Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) is an experience like no other. I have tried to explain it to friends over the years and honestly, it does not compare to seeing it for yourself. This was my 3rd straight year of going to ADE and I think I will go for life. It is an incredible 5 straight days of music, conferences, networking, and so much more. By the end you will be ready to sleep for 20 hours straight… but of course ready to do it all again next year.
ADE has already announced the 30th edition taking place October 22nd to 26th 2025. In addition, they will be collaborating with Amsterdam 750. It will celebrate the 750th year anniversary of the Dutch capital and will see many events taking place in Amsterdam throughout the year. I don’t want to jump ahead too far, but next year might really be something special. Let’s first recap how memorable this year was.
ADE is a special place where producers from around the world can come together and collaborate. The whole Dance music industry is there, eager to connect with their peers. If you are looking to break into the industry ADE is the place to go.
The City of Amsterdam
I don’t think there is a better city to host the biggest EDM conference in the world. By day, you can experience parties or run around the city to the many tourist attractions. By night, you will have so many shows or festivals to choose from.
I find Amsterdam to be so charming to just bike or walk through. The streets are fairytale-like and you might find yourself saying “This looks like Harry Potter“. And that is ’cause it does! The buildings are irregular and jolt out around the curved streets.
The city’s layout is perfect for walking but made for biking. I traveled from event to event on the bike and it’s a necessity. Plus you feel like a local too. You can also take the tram or Metro which is option #2 in my view. Driving around and Ubering is not a viable option as it tends to take longer and will be expensive over time. I did Uber to events farther out of the city, AMF for instance.
The Dutch are my favorite people (outside of America of course). They are very welcoming and super nice at shows. They are social and have very warm energy to them.
ADE Conference Events
If you have a Pro Pass you can attend as many events as you can get to. This is of course if you get enough sleep (not likely). The conference events centered around Felix Meritis but there are many other locations for talks. The events look into the future of the industry and feature talks on a variety of topics for all industry professionals.
Some of the biggest talks of the week included Martin Garrix and Friends, Chris Lake & Aluna talking about vocal sessions, Amelie Lens & Charlotte de Witte, and so much more. Sara Landry also talked about her rise in Techno.
Indira Paganotto & Joseph Capriati explored creative synergy. Mappa had some great events from Artist Branding: How to Build an Artist Brand to Creating Faster Than You Can Overthink.
The ADE Festival
Now to the real fun of ADE. There were more events than you could imagine during these 5 days. The ones I chose to attend were from personal preference and of course no slight to the many many amazing shows around the city. With the Pro Pass, you can hop around to multiple events if you choose. It helps if they are in the inner city rather than the entertainment district about 30 minutes away via the metro.
On Wednesday, I kicked off ADE with Merow, Mesto, and closed with Oliver Heldens at Melkweg. Heldens played a very HI-LO focused set and I was happy. This was my most hopping night and it was fun to explore 3 different venues via bike.
On Thursday, I continued to hop around first starting at STMPD Night at AFAS Live. It was a stellar lineup filled with immaculate production from Martin Garrix’s label. One of my favorite sets here was Dillon Francis B2B Julian Jordan. After this show, I saw Matroda, Westend, and San Pacho for some afters.
On Friday, I saw Tomorrowland Unity of Symphony for the first time. This was 100% my favorite experience at ADE this year. It was incredible to see a symphony play all of my favorites from Avicii to Martin Garrix to Swedish House Mafia. The 2nd half was filled with DJs including Hardwell being supported with live music. After this show, we headed to the Paradise X Loveland experience at Mediahaven. Chris Stussy and Jamie Jones threw down as always.
To close ADE off (because I was too tired to go out Sunday) I headed to the biggest festival of the week AMF. Some would say it is the crown jewel of ADE with it welcoming over 40,000 attendees. AMF takes over the Johan Cruijff ArenA with the help of Insomniac and makes it into a massive party. The lineup this year featured Martin Garrix, Tiesto, Timmy Trumpet, Maddix, Wade, Marlon Hoffstadt, Tita Lau, Monocule, and Showtek.
