Tomorrowland Brazil 2023 Recap & Highlights
Tomorrowland Brazil 2023 was a highly anticipated event for myself, my partner and 6 of my friends this year. We got very lucky this year because two of us got first dibs in purchasing pre-sale tickets before opening up to the general public. So of course we had to go!
I want to preface this by saying that this is the third year Brazil has hosted Tomorrowland. We also check the weather 2 weeks before the event and we were hoping for the weather to be sunny and warm. Unfortunately this was not the case for us this year!
Tomorrowland Brazil takes place in a town called Itu, which is just a 2-hour drive from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Since we were one of the first people to be able to purchase our tickets, we ended up getting their hotel package deal with Novotel. This included souvenirs and shuttles to and from the venue. Meals were also included as part of the stay.
The hotel is actually very nice and large. Tomorrowland booked out the entire hotel for just people going to the festival for the whole four day event (3 main days, plus a pre-celebration day – they called this the Gathering). The day we got there we were greeted with some performers for Tomorrowland Brazil 2023, and the weather was nice enough that they were a few people at their pool. We did an early check-in and opted for lunch as well.
We ate our lunch, took a quick nap and then got ready for the Gathering, on Wednesday night. At the hotel room they gave us a goodie bag which consisted of a shoulder pack, a dice game and a compass box which also houses your bracelet to get into the venue. There were also a few other goodies like a journal, a small other wallet and a map of the festival grounds.
The shuttle getting there was relatively quick, I’d say It took only a half hour drive to get there. But they did have several shuttles running, so no sweat in missing the last bus!
The gathering event on Wednesday night was huge and spacious with only one stage available and lots of smaller vendors that sold food and drinks. Although the DJs were not that great that evening, it was still fun to check out the grounds. However, this area was supposed to be closed off to the rest of Tomorrowland Brazil 2023 in the coming 3 days. The first shuttle back to the hotel was at midnight so we took that and called it a day.
The next day unfortunately rained heavily and thunderstorm a bit as well. This caused the grounds to be very muddy and slippery. Unfortunately I did not make it this day as I ended up getting food poisoning from something I ate at the hotel! Sucks, but I ended up staying in my hotel room for practically 24 hours trying to get better for the next day. However, some of my friends did go and they told me it was such a shit show! While the music was great and the venue was large, It was just too muddy and people were slipping into the mud. There was not enough padded ground for people to walk on and being on a hill. It was just too much of a mess. I’m sort of glad I missed that day (haha). I also heard through friends that getting there was a nightmare. It took about 3 hours from the hotel to the entrance of the festival by bus. And if you happen to take the last bus back (3 AM), some people did not get back to their hotels until 8:00 in the morning!
But unfortunately because this day was so bad the next day which was supposed to be the second day of the 3-day festival, They ended up closing it off to most of Tomorrowland Brazil 2023 and only open to those that stayed in tents, on the festival grounds, and to those that had purchased hotel packages. They also closed off the main area and reopened back up the gathering area which only had one stage. They didn’t let us know the lineup until we literally got there at around 6:00 p.m. they had to cram Aoki for a half hour, then Dimitri Vegas for another half hour, then they both came out and performed together for the last half hour. They made the best of it considering they had to probably prep the main stage area with better walking conditions for people for the final festival day. Also the second day was cold! I did my best to dress for the weather but it was so windy, It felt colder unfortunately!
The last day was also a cold weather day. But we had a comfort pass which was nice because the area was tented. I honestly could not believe how many people there were at this event. I truly underestimated how many would show up. There must have been at least three to 400 thousand people that attended. The main stage was ginormous, bigger than I thought it would be. And the amount of people crowded for that stage was insane.
Even though it was a cold day and we mostly stayed in the comfort pass area, it did not really give you a good viewing area. We stayed in this area most of the time except for 1 hour where we decided to head to the “YouPhoria” stage to watch Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike perform. We got to stay warm because we went towards the middle of the crowd! You’d be surprised how warm you can get surrounded by a ton of bodies dancing beside you!
After this, we went back and stayed in the tented area until Dimitri Vegas came out again. I thought the bathrooms were going to be better kept but they were just as disgusting haha (well compared to the VIP ones from Ultra Croatia). The food was okay, Pizza looks very good though! And the drinks were mediocre. A lot of my friends ended up drinking their beer instead of the usual Jack and Coke (which btw, there was no Jack offered on the grounds).
There was one DJ that played on the main stage that literally put me to sleep (Paul Kalkbrenner). No hate to this guy but it was not my type of jam and very repetitive. I had to force myself back into my A-Game because I was so sleepy after that set. Steve Angello (part of Swedish House Mafia) played next and once he was done, we all decided to head outside towards the back of the main stage to be outdoors with the rest of the crowd. We did this because we wanted a better view of Dimitri Vegas and the highly anticipated, ALOK! But we also wanted an easier escape towards the end of the night so that it wasn’t as bad as the first night trying to get back to the hotel.
I’ve been so eager to see ALOK this festival. He did not disappoint! I will say that he played many of the tracks he performed in Tomorrowland, Belgium just a few months prior but it was still such a good set!! He is one of my favorite DJs and I’m glad I got to see him live even though I was in the far back. But it was quite the experience nevertheless!
Overall, I think tomorrowland still has a lot of kinks to solve to make this show in Brazil better for the coming years. The worst of it is the traffic coming into and out of the venue. There is only one road that brings buses to and from so that gets a little congested with traffic. They also did not plan well for the rain by putting enough boards down for people to walk on. The grounds became very muddy, so much so that they had to cancel one of the days for the majority of people. However, they did say that they will refund people for this mishap.
I am glad my friends and I got to experience tomorrowland Brazil 2023. It is not something that people do every year or something that people go to at all, in fact. Watching the videos on YouTube is much different than being there in person and hearing people scream with excitement and dance synchronously with one another. I personally don’t think that I will come back to Tomorrowland Brazil again, but I am eager to check out the one in Belgium at some point in the future!
If you’re thinking of going to tomorrowland Brazil next year, I highly recommend looking into one of their hotel package deals. It will save you a lot of headache trying to get to the venue as it is out in the middle of nowhere. Also be prepared for bad weather. The festival takes place on a dirt field which can turn very muddy when it rains. It also tends to get cold this time of year in Brazil as well so dress accordingly! The weather for us this year has fluctuated from high 80s down to low 60s. I would plan to bring clothes for both extremes of temperatures!
I also went to Ultra Europe 2023 Festival this year! Check out my Highlights & recap for Ultra Europe in Croatia!
But the most important part is to have fun, make friends, make memories and enjoy the wonderful music of EDM!!
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