journey across the globe as he tries to recant his adventures, there are gaps in his memories. The realization hits that some of the events may be lost if they are not documented. He believes it only fair to mark the history, and ‘try’ to do justices to the memories that were created in that small magical town of Boom.

A train journey from the adult Disneyland of Amsterdam was quiet, like exhausted children coming home from a day in a theme park, we all take our turns in napping. Arriving in Brussels they manage to pin point their accommodation on the map, knowing that they had to cross the old town to get there. The Captain, Admiral, General and Rebel leader set out from the station crossing the city, as they walked the General, who had visited Belgium for the first time was lost in awe of the Grand Place. He stood in the center of the square with his suitcase, in awe of the towering buildings that surrounded him.

With some difficulty we asked him to move along, we promised to return once we had checked in.

Our apartment was on the third floor, the building had no lift. It took it all out of us as we chauffeured 9 bags up the old wooden staircases. We were greeted by our host, a middle aged French Mauritian lady, who did not stop speaking French to us, we mentioned that we had no idea what she was saying, but she did not comprehend or refused to acknowledge that. She was ironing in the apartment and we somehow, understood that she will finish up before she leaves. She continues to speak to the Captain in French, the crew all in hiding in the other room, the Captain just continuing to nod politely. In what seemed like forever, she finishes up what she is doing and leaves the apartment.

We coordinate with another comrade who has joined us in Brussels – Newbie Nuraj. The Newbie is in town alongside a big crew of infantry that has flown to make the pilgrimage to Tomorrowland. There is a large crew and rather than naming all of them, they will be reffered to going forward as the BuxSqaud.

On the eve of the holiest of events, the BuxSqaud was assembling all around the city walls. Newbie Nuraj however reached out and we coordinated a rendezvous point where we could all meet and prepare our strategies for the days to come. We united at the Grand place square, exchanging stories as we sipped our strong Belgian beers in the marvel of the grandeur of the landmark surrounding us. Time had us carried away, as we saw the places around us starting to shut shop, we hustled around looking for a place that we could find some late-night nibbles together, the time had slipped as most things had already shut. Finding our last open option, we grabbed some kababs and called it an early night, agreeing that what waited for us on the other side of dawn was going to be something far greater than each one of us would expect.

Anxious, with butterflies in our stomach, we awoke to the buzzing of the alarms. It was time, we were approaching the first day of Tomorrowland. We adorned our uniforms – matching tee shirts that the General had organized, loaded our bags and utility belts and set off to meet the BuxSqaud at the dedicated meeting spot of i-primi-piatti, which was the Captains favorite Italian restaurant in the city. Here we met with the remainder of the crew, Lara, Adrian and Amel, We enjoyed our meals as our thoughts lingered on awaiting festivities in the city of Boom.

Gathering our final things, the squad split up, taking 2 ubers to the destination. The traffic had started banking up, but we finally arrived and we could feel the bass on the souls of our feel. An unknown nervousness settling over the Captain as they approached the ‘will call ‘ desk, along the way seeing a global representation of people that had flown to make the sacrilege. Delightfully and unlike last time the Captain had been here, the bracelets took a lot less time to obtain. The squad was ready to enter the holy grounds of Tomorrowland.
We put our things in the locker and headed down the path to the entrance.

Inside the General was not able to contain his excitement, his first every experience at the Mecca of house music, stopping at every stage in awe and disbelief that ‘this was not the main stage’. Often the squad stopping to take photos, echo’s of sounds like ‘Woooow!’ could be heard amongst the bass, yet the summit was still a while away.

The daze like walk continued, past several stages before our squad arrived at the arches of the epicenter, the mainstage. As the Captain entered for this third time, every single hair in his body stood up. He had avoided seeing what the mainstage looked like, just to be blown away at this exact moment and blown away he was.

Our whole day is spent on the mainstage, we are able to see Netsky, Hardwell, Axwell and Ingrosso and Tiesto. The day ended like a blur, we walk to get on our bus back to Brussels, awoken from our comatose walking state just by the smells of urine near the bus stand. Day 1 was over and our hearts were already overwhelmed by the music and the time we have had. Reaching Brussels the squad broke apart, the Captain and team grabbed some noodles and like zombies retreated to our homes to rest. Day 2 awaited us.

