Tomorrowland Brasil 2024
Tomorrowland Brasil 2024
This is me completing my Tomorrowland experiences with Tomorrowland Brasil 2024! My friends and I booked the Global Journey ticket, staying at Novotel Itu on the day of launch. We realised, that the tickets for what we booked for were still available about 1.5 months before the event so it means it doesn’t sell out as fast as its Europe counterpart. I thought it was partly because it is the most expensive package of all as well but considering its the closest to the festival and also the best accommodation, it was our best bet.
View from the room of Marriot Executive Apartment Sao Paulo
We arrived into Sao Paolo the day before and I stayed at Marriot Executive Apartments Sao Paulo which overlooks the city skyline. It offers free parking and that was helpful as we rented 2 cars to drive to Itu. The drive there took us about 2.5 hours and when we drove into the state, we quickly saw many brown road signs to direct us to Tomorrowland Brasil. GPS took us to Novotel Itu and we were ushered into the reception as we left our car with the valet.
Here are my personal thoughts as well as tips on Tomorrowland Brasil:
You don’t have to drive - taking a taxi to and fro airport and your accommodation may cost the same, if not, lesser than renting a car as you have to pay parking fee, rental and petrol just for the journey. Alternatively, you can get the bus package. The only downside is the inflexibility of your schedule.
Take the shuttle to the festival - they have 3 timings to send you to the festival and each time, multiple buses. You can rest or prep in the bus and you alight about 200m from the festival entrance, although I have to mention that this entrance is also further away from all the stages. Shuttle back to your accommodation begins at 11pm and its almost non-stop so you get onboard pretty quickly and you sleep on the way back.
I went to all 5 stages and notice that some of the music seem to have some samba beats to it, something which we don’t quite hear during Tomorrowland Winter and Summer.
The bathrooms and general area have more trash than the Tomorrowland Winter and Summer.
Bring a jacket for the night as temperature can fall to about 15 degrees celsius which can be cold even for men. I had to put on a jacket for all of the 4 nights.
If you can’t speak Portuguese, it’s best to take Global Journey packages as everything is taken care of because most of the locals we met on the way to the hotel speaks little English. Even some of the crew of Tomrrowland can’t communicate in English i.e. food vendors, wait staff, carpark attendant etc. Our group had 3 Brazilians so it was easier for us.
You can refill your bottles with water during brunch and dinner so it’s not necessary to purchase water from the hotel nor travel to supermarket to get water for hydration.
Novotel Itu and what it offers for people of Tomorrowland
Checking in was a breeze. Rooms were pre assigned before arrival so changing of rooms was not possible since the hotel was full. The reception gave us a wristband with our hotel room tag that we were to wear for our entire 4 days stay. We were directed to the Tomorrowland counter to collect our treasure chest, bracelet, shuttle wrist band, welcome pack and drinks with compliments from Budweiser.
I was lucky to get a room with balcony and on the top floor overlooking the resort and the greens. We can use all the facilities of the resort which includes tennis courts, table tennis, gymnasium, swimming and jacuzzi pool, spa and 5 playgrounds (for kids, which in this case was zero).
There’s brunch daily from 9am - 2pm till the day of check-out and dinner from 12am - 4am from The Gathering Day and they do not check your rooms since everyone are there for Tomorrowland so you are free to eat multiple times or stay for the entire duration during meal times. Whilst the food offers changed from eggs, pancakes and sausages to rice, pasta and meat from 9am . 11.30am and 11.30am to 2pm respectively, they always have salad, beverages, fruit and dessert section. Dinner is mostly fried food like fish and chips, chicken schnitzel, nuggets etc.
The gathering shuttle begins at 6pm but since we had the car, we decided to drive, only to realise that there was no parking available for The Gathering despite us purchasing 3 days of car park voucher. The organiser let us park near the entrance of The Gathering as they recognised that there was a lack of information on their part. Unfortunately, it rained out so we head back for our “dinner”.
Day 1 of Tomorrowland Brasil
It was a slow day for us and after brunch, we explored the resort, played table tennis, used the gym and lazed at the pool before heading back to prepare for the night. We drove to the festival at about 5pm, and got our car parked about 6pm. The walk from the car park to the festival gate was at least a 30 - 45 minute walk for at least a 1.2 - 1.5km walk and during which, it started pouring. We were prepared for it and brought ponchos but the rain came too quick and we were drenched even before putting our ponchos on. We headed straight to the comfort area of the Main Stage as that has shelter. Thank goodness the rain stopped after about an hour and we went to the decks and danced our night away. Going back to the hotel took us the same time to walk to the car park but the build up from the traffic took about an hour to clear so we got back to the hotel at about 2.30am despite leaving around 12.45am (slightly before the last set ended at 1am). One thing to note though - the entrance/exit from the carpark is closer to all the stages.
Day 2 of Tomorrowland Brasil
We decided to take the shuttle on the 2nd day to experience it and I have to say, it was better than driving. I took the 3pm bus, did my prep on the bus i.e putting on accessories and stickers on my face and I still had some time to nap. The journey took about 30 minutes from Novotel and we alighted about 200m from the festival entrance. This is a different entrance from the carpark one and you’d have to walk about 15 minutes to the stage area. I went to all the stages today and only 3 stages has comfort area:
Main Stage - It has the biggest Comfort Area deck, offers table service and a different food menu from the festival grounds, It has about 20 bathrooms for the ladies with a couple of dedicated janitors (who couldn’t cope during peak hours at night). The bathroom area still got rather wet and littered with tissues.
Core Stage - No food options nor table service. Has only 2 unisex bathrooms.
Freedom Stage - I would think this has the best location as it’s right beside the DJ deck so you get a very close view of the DJ and a view of the entire dace floor like what the DJ sees. It has lack of ventilation and no bathroom nor table service here though.
It was very hot in the day, a stark contrast from the night before and I did perspire a little so its good to find shade! We went to the Main Stage after sunset and there were still tables available for us to place our drinks on and that space was very much appreciated. We left when the last set ended at 1am and although everyone was leaving at the same time, there wasn’t any long queues for the bus, neither were there people pushing their way through, rushing to leave. Everyone was orderly and I felt very safe.
Day 3 of Tomorrowland Brasil
Again we took the 3pm bus and this time around, we spent the afternoon at Core and evening at Main Stage. Being the last day, the set with Alok was the best with very impressive drone shows and here’s the video of it. The last set was Charlotte Witz and since none of us really liked techno, we went to Core instead. It was packed and we almost couldn’t get in to the Comfort area as it has reached its maximum capacity. After the final set ended, many people still hung around, waiting for an encore and yeah, there was - for another 5-10minutes. I remembered the walk from Core to the shuttle service as VERY LONG cause Core is the furthest stage from the main festival entrance and it felt like eternity since I was sooooo tired from 3 days of partying. I got back and laid on my bed right away.
Check-out Day
The check out time is at 12pm and although they mentioned that any check-out after 12pm will be charged according to the hour overstayed, none of us got charged when we checked out between 12.30pm - 1.30pm. The process was also easy too - we told the reception our room number, left our luggage with the concierge and went on to have our brunch which would end at 2pm. Some of my friends left while I stayed on as my flight out of Sao Paolo was at 6pm. I lazed by the pool, used the jacuzzi and the bathrooms before leaving at about 4pm. No one came up to us to check if we are guests or not so its perfectly fine to stay on if you have to.