A group of attendees on the way to the Tomorrowland music festival via Brussels Airlines.
Courtesy of Brussels Airlines
Getting to a music festival and figuring out your accommodations, especially when traveling internationally, is no easy feat. Nonetheless, this doesn’t stop most attendees from splurging to enjoy their favorite artists’ performances around the world. Fortunately, when flying to the iconic Tomorrowland music festival in Belgium (headlined by the likes of J Balvin, The Chainsmokers, DJ Snake, and more), festival goers can rest easy knowing Brussels Airlines has taken charge of providing the most unforgettable experience.
From start to finish, the airline company has designed a festival package unlike any other. Beyond accounting for basic needs such as premium flights, tickets, and luxury hotel stays, the Global Journey package quite literally takes things to the next level by giving people the option to party in the sky. The biggest perk of the package is the in-flight DJ set on-board every Tomorrowland bound Brussels Airlines flight. Now that’s something festival lovers don’t come across often, or at all — which alone is worth the trip.
For this year’s Tomorrowland held at the end of July, Brussels Airlines sold more than 13,000 flight packages totaling 25,290 passengers from 77 airports across the globe. It’s incredible how many people this collaborative partnership has brought together and Brussels Airlines’ Head of Strategic Partnerships Christian Dumortier weighs in on how it all comes together every year along with where he hopes it will take off to in the years to come.
Isis Briones: Can you elaborate on the partnership behind Brussels Airlines and Tomorrowland?
Christian Dumortier: “Tomorrowland reached out to us in 2011 because the international interest for the festival was growing exponentially. When we first met with Tomorrowland, we immediately knew that we had three aspirations for our partnership.
First, to create extra value for the ‘people of Tomorrow’ on their annual — or once in their lifetime — trip from all over the world to Tomorrowland. Second, to avoid third parties from using Tomorrowland festival tickets in their high market travel packages, which actually isn’t allowed by the festival because they want to directly give attendees a high standard of service. The team also needs to plan festival arrival and departure for crowd control purposes. Lastly, Brussels Airlines wanted to offer a one-stop travel shop where festival goers can build their personalized experience, including transportation from their home country to the festival, personalized accommodation at Dreamville or hotels in Antwerp, daily shuttling to the festival, and last, but not least the Tomorrowland festival ticket. With these three objectives in mind, we decided to create the Tomorrowland Global Journey package that gives people a complete Tomorrowland experience at great fares.”
An inside look into the catering for the Brussels Airlines flight to the 2019 Tomorrowland music festival.
Courtesy of Brussels Airlines
IB: What can someone who has never been to Tomorrowland in Brussels expect from this year’s festival and the flight?
CD: “An end-to end experience with Brussels Airlines that includes Tomorrowland party flights with live DJs on-board along with music or a gate party beforehand. Belgian chef Roget Van Damme even created special desserts and upon arrival, all travelers can count on a personalized reception at Brussels Airport with direct shuttling to their accommodations.
Additionally, during the flights, our Brussels Airlines cabin crew ensures a personalized Tomorrowland attention with the distribution of festival goodie bags and special catering. On top of that, all Global Journey packages come with extra luggage allowance and the possibility to change the date of their return flight, in case people want to discover Belgium or Europe after the festival.”
IB: Did you and your team attend the festival as well?
CD: “Yes! More than 400 Brussels Airlines staff members were present at the festival. They welcomed guests and ensured the Amare ferris wheel experience — which is operated by Brussels Airlines where over 80,000 visitors took pictures of the incredible views — was running smoothly.”
IB: Switching over to the music, how did the airline choose the DJs on-board the flights?
CD: “The DJs were actually selected by the Tomorrowland team. For most of them, it was the first time they brought their sets to an audience flying 900 kilometers per hour at an altitude of 30,000 feet. This year, we had DJ Licious and many others behind the decks.”
A snapshot of the Brussels Airlines goodie bag for the 2019 Tomorrowland music festival.
Courtesy of Brussels Airlines
IB: Will collaborations like this between Tomorrowland and Brussels Airlines continue in the future?
CD: “The collaboration started nine years ago and every year, we try to come up with new surprises for the Tomorrowland Global Journey passengers. As long as the customers enjoy the partnership, they can expect more to come in the future.”
