During the two weekends of the Tomorrowland dance festival in Boom, 382 people were caught with a personal amount of drugs and were offered an immediate settlement by prosecutors totalling €94,800.
Additionally, 23 people were discovered dealing drugs and are set to appear in court in October, the Antwerp public prosecutor’s office reports.
Police registered 481 complaints during the festival for various offences including public drunkenness and disturbances, leading to 67 arrests.
Kristof Aerts, spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office, stated that both festival-goers and individuals attending for professional reasons were found with drugs. These substances were confiscated, wristbands were revoked, and the individuals were removed from the festival grounds.
The 23 dealers received direct summonses for a special session at the Antwerp correctional court on 22 October, comprising Belgians, Dutch, British, Spaniards, North Macedonians, Turks, a Serbian, an Italian, a Pole, a Brazilian, and a German.
For the second consecutive year, the National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology (NICC) analysed 661 samples of seized drugs from Tomorrowland directly on site.
According to Aerts, MDMA, ketamine, and cocaine were the top three substances detected, just as last year. 25 reports of potentially dangerous substances were swiftly sent to Sciensano and relevant medical services to address public health concerns, mainly involving pink powders and ecstasy tablets with psychoactive substances other than MDMA.
