Successful Drone Detection at Tomorrowland 2024

Tomorrowland, one of the world's premier music festivals, celebrated its 20th edition in Boom, Belgium, over the last two weekends of July. The event attracted 400,000 attendees from over 200 countries, making safety a top priority for all festival-goers, staff, and volunteers.

To enhance security measures, a temporary GeoZone zone was established around the festival site, requiring drone operators to obtain flight authorisation. Only drones operated by the police and festival organisers were permitted to fly within this area. Possession of drone equipment was also prohibited in the vicinity of the festival.

To enforce these regulations, the Police District of Rupel, responsible for security at Tomorrowland, collaborated with SkeyDrone. SkeyDrone's drone detection solution enabled the police to monitor air traffic in real-time, ensuring compliance with the GeoZone rules.

 
SkeyDrone installed a drone detection antenna next to the festival site

The system detected more than 1000 flights over the two weekends, executed by only 50 different drones. The majority of these flights were performed by drones from the organisation and the police. Hence more than 90% of all detected drone flights were authorised. On top of being unauthorised, some drones exceeded the maximum height for drones in the Open Category of 400 feet (120 meters) above ground level or the distance limit of 500 meters between pilot and drone. The highest drone was recorded at 1642 feet (500 meters) above ground level and the maximum observed distance between a pilot and his drone was 1813 meters. As a result of these detections, the police confiscated 11 drones and several violations were reported to the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority.