Admittedly, we over-planned our ADE. As the team sat together in the week before, we whittled our party load down to about 6 a night, in addition to the mass amount of daytime content we wanted to attend. Of course, everything was stacked as far as much of the talent we wanted to see, across the city from each other. There was no way that we could make it as a team.
ADE always feels like some sort of mystical, familiar land. Nestled in beautiful, historic Amsterdam, it’s an odd juxtaposition at first of old and new. You could toss a ball into a crowd and hit a score of famous producers, DJs, and label execs. We got to hug old friends, make new ones (people really like our DoD bamboo fans in those packed, hot venues), and chat with people from all over the world at every turn. It’s amazing to be a part of something so global and large, that sometimes feels so tiny in our local market bubble in comparison.
We started our Wednesday out at the fashionable W Hotel. UNITY, a party featuring some serious house heavyweights, including Junior Sanchez, Todd Terry, Butch, Cassy, and Hiroko Yamamura. The spot was impeccably decorated, with a stellar view of the city, and a bumping Void sound system. Great party, great vibe, great music!
We also made a stop to De Club Up, where we dropped in on the LouLou Records, Animal Language, and Bunny Tiger labels yearly parties. This felt more like an intimate party den, with no frills, cheap drinks, and slamming house tracks.
Thursday’s highlights included a trip to the Monstercat pop up, which had demos of new merchandise and their VR game collaborations. You could also set up a time to meet with A&R reps, and loads of fans geeked over an appearance by Tokyo Machine. Next, we popped over to club Panama, and caught Alex M.O.R.P.H. banging out trance to a packed crowd. Lasers, lights, huge screens, and thick, positive vibes made this a choice night, as well as a sell-out for those trying to get in.
We ended Thursday with a trip out to Westerpark to see the Awakenings x Drumcode night. Another sold-out show at techno temple, we enjoy seeing over the top animatronic stage setups, choice visuals, and of course, indoor fireworks display. We caught Bart Skils and Leyton Giordani with a choice back to back, Maceo Plex, and Adam Beyer.
The only downside to Gashouder is club rain: the phenomena where the sweat of dancing bodies hits the ceiling of a dance venue with a cold roof, which causes it to condense and rain on the patrons. Yes, you might get a sweat shower.
Friday was another night for house music. Highlights included a trip out to Cafe Pollux to catch the lovely Sista Stroke and friends. We love the vibe of this small venue, which packs world-class talent into a warm and cozy, yet surprisingly danceable Dutch bar. We also enjoyed some quality people watching on the porch lining the canal, as people stumbled out of the adjacent black light district.
We then jetted off to the World Fashion Centre, for Defected Amsterdam, another sold-out stop of the evening. We had a blast and stayed through Gorgon City, Low Steppa, and Roberto Surace. This place got tons of points for some pretty decent club snacks, including popsicles, which helped with the literal wet sauna that was the main dance floor. In fact, we got club rain, which is something we’ve never experienced outside of Gashouder. We tried to find some cool Defected fans to help cool us off and act as some makeshift umbrellas, but merch was no place to be found (points to you, Defected, for having so many fans show up in and with Defected merch!). The only real downside was the ridiculous price of the lockers, which was twice that of any other venue of our trip, even though it only fit a single jacket.
Saturday’s highlights included another foray to the Luminosity showcase at Panama, where we caught Ferry Corsten, with a stark reminder of why he’s still at the top. On the way to the venue, the cab driver remarked that it was super cool that we were getting to see Ferry since he plays out more in other countries than his own. Points to the most knowledgable about trance person we’ve ever met outside of the nightclub industry.
Next, we hopped back over to Gashouder, where we caught Carl Cox commanding the dome. After a little over an hour, he was joined by Joseph Capriati for a b2b before Capriati went solo. Not many changes to the stage production from night to night, but we reminded ourselves that Awakenings actually had 2 venues this year – that they actually overflowed into Warehouse Elemenstraat, and that we could just waltz over there if we wanted a change of scenery.
Sunday is normally a day for day raging and outdoor dancing, but half of our crew was super sick, so we stayed in until we ventured out to Club Yolo. Despite the name, it was an amazing boutique club, with delicious, inexpensive drinks, friendly staff, and quality seating areas. It couldn’t have fit more than 100 people in the interior, the sound was incredible, surrounding the dance floor, and the ceiling lights were an admirable detail. This was almost one of the highlights of the entire trip, as we danced to Paul Johnson, Anfisa Letyago, DJ Pierre, and more. Although this was one of the most intimate shows of the trip, the vibes were thick, and music on point. Not that any of the rest of them weren’t, and maybe it was just a glorious closure, as we danced our last dance, went back to the flat, grabbed our stuff, rode to the airport, and hopped on an airplane.
Pros: Oddly cheap drinks in many places, popsicles in hot venues, no waiting in lines, even for the sold-out shows, and so much amazing music, talent, and venues, it just makes your head spin. Everyone is also ridiculously friendly, and the language difference is not a barrier.
Cons: Entirely too many things to do, it’s heartbreaking you can’t do them all. Odd recycling token program at all of the venues that none of the bartenders knew how to use. We ended up with a handful of these tokens every night. Some of the daytime content also seemed a bit basic in comparison to other years.
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.
