The dust has settled on the first weekend of Tomorrowland 2026, and while the world’s biggest dance festival delivered another visually spectacular return to Boom, Belgian authorities have released the full crime and drug enforcement report — with police describing the weekend as “relatively calm” overall despite issuing nearly €50,000 in immediate drug-related fines. (Report via VRT.BE)
According to the official figures, authorities issued €48,150 in on-the-spot drug fines and made 38 arrests across the first weekend. Police caught 192 festivalgoers carrying quantities of drugs intended for personal use. Those individuals were offered immediate financial settlements, had their substances confiscated, lost their festival wristbands and were removed from the site. The figures were broadly in line with the previous edition.
A further 13 people were caught actively dealing drugs at the festival and were judicially arrested. They received direct summonses to appear during a special Tomorrowland court session scheduled for November 25. The suspected dealers came from a wide range of countries, including Australia, France, China, North Macedonia, the Netherlands, Japan, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States — with one North Macedonian suspect reportedly arrested twice during the weekend.
Authorities also continued their on-site drug testing operation through the National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology’s mobile laboratory. The team registered 471 samples and screened 358, with 81% containing a controlled substance. MDMA, cocaine and ketamine were the three most frequently detected drugs. Officials warned that laboratory results did not always match what users believed they had purchased, suggesting that some festivalgoers may have been unaware of the substances they were actually carrying.
Around 15% of those caught were found with more than one type of drug. Twenty warnings involving high-dose MDMA tablets and potentially dangerous substances, including pink powders and methamphetamine, were forwarded to Belgian public-health institute Sciensano.
In total, police made 21 judicial arrests over the weekend, mainly involving suspected drug dealers and pickpockets. Another 17 people were administratively detained for offences including public intoxication and disturbing public order. Six suspected pickpockets were caught in the act following a targeted police operation during the festival’s busiest exit periods, with thieves primarily going after luxury watches, handbags, backpacks and wallets.
Beyond the drug and theft figures, police recorded 107 parking and traffic violations, towed seven vehicles and seized eight taxis for operating outside authorised areas or failing to comply with legal requirements. Four unauthorised drones were also confiscated after being flown inside the temporary restricted airspace above the Tomorrowland festival site.
Tomorrowland 2026 continues this weekend for its second edition, running July 24-26 at De Schorre in Boom.
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