Broken we awoke to our alarms chiming, the sheer excitement of embracing the holy grounds helped to place mind over matter. We headed to Friteland, the most famous hot chips place in Belgium. Here we enjoyed a plethora of fried foods. We met the squad here and like we had done 24 hours ago took 2 transports back to the holy grounds of Tomorrowland.

We arrived and walked from our transport to the entrance of the festival and along the way were approached by a 5 year old child with his family, they handed us some candy and said “this is a present from us to you, welcome to Boom” – we were both shocked and overjoyed at the friendliness and love that the locals have for the pilgrims that arrive, and we gladly accepted their gift, took a photo with them and continued on.

Today not only did we have our BuxSqaud, be we also had some very special guests coming in to join us from London town – Arthur and Alisha. We embraced them as Arthur ran into us (in a sea of 100k people) as we were walking to the main stage. He was blown away by the size of the festival – saying he had never been to a place like this. It was phenomenal. We headed to Organ of Harmony where we were able to see Ytram, who unknown to many was the alter ego of Martin Garrix. His Deep house set was one of the best sets the captain has seen on a side stage at TML

Day 2 felt like we were Ducks in a Pond, floating around, relaxed, feeling like we had no care in the world. This changed when the BuxSquad which had grown with more people all gathered to see Armin on the mainstage. The floating ducks had been put up in a Chinese restaurant and were about to be served Peaking. Continuing on to see the Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike and watching Alesso close day 2 was spectacular. The fireworks and visuals up a level from the previous years. We all slowly left, taking our time to get off the hill, still recovering from the spectacle we had seen and heard. Slowly walking back we had realised that we had missed the last waiting bus- meaning that we would have to wait 30 minutes before the bus came back for another round. We were dead exhausted, we all passed out in the bus. We had pushed our limit, grabbing some fried chicken burgers, we arrived at home as the sun was coming up at 6:00 am.

The final day of Tomorrowland, Day 3 was upon us. We all awoke exhausted and broken, but it was not our bodies that felt the pain, emotionally we felt distressed as a depression was coming over us – it was to be the last day of Tomorrowland. Felt by all, the cracks were displayed most evidently by the Admiral as she had tears dripping down her face as she got ready – when the Captain asked why she was weeping – she said, today is the last day.

The Captain could not argue or console her much as inside he also felt the same, and knew that the others could empathize. Feels were in the Air. We packed our bags as the next morning would be the day that the crew would all split. This adding to the emotional overdrive that we all were in.

We met this time at Pizza Hut, where Arthur and Alisha dropped by and then we grabbed some food, we headed back to the grounds for our final day.

Once again, I fail to find myself doing justice for what occurred at Tomorrowland, the love and the unity of those that are present is not describable in words, the music and the visual aesthetics are not able to be captured in even the most vivid of photos. It’s a sight to behold in person.

The day started with our local Timmy Trumpet blowing up the mainstage, being one of my favorite acts last year he did not disappoint. The Captain, General and Rogue leader finding their way deep into the mosh, whilst the Admiral was at a safe distance to watch. He was awesome. Just as good if not better than last year. Having the crowd eating from the palm of his hands

The last day flew by but we got to see legends Cosmic gate, Marcus Shultz, Coone, Axwell, Lost Frequencies finishing off with the heart wrenching set from Martin Garrix. We had more friends join us – as Erol a traveller and friend of the Captain and General had managed to get tickets to the closing day of the festival, his mind like the others who had visited the festival for the first time was BLOWN.

Just like that in a flash like the strobe lights, Tomorrowland 2018 was over. we stood watching the dimmed out stage, emotions flowing, our squad together hugging, crying and taking photos to preserve the memory like an Egyptian mummy. We just stood there, the gut wrenching feeling is bringing emotions rushing back as I write this. It was not only the end of Tomorrowland it was the day we said goodbye to our close friends – the ones we had shared the magic with. We all felt like a piece of us had been sliced out, as we slowly walked out of the most magical place on earth. Looking back, promising the we would be back here again.

Reaching home, the Captain, General, Admiral and Rebel leader all just sat and enjoyed their last family McDonalds meal together as tomorrow they would be parting ways, the Admiral and Captain heading to India and the Rebel Leader and General heading to the ancient city of Athens, Greece.

We said our emotional goodnights and went to bed, our eyes closed just replaying on repeat the lights lasers that were embedded in our memories from the last 3 magical days. We leave the definition of happiness in a small town called Boom