Arguably the world’s favourite dance music festival and definitely one of the most popular one’s, Tomorrowland will once again invade Belgium this weekend, marking its ninth chapter with an expected attendance of over 180,00 fans hailing from over 214 nations around the globe in a fantastical setting. With a lineup large enough to boast of over 400 artists, the pool of headliners at Tomorrowland 2013 alone trumps a number of other events across the planet. No genre is left unacknowledged, and the odds of discovering new talent are certainly in favour of the attendees.

Fitting its fairytale theme, the elements of TomorrowLand are indeed storied. Though with a festival of such magnitude also comes some tough yet critical decisions. Now, we agree that for fans at Tomorrowland to navigate and see everything will be no easy task and that’s why we give you a grand list of 10 essentials you wouldn’t want to miss out on this year at Tomorrowland.

So without further adieu, in the midst of an endless sea of talent, here are ten sights you won’t want to miss!

1. The ‘Main Stage’

The jaw-dropping design of the kineticFIELD stage at this year’s Electric Daisy Carnival was certainly inspiring but the mammoth ‘Main Stage’ at Tomorrowland remains a benchmark setting, legendary structure. Despite EDC’s multi-dimensional forest landscape and all observant animatronic owl, Tomorrowland is among a few handful of festivals that set and continually raise the bar for top-notch stage production.

The theme of the festival dictates the design of the Main Stage each year, and 2012 marked the most spectacular execution to date; the “Book of Wisdom” theme, which centred on the idea of a magical library, translated into a Main Stage comprised of almost impossibly large books stacked atop one another. Even the book’s spines had interactive elements, and the centre-most book opened and closed to reveal a video screen and a ghostly face etched into the pages.

It goes without saying that the Main Stage has come to represent a sensory overload of the highest order and with the rising production standards of festivals worldwide, we’re counting on ID&T to bring the festival experience to revellers like never before. With this year’s theme being “The Arising of Life”, we can only imagine the twisted Garden of Eden scene they’ll deliver.

2. The Tomorrowland Anthem

Each year the Tomorrowland anthem proves to be nothing short of spectacular. Not only living up to expectations but also holding the entire crowd to ransom, by getting them excessively excited and then throwing it at them with enough gusto to get any dance music fan in any part of the world to find themselves caught in the enchantment it has come to be known for.

Whether it be “Tomorrow/Give Into The Night” in 2010 or “The Way We See The World” in 2011 or 2012’s anthem “Tomorrow Changed Today”, each of them have left their own unique charm on fans and surely this years anthem, “Chattahoochee” produced by resident brother duo, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike will leave everyone across the world in awe once again; Click here to check it out now!

3. Tomorrowland – The Mobile App

Every year the festival has an app that usually is available for both Andrioid and Iphone, the 2012 app had the following features:

• Appmiral Connect – friend connect system which helps you locate your friend, you can also manually ask your friend to update their location.

• News Feed that updates regularly.

• Artist lineup’s, schedules and updates.

The 2013 version of the app comes packed with even more attractive features, which make it indispensable for any attendee. So if you haven’t downloaded the app just yet, get it right away. You will be wise to!

4. The 12-hour Markus Schulz marathon set

There’s no shortage of artist’s having their very own stages at Tomorrowland this year; Laidback Luke has one, for instance, as do Afrojack and Carl Cox. However, while others shall also feature sets from friends and label cohorts, Markus Schulz is opening, closing and headlining his own stage. Yes, you read that right: the trance icon will be spinning a marathon 12-hour set on Friday.

It’s not the first time Schulz has attempted such a wild feat of DJing: to ring in 2013, he spun an equally lengthy set at Los Angeles hotspot Avalon. Schulz explained his approach to his marathon sets on Twitter, writing that he aims to deliver the “full MS spectrum”. This includes a “deep warm-up, peak hour (what you usually hear), then — best of all — the “rabbit hole” period.

As Schulz tweeted, “I transition from peak hour Markus to after-hours Markus, [and] everything starts getting weird / trippy… It’s where the techno admirer in me comes out to play”.

With Boom serving as both the backdrop and inspiration for Schulz’s rabbit hole experience, we can’t wait to accompany him on the journey and are sure neither can you.

5. The Love Chapel

Even though we may not be planning on hitting up Tomorrowland’s Love Chapel — also called the “Church of Love” — ourselves, its presence on the grounds let us know that not only do festival organizers care about ‘every’ need of the attendees, but that they have an ample sense of humour to boot. The Love Chapel is a small structure with nothing but a bed inside, manned by scantily clad, “nuns” wielding condoms. Don’t believe us? The video below, from Tomorrowland 2012, explains it all.

6. The Boozebag

The catchy name aside, the Boozebag is part of Tomorrowland’s total immersion. Rather than paying for food and drinks in cash, festival goers can purchase a bag full of coins to use as currency instead. The 50-euro pouch comes with 35 coins, as well as a limited edition map of the festival. With the ‘Boozebag’, your festival would never have felt so… magical.

7. The Heavyweight Bout

This might just be the best experience at the festival this year. Dance music bigwigs Nicky Romero, Afrojack and David Guetta shall be closing Tomorrowland with an unprecedented back-to-back-to-back Main Stage set. Will the stage collapse under the weight of these three titans? Will they create the most epic bootlegs ever? Will the trio be joined by even more headlining DJs? So many questions, soon to be answered and boy oh boy, the wait is killing us!

8. The stunning lakes & magical boat rides

Tomorrowland is full of mystical lakes and trees, with a ride on the rentable paddle boats a popular choice, many relax by the lakes which serves as a chance to escape the crowd with your other half for a private moment and take in the majesty as music pulses quietly in the background. Breathe it in, and get back in the game. You’re never too far away from a break from crowds at Tomorrowland 2013!

9. After parties at Dreamville

If you are looking for a 24-hour party at the festival from the arena to the camping sites then Tomorrowland 2013 is the place to be in the summer. Whilst the festival arena opens at around 12:00 and finishes around 2am (subject to change) the party continues in the Dreamville camping zone for those people only however, who have the weekend pass.

10. The Tomorrowland After-Movie

Perhaps we could be getting too ahead of ourselves with things, but we’re sure that we aren’t alone when it comes to the excitement which surrounds the Tomorrowland after-movie. The 2012 video has been viewed over 82 million times to date and, just like those from years past, it manages to turn the festival experience into a fans fairytale.

From the stunning aerial shots of the festival grounds and Main Stage sets to the perfectly mixed soundtrack, the after-movie is 20-plus minutes of larger-than-life festival bliss and a gentle reminder of why hundreds of thousands of fans made their way to Belgium and why they should, all over again.