The Journey TO the Festival - what to expect
On the Thursday morning that your train/bus package starts, you’ll head to the station in advance to pick up all of your travel packet and your Dreamville/GJ wristband. My suggestion is to be there at least an hour early if you’re on the continent and much earlier if you’re in London (security and passport control required).
At the station you’ll get a TML drawstring backpack, your Dreamville bracelet, and your train tickets TO the festival (you’ll do the same on the way back), so the tables will be outside of the ticket scanning areas. Sometimes it’s super easy to find the TML table and sometimes it’s kind of hidden. Check your country’s facebook group to see if others have been there earlier in the day and can direct you to where to go in the station. For example, the table in the AMS main train station is hidden on the main floor in the very back of the station on the eastern end.
The last time I went through London, the table was upstairs by an elevator.
You’ll end up waiting in a rather long line depending on your train time to get your packets. In order to get them, you’ll need each person’s passport that’s in your group but you won’t all have to be there. Probably best to just have one or two people hang out with your luggage and the other(s) go wait in line.
Keep in mind that your train will only be partially sold out to TML people, so there will be normal citizens on your train as well. The trains are typical European longer distance trains so there’s space on the ends of each carriage that’ll hold big suitcases and space above your seat for smaller stuff. They do also usually have charging ports at the seats. Your seats will be randomly assigned by TML, but your group will be together.
Once you arrive in either Brussels or Antwerp, look for TML staff to direct you to the coach buses outside of the station. These will take you out to Boom. Your big luggage will go down in the hold and anything you’re carrying will go on the bus with you. The bus ride can be about an hour depending on where you’re coming from (Brussels is farther than Antwerp).
The coach will actually just take you to a giant field near the festival grounds where you’ll probably be in a line of 10+ coaches waiting for local buses to arrive to take you in. Most of the bus drivers only speak French and they won’t communicate with you at all, so don’t be surprised when this happens. You can sit there for about an hour sometimes depending on how busy it is when you arrive. They do have restrooms on them, but you’re probably better off using the train station restroom if you can.
Once it’s your turn, the coach will unload everything and you’ll grab all of your stuff and hop onto a local bus that’ll take you to the end of a road that you’ll walk down to get to the festival grounds.
Easy tents and Montagoe will go left and Mag Greens will go right. Will call is just outside of each camping area. So, if you need Will Call for either Easy Tents or Montagoe, go to that area – the lines will be much shorter. Keep in mind while everyone can get into the Mag Greens area, the only bracelets that can get into Easy Tents or Montagoe are those that are staying there.
When you check in to your camping area, they’ll ask for your Dreamville pdf that TML will have emailed to you. I’d suggest having that downloaded to your phone in advance since service isn’t great once you’re inside.
They’ll scan that and then, at least at Easy Tents and a few other places, they’ll give you your “street” and tent number. Then they’ll go through all of your luggage for inspection and send you in to the area. Staff will be on hand to help you find your tent and unlock it for you.
And then the day is yours to spend as you want! I’d probably suggest heading over to the main area of Mag Greens with the market and the TML apparel store. This is where The Gathering will be held that night and there will be a bunch of food and drinks stands open. You can also explore the other things that area has to offer like pickleball, the gym, the hair salon, the yoga area, and the beach volleyball.
On Friday when the festival starts, you’ll go the opposite direction of Mag Greens to get in. Dreamville has its own entrance to the festival itself and the lines are never too crazy. They do check your bags on the way into the festival and will pat down some people, regardless of gender but they’re not too crazy about it
Inside the festival you’ll find all of the same food stands as outside, or even more. The Thai food right at the Dreamville entrance is a fan favorite as is the Banh Mi stand in the main dining area. You really can’t go wrong with the food though – it’s way better than you’d ever expect.
As for stages, go see them all, even if your what my friends call “a mainstage bitch” haha. You’ll be surprised by how creative the sets are and how many new artists and types of music you’ll come to love!
On the way out of the festival
One important thing to keep in mind when you leave the festival on the last day – give yourself at least 2/2.5 hours from festival exit to arriving at the train station. You have to do the entire process from the first day backwards, and it can take forever. Particularly if you’re heading back to London on the Eurostar, you need to give yourself plenty of time because you’ll need to do security and passport control in the train station just like you would at the airport. It’s always safer to get to Antwerp or Brussels early and just go grab some food rather than miss your train. Since most of the trains are already sold out because of TML, there’s a good chance you can’t get on another one for a while.
If you're curious about the process for buying tickets or a packing list, check out some of my other posts!
Comentarios