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Ask anyone who has been to Tomorrowland and they will tell you that there is something special about the place. Something that you don't get at any other festival on earth, this also carries over to its attendees. In our case, these are the amazing Australians that are a part of the Tomorrowland Australia Facebook group. Greg Williams asked me to join as an Admin in 2016 when he created the group. I am proud to say that I have been apart of building the community from the ground up. Since then, we have bought on five more admins and grown to over 9500 members.
This year we had several members of our Tomorrowland family in the fight of their lives against cancer. We did something we have never done before and raised money for a charity and our charity of choice was the FUCK CANCER organisation. To date, we have raised thousands of dollars through the sale of custom flags, tops and hoodies which we normally make zero out of and do it for the love of our community. We have supported many of our members though tough times.
Sunny Ho is one of our members, two-and-a-half years ago they gave him 6 months to live. He has fought and fought and about 6 months ago he was in a great place and was kicking Cancers ass!! He then booked the trip of a lifetime to hit the shores of Europe for the first time and complete his dream of going to Tomorrowland. In the months leading up to his trip, he started to take a turn for the worst. The doctors started to find more tumours, which meant more Chemo, putting his trip in jeopardy. Sunny was not letting this stop him and was constantly moving flights and cutting his trip shorter and shorter so he could attend Tomorrowland.
Days before he was due to fly out he got the heartbreaking news that he had 5 more tumours in his brain.
This forced Sunny to cancel his trip completely; it crushed not only him but all of us. I was not stopping this getting Sunny to Tomorrowland, even if it was only in spirit. I contacted Jacqueline Hoogendijk who runs the Tomorrowland Lovers Facebook page who organised a write up in the Tomorrowland Newspaper about Sunny on the Friday of Weekend 1.
In that write up, it mentioned that Don Diablo was Sunny’s favourite act, and he wishes he could have been there to see him. Thanks to Alwyn D’souza who is Mc Stretch (Tomorrowland Main Stage Host) Media liaison we could get a copy of the paper to Don himself who was so touched he said that he might even do something for Sunny on main stage.
Before we knew it, this happened.
As far as I know, no main stage artist has given a shout out to an individual attendee or in this case a non attendee, he even dedicated a song to Sunny. Don also sent a personal video message to Sunny and signed one of our custom made Tomorrowland Australia flags. I am told that all the Tomorrowland Management and Crew were shocked and very moved by this amazing tribute.
This all happened on the Friday of weekend 1, the next day I was getting reports that Code Black an Aussie Hardstyle act had given a shout out of support to Sunny.
I was at Dom Dolla when this happened.
I reached out to Australian House DJ Throttle who more then willing to sign Sunny's flag and take time out of his day for a chat. The love and support we as a community received from Tomorrowland itself and the Tomorrowland online community was unbelievable.
The way we came together as a nation under the flag of Tomorrowland was not only heart warming but bloody amazing!!
This is why I love Tomorrowland and the community we have created here in Australia.
People in Australia have such a negative view of electronic music and the people that attend Electronic Music events. Here at BTD we are working hard to change this negative stereotype and highlight the amazing people and events that are happening all over the world.
Sunny has decided that he wants to say FUCK CANCER and do everything he can to get to Tomorrowland next year.
Should this happen, I will be right by his side.
If you or anyone in your life has been affected by cancer you can donate to FuckCancer though the link below.
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