There’s plenty of training and advice about being prepared for a crisis. And the biggest advice is to have a plan so that you know what to do. While you can’t be prepared for every eventuality, knowing you have a process for dealing with a crisis will put you in a better position when it happens.
by Andrew Broughton
If you were on TikTok last Wednesday (16th July), you may well have found the Belgium festival Tomorrowland trending. Sadly this year the festival started with devastating news that the mainstage had been destroyed by fire.
2 years of design work, 50 days of construction, all gone within an hour. Once the fire had been extinguished, there was only a minimal shell of metal left. The artwork, speakers, lights, LED screens and other features were all gone. The festival was due to open two days later with party goers arriving in Belgium the following day. It was big news in Belgium and went viral on social media.
What followed was, in my view, an expertly driven crisis response from the whole team. A gold plated perfect response. This is a text book example on how to handle a crisis.
Debby Wilmsen and her comms team have handled the crisis with expert excellence. The immediate situation was acknowledged with brief details - and a confirmation that no-one was injured - and expectations of next steps clearly set out with regular updates provided.
A press conference was held within a couple of hours of the fire and the messaging was clear that the campsite would open as planned the following day.
On Thursday morning a much more relaxed tone, back in the festival style, announced the opening of the camp site and the social media returned to the usual upbeat positivity featuring the party goers arriving.
In the afternoon a more detailed update was provided to inform everyone what was happening behind the scenes. They confirmed the festival would open to everyone the following day with one of two scenarios, putting down the speculation that was growing on social media. This to me was a really powerful move as it put an end to rumours and allowed those planning to attend to know they wouldn’t be turned away at the gates.
On Friday morning the announcement was made that a new stage would be open at the later time of 4pm. Four hours later than originally planned is an outstanding achievement given the work involved, with some of the workers putting in a mammoth 20 hour shift. I bet we all wish as Comms professionals we had a team behind us that would deliver what is not far short of a miracle! It was touching to watch Nervo start their set with Madonna’s Like A Prayer. And over the weekend the many messages of admiration for the Tomorrowland team were pouring in from fans and artists.
Listening to the festival’s radio station One World Radio, it’s clear the presenters and interviewees had been well briefed on the situation and what they could and shouldn’t say. In all of the comms, including on the radio, the language was all in sync, referring to the “mainstage area”, a clear sign that the internal comms hadn’t been forgotten. It’s the little details like that in a crisis that can undermine a well executed plan.
Of course, it’s not just the Comms team handling the response. No amount of comms would have solved the problem. The festival team have a wonderful ‘the show must go on’ approach and they built a brand new stage in front of the wreckage in less than 24 hours. The new rig was reportedly borrowed from Metallica’s European leg of their worldwide tour, which was shipped in from Austria overnight.
This isn’t the first time the festival has faced issues with stages; the roof of one stage partially sunk back in 2019. The team leaped into action and moved the stage to outside the venue to keep the party going. I’m not aware of this being reported in the media or on social media outside the festival Facebook groups.
What can we learn from Tomorrowland? Looking at how Tomorrowland handled the crisis, the important lesson here is to remain calm, assess the situation and work out how to safely proceed (if you can). And to remember to communicate internally as well as externally a single version of the truth with regular updates.
For those who have reached this far and still wondering what Tomorrowland is, it’s a Belgium electronic dance festival with a whole host of DJs including David Guetta, Carl Cox, Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto and many more.
The festival first started back in 2005 with the idea of bringing Mysteryland from the Netherlands to Belgium. The aim in the first year was to attract 15,000 people however only around 7,000 people attended. Nevertheless, they pushed on and over the last 20 years they’ve built the festival up to now being crowned the world’s best festival in the DJ Mag Top 100 festivals list.
So, if you haven’t dusted off your crisis comms plan in a while, go dig it out as you never know when you might need it.
Andrew Broughton
