Like this:

TomorrowWorld has come to the US and they’re here to stay: the festival has signed a ten year contract with Chattahoochee Hills! TomorrowWorld is the new US counterpart to TomorrowLand, a Belgian festival which has always made a point of developing strong ties with the local community in Belgium. Despite TomorrowWorld’s best efforts to create strong ties with the local community in George, there has been mixed reviews from community members and leaders:

Community Building

Tomorrowland in Belgium has always made it a point of building a strong relationship with the local community. For example, for the Global Journeys to Tomorrowland, the festival had a partnership with Brussels Airlines to transport 8,000 people from 67 departure cities. TomorrowWorld similarly held on to it’s Belgian roots by transporting all of the stages, decorations, and even the wood flooring from Belgium (fun fact: 80 shipping containers were used to ship the cargo). However, TomorrowWorld is also committed to supporting its new home. 3,500 people were working during the festival, and TomorrowWorld did its best to hire as many people as possible from the community.

Similarly, it was important to the festival that it return everything to the way it had been when they arrived. The festival was located in Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia, on 500 acres within an 8,000 acre private property called Bouckaert Farms (another fun fact: Bouckaert Farms’ owner is coincidentally Belgian!). TomorrowWorld committed to its owner that all of the property would be completely restored to its original status, right down to grass restoration. It was estimated at the time of the festival that the clean up would take about 3 weeks (it took about 4 weeks to build the whole thing). To help keep the grounds clean onsite was Clean Vibes, an organization which coordinates volunteers who make sure people are putting their garbage in the right receptacle and clean up garbage off the ground (in exchange for their work, volunteers get compensated for the cost of the festival ticket).

TomorrowWorld also tried to build a strong connection to the greater community. The festival hired professional traffic surveyors before the festival to analyze the flow of traffic in the area to prevent congestion. Considering there were 25k people camping at TomorrowWorld and a total of 50k people per day at the festival, for a rural town of about 2,300 people, that should definitely have added up to a LOT of congestion. On the contrary, the waits to enter the festival were not bad and the roads were relatively cleared all weekend. One community member said to me, “I would never have known the festival was going on if it weren’t for the sound of the music!” Even with the music, the festival hired professionals to address potential noise issues so that festival goers had maximum sound quality within the festival without projecting too much sound to the outside of the festival. Unfortunately, the noise control definitely became a common gripe among community members.

Finally, to address issues, questions and concerns by community members, the festival had a hotline they could call, a community center, and an email contact. There were also newspapers distributed to the local homes with information on the festival as well as community meetings before the festival started. During the festival, TomorrowWorld hosted tours of the premises exclusively for community members every day. These avenues were to help promote awareness and understanding with the community and to create dialogue, although after the festival there was a breakdown in communication as community members divided over the positive influence the festival had on the community and the noise issues.

Local Backlash

This year, the festival was located in Fulton County (a county which also includes Atlanta), however it is also close to the south border of Douglas County. After TomorrowWorld, there were few complaints from Fulton County residents, however there was a high number of noise complaints from Douglas County residents. Initially after the festival, the internet saw a blast of angry community members who were furious about the noise. This post from the Douglas County Sentinel titled “The War Next Door” gives the perfect example of exactly what neighbors were complaining about and gives a little voice to exactly how annoyed they are. On October 19, there was a TomorrowWorld meeting put together by Douglas County Commissioner Mike Mulcare. According to Thomas Wilderson, who attended the meeting, about 35 people were in attendance and Mulcare stressed from the beginning that:

[T]he purpose of the meeting was not to beat up on the festival, and that he wanted to hear both the positives and negatives of the festival. He acknowledged that the festival isn’t going away and he has no power to stop it, and that the festival will benefit Douglas County economically. His purpose is to improve the lines of communication.

When given the opportunity to provide their opinions, community members opinions were mixed, though mostly negative. It was also brought to the meeting’s attention that there were no sound complaints from Fulton County and it is believe that there was such a problem with noise in Douglas County because the speakers were actually pointed away from the county, resulting in a greater thumping sound. At the conclusion of the meeting, it was determined that an action committee would be formed to address the complaints, particularly the sound levels as well as the ending time of the festival (they hope to pull back the festival hours by one hour).

Sensible Reason will keep you updated on any new information that is released on this issue! Fortunately, TomorrowWorld has a long contract with Bouckaert Farms so the festival won’t be leaving any time soon. There are also plans to have MysteryLand in New York this Memorial Day weekend, signs that the festival company ID&T has no intention of backing down and are quickly expanding. Stay tuned for more info!

Related Posts TomorrowWorld: First wave artists announced, tickets still available TomorrowWorld is a festival that has the whole world buzzing, thanks to it's Belgian sister festival Tomorowland which has already made it to the top of the world festival circuit. ... READ MORE TomorrowWorld: First wave artists announced, tickets still available

Like this or use the bottons below to share: