If this year’s budget didn’t quite stretch for the airfares to Belgium and a ticket to EDM extravaganza Tomorrowland festival, don’t be too disheartened. Billboard.biz reports that the three-day fantasy themed event is just the latest in a string of music festivals to jump aboard the live-streaming bandwagon – but with a slight difference.

Tomorrowland TV is being touted as a “first-of-its-kind live-stream-meets-produced-program” which will screen globally on YouTube throughout the festival (running July 27-29), and remain available thereafter.

This means anyone in the world with access to the interwebz and a fast enough connection can see the likes of Skrillex, David Guetta, Avicii, Steve Aoki and Afrojack tear up the decks, as well as witness what may well be Swedish House Mafia‘s unofficial farewell. No only that, but they’ll get to experience the much-hyped production values of ID&T, which last year included the standard fireworks and pyrotechnics, but also themed stages (including an evil clown, a woodland nymph with glowing eyes, a castle straight out of Candyland) and the Church of Love – the perfect alternative to getting your freak on in a two-man tent.

“The time is right,” Patrick Walker, Senior Director of YouTube Music, Europe, Middle East & Africa told Billboard.biz. “TV is underserving music, particularly EDM. Online and YouTube have become the premiere destinations for the consumption of music videos. All of these things together, plus a dream artist line-up, made this seem like a very natural partnership.”

The collaboration comes off the back of last year’s “after-movie”, which has seen over 43 million hits. Tomorrowland TV ‘s live streaming of performances will be broken up by behind-the-scenes peeks and interviews with the artists, along with pre-show packages being filmed as we type looking at the various stages of preparation for the festival. It might not be the same as seeing the delights of Boom’s De Schorre National Park with your very own eyes, but it sure beats watching The Shire.

Image: T. Vermorgen