About 400 festivalgoers were stopped for drug possession over the two weekends of the Tomorrowland electronic music festival in Boom, prosecutors in Antwerp said on Tuesday.
People caught with small quantities of drugs for personal use were offered immediate settlement fines, which totalled €104,100. They were also removed from the festival site and had their entry wristbands confiscated.
Police also arrested 32 people on suspicion of drug dealing. Prosecutors said they had been summoned to appear before the special “Tomorrowland” court chamber on 25 November, including one Dutch suspect who had already been convicted of drug trafficking at the festival in 2024.
The drugs seized by police were analysed on site in the mobile laboratory of the National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology. Prosecutors said this allowed dangerous substances to be identified quickly before they could spread more widely across the festival grounds.
Among the substances found were tablets containing high doses of MDMA, as well as potentially dangerous drugs such as “pink powders”, a mixture of synthetic substances, and methamphetamine. These samples were passed on to Sciensano for further monitoring.
The three drugs detected most often were MDMA, cocaine and ketamine.
Police also stepped up efforts against pickpocketing. On Friday, seven men aged between 25 and 39 were arrested in the festival’s VIP area while allegedly trying to steal luxury watches.
They were remanded in custody by the investigating judge. Across the two festival weekends, a total of 14 pickpockets were caught in the act.
In total, authorities recorded 51 judicial arrests and 63 administrative arrests. The latter mainly involved public drunkenness and disturbing public order.
