Virus forces Tomorrowland festival online

Belgium's Tomorrowland festival, one of the world's biggest electronic music events, will be held online this year because of coronavirus restrictions, organizers said on June 4. 

While Belgium is slowly lifting the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19, music festivals are banned until at least the end of August.

Tomorrowland, which usually draws some 400,000 people to the small town of Boom, will this year take the form of a two-day "digital music festival experience".

Revelers will be able to navigate eight different "stages" through a computer, smartphone or tablet, with organizers promising "the planet's biggest names in electronic dance music and the world's best technology in 3D design, video production and special effects."

Weekend tickets for Tomorrowland Around the World on July 25 to 26 cost 20 euros.

Festival co-founder Michiel Beers said they hoped to capture the spirit of the event while "re-inventing the festival experience".

"We hope that hundreds of thousands of people will unite in a responsible way and that small. Tomorrowland gatherings at people's homes- from Canada to Australia, from Japan to Brazil and everywhere in between- will be organized," he said in a statement.

"Especially during the weekend where normally Tomorrowland Belgium would take place, we really have the power to unite the world."

It is not the only major event to be hit by coronavirus  Britain's Glastonbury festival was forced to cancel the 50th-anniversary edition.

With nightclubs shut and events canceled because of the pandemic, many DJs and record labels have kept the party going with free online "festivals" on video-streaming sites.