TomorrowWorld Begins In Georgia, Hopes Of More Money, Less Headaches

TomorrowWorld has returned to Fulton County, Georgia. Is everyone ready to dance?

The second TomorrowWorld Music Festival began Friday, September 26. However, people started arriving to the venue 24 hours prior to the beginning of the concerts. Festival organizers created DreamVille, a camping option for concertgoers. Approximately 30,000 people are expected to take advantage of the early opening, according to The Music Scene’s Access Atlanta.

As with the inaugural TomorrowWorld, it took approximately three weeks to transform Bouckaert Farm in Chattahoochee Hills. In those three weeks, the 350-acre farm becomes the Electronic Dance Music Valhalla known as TomorrowWorld. Over 120,000 concertgoers visited the renovated farm land last year, and attendance is tracking to be much higher this year.

The highlight of this year’s TomorrowWorld – aside from a lineup featuring David Guetta, Diplo, Skrillex, Zedd, Tiesto, Steve Aoki, Bassnectar, Kaskade, Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike, Martin Garrix and hundreds more — will be the DisneyWorld-like main stage, a 450-foot wide behemoth secured by a pyro-spewing volcano during DJ sets.

TomorrowWorld Now boasts at least eight stages this year and tweaked its Q Dance stage to offer a different musical identity each day (Sunday, it will become the “ATL” stage with homegrown Electronic Dance Music acts including Le Castle Vania, Mayhem, Heroes x Villains and Atlanta rapper Waka Flocka Flame).

Estimates from last year’s TomorrowWorld was that it brought $85 million into southern Fulton County coffers. However, it wasn’t without some controversy, according to Travelers Today.

This year’s TomorrowWorld is expected to far exceed last year’s monetary take. Still, there are some who complained about the bottlenecked traffic and loud concerts. Though Bouckaert Farm is located in Fulton County, it borders Douglas County, about five miles away. Jeff Seymour, a long-time resident of Holly Springs, which is in Douglas County, said, “It does bring in a tremendous amount of money into Georgia as well as the surrounding community, so you have to weigh the balance.”

Elijah Lucas, another resident of Douglas County, stated, “It is a helpless feeling because if I was to play my music loud here, the police would be out here. My neighbors would be complaining and I would have to turn it down.”

Another issue that arose from TomorrowWorld is the huge amounts of vehicles and traffic jams. Tom Staeball, a Holly Springs resident, commented, “It probably caused an extra 15 minute to get to work.”

TomorrowWorld organizers have said the have provided larger signs to help traffic keep flowing, as well as updates when bottlenecks happen. And, though the organizers are going to monitor ways to lessen the effect of the music on the area, they did say that they still produce is still far below what is legally mandated by Fulton County.

TomorrowWorld continues through today into Monday morning, September 29.

[Image courtesy of TomorrowWorld.com]