The Dutch have finally received good news. Amsterdam Dance Event is scheduled to take place this year with new restrictions. Many feared it would be canceled after the government reimposed COVID-19 restrictions. However, it will go on as planned from October 13th – 17th. It will have 75% capacity and clubs will close at midnight.
Initially, this Summer was supposed to have festival after festival in The Netherlands. It was going to be like the olden days. Numbers were low and restrictions were actually removed. However, after only a few weeks of that, the Dutch government reimposed the restrictions. Cases surged and they even linked it to the Verknipt Music Festival. Just like that, almost all Summer festivals were canceled.
The Dutch people became restless and banded together to form the Unmute Us Protests. Over 350 Dutch festival and event organizations joined the protests too. 150,000 thousand people took place in the protests and it seemed to actually work. Without it, who knows if ADE would have actually been scheduled to go on.
While ADE will semi-go on as planned, AMF and ADE Pro were canceled. AMF is the biggest concert during the event and ADE Pro is the international conference. ADE Director Meindert Kennis had this to say in a press release:
“Ever since the press conference, we have been overloaded with messages from organizers willing to do everything they can to push forward with their events within the current measures…The decision to postpone ADE Pro, for many music professionals the most important business moment in the year, was especially difficult in the time that the industry needs it the most”