While the internet and modern technology offer us innumerable ways to connect with everyone and everything...

it is important to cherish the offline connection that can be nourished by a shared meal around a quiet table.

Oasis of peace

Music festival Tomorrowland is one of the biggest electronic music festivals in the world. For two weekends in July, the small Belgium town of Boom (population ±16.000) is transformed into what might be the greatest show on earth as 400.000 electronic music fanatics complete their pilgrimage. Headlined by the best DJs in the world spread across more than a dozen different stages, from the breathtaking main stage, to an indoor arena with nearly a square mile of LED-lighting, and from a fire breathing dragon to an organ of harmony, each stage is crazier then the next. But within the fever-dream setting and the constant blaring bass beats you can find an oasis of peace and tranquility: restaurant APERTO.

Connection through food

APERTO was designed from the ground up as a means to connect people through the universal language of a shared meal. When you take your seat at the long communal tables in this converted greenhouse, you are surrounded by strangers. An hour later, as you finish your meal, you leave in the company of friends. Such is the power of the APERTO experience, where each day, Tomorrowland invited a chef from a different part of the world to lead the kitchen team. Chef and DJ Nick Bril, of two Michelin star restaurant The Jane in Antwerp, worked with these chefs to make them true ambassadors, and to showcase that festival food shouldn’t be limited to burgers and fries, but expanded to include a genuine connection.