We spent our Thursday day doing a little sightseeing and filming interviews, so we didn’t make it to conference.
We started off our evening at the Deep End Records boat party. Leaving out of Centraal Station, we joined a herd of smartly dressed Dutch onto a boat on the canal for 4 hours. It was chilly, but there were nothing but smiling faces aboard. With talent from Spain, Indonesia, The Netherland, and the USA, this was a warm welcome for our first international boat party.
When we took off, the sun had just started to set. We were surrounded by dancing people that wanted to hear our story and dance with us. There was no limit on age, sex, race, color, or walks of life. Kids took their parents, there were college buddies, and new love abound. As folks slung drink tokens in the basement, the dance floor got more heated as the sun dropped behind the trees at the canal. The sun set on the canal was breathtaking, over historical and modern industry buildings.
As we left the boat to a line of hugs as the cruise ended, we couldn’t help but be thankful for the ride.
Next stop for the evening was Hospitality, the Hospital records annual showcase at Paradiso. The show always sells out, so we were grateful for our ADE pass.
We got to the venue right as Kid Hops was on stage. It was just after midnight, and the venue was already pretty packed. The event, which was oddly 16+ (when was the last time we’ve seen that??), was a generally younger crowd than what we’d see back in the states, but still a good all ages mix. We immediately staked a spot, because we know how the Paradiso parties are… if you’re short, you want to be on the top of the stairs to the floor so you can see. Otherwise, the sea of tall Dutch makes it harder to really get a handle on your surroundings. Not that it’s bad if you can’t see, but we like to experience all of the visuals fully. We tried not to wander, because every minute that crept by, the harder it was to get to a spot with visibility. Still, patrons were incredibly polite, despite the ever more realistic sardine impression. Inja‘s ‘Fully Fuelled Flex’ (feat.) Whiney took the stage next for a short set of lyrical and visual bliss. Hospitality parties are simply a treat with all of the custom visuals that aren’t just someone’s name flashing on screen, but almost a lyrical experience telling a story alongside the MC.
By the time London Elektricity came on stage, we had a system of bathroom breaking, drink fetching, and space saving. London Elektricity (aka: Tony Coleman, Hospital Records’ label boss) is one of our favs, and the crowd went wild as he took the stage. His signature smooth sounds, with all of it’s head bobbing glory, reminds us why this is the event we never miss at ADE. Natrually, we lost our shit when he dropped one of our favorite songs ever, Just One Second, as backlight stained glass windows flashed, and people practically hung off the balcony singing in unison. As one of our dear friends said, after seeing our video from that moment, “This is what heaven is like.” We couldn’t agree more.
Journalist/blogger since 2009 and music lover since 1980. Bex now travels the world and writes and takes photos of dance events, creates art in various media, sings quietly to her cat in the shower, and occasionally builds something that tends to involve a blowtorch. She can usually be seen hiding behind some sort of camera rig.
