Belgium’s Tomorrowland music festival opens after main stage was destroyed by fire

BOOM, Belgium (AP) — Fans roared in excitement and organizers sighed with relief as the Tomorrowland music festival kicked off Friday — two days after a massive fire engulfed the main stage and threw one of Europe’s biggest summer concert events into doubt.

Workers labored around the clock to clear out the debris from the elaborate backdrop that was consumed in Wednesday’s fire.

The festival’s opening performers, DJs Odymel and Pegassi, took to the main stage Friday after a last-minute scramble and slight delay, with charred set frames still visible behind them.

Australian electronic music group Nervo came next, opening their set by shouting: ‘’We made it!”

No one was hurt in the fire, organizers said. The cause is being investigated.

Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world attend Tomorrowland’s annual multi-day festival outside the Belgian town of Boom. Some 38,000 people were camping at the festival site Friday, Tomorrowland spokesperson Debby Wilmsen said.

’’Maybe there are some few people that say, ‘OK, we would like to have a refund,’ but it’s only like a very small percentage because most of them are still coming to the festival,” she told The Associated Press. “It is all about unity, and I think with a good vibe and a positive energy that our festival-goers give to each other and the music we offer, I think they will still have a good time. ’We really tried our best.″

Australian fans Zak Hiscock and Brooke Antoniou — who traveled half the world to see the famed festival as part of a summer holiday in Europe — described hearing about the fire.

“We were sitting having dinner when we actually heard the news of the stage burning down. We were very devastated and shattered, quite upset because we travelled a long way,” Hiscock said.

Ukrainian visitor Oleksandr Beshkynskyi was pleased that the festival could go ahead as planned.

‘’It’s not just about the one DJ or two DJs you’re looking to see, but about all the mood and about the dream being alive,” Beshkynskyi said. ___

Angela Charlton in Paris contributed. ___ This story has been corrected to show that the festival’s opening performers were Odymel and Pegassi.