Rain, Raves & No Rest at Amsterdam Dance Event

It’s around 4am, and I’m stood at the balcony of Klaproos looking down at the crowd of dancers below, holding a can of Seltz and grinning ear to ear. PARAMIDA and BASHKKA have just followed Peach and Pancratio onto the main room’s decks. The crowd, once unsettled at the beginning of the night, is finally in sync and electric. This is what we flock to Amsterdam for. 

ADE isn’t for the faint-hearted. The industry’s who’s who and dance music enthusiasts travel far and wide to run around Amsterdam in the cold and wet weather (which at this point may as well be a permanent fixture on the ADE schedule). With over 1,300 events taking place all over the city across 6 days, if you want to go big at ADE, you must have a certain level of commitment to the cause. The cause being: scrambling across the city in Storm Boelo and staying up for a few days to hear the best sets money can buy, taking place everywhere from restaurants to forgotten factories. 

At times, our industry is plagued with pretentiousness, but this year my version of ADE bucked the trend. It's great because there’s so much choice at ADE, time is scarce, and the weather’s pretty bleak, so everyone who cops a ticket to something really, really wants to be there. With so much to see, it’s impossible to even scratch the surface, but what we did see impressed and inspired us in equal measure.  

Thursday: 

After arriving off the Eurostar, we drag ourselves to our hotel, The Generator, which is a chain of hotels/hostels situated in most major cities. This one overlooks the park (and so does our room via a floor to ceiling glass window, insane!). Immediately the place is buzzing with ADE attendees, and they’re even hosting their own events right there in the hotel. After freshening up and demolishing a delicious veggie bagel and latte in the hotel bar, I run to few meetings and interviews before it’s finally time to get stuck in.

Breakfast Club /w Limousine Dream: One Long Groove. DJ Sweet6teen (DE) / Dyed Soundorom (FR) / Gene On Earth (US) / Midland (GB) / Octo Octa (US) / Peach (GB) / Talaboman (NL) 

First up on the menu is One Long Groove at Pllek, a pizza restaurant turned double dancefloor, complete with an outdoor firepit. When we arrive, Octo Octa has just hopped on, delivering an almost hauntingly beautiful, euphoric set. Against the backdrop of the rain, she blesses us with a sprawling, never ending loop of emotional house and driving techno.

Next up, Peach and Gene On Earth arrive to thunderous applause, and we settle in for their 2.5 hour set. The pair are killing it, but when I return from smokers, it seems they’ve been having issues with hearing their sound. Peach grabs her bag and leaves the decks, and before you know it, Gene is wrapping up at 4:40am, just an hour after they came on. Confused and deflated, like everyone else, we pile into room 2 to see what’s on there, and it’s going off. As we elbow our way to the front, we discover that Peach and Gene have joined Midland, who graciously shared his decks for a surprise b2b2b for the ages. They drop the 2007 Go To Pieces (Danny Freakazoid Remix) by Soul Candi and the crowd loses their shit. Someone climbs on the speaker, and mist pours into the room. It's a proper sweatbox, and couples are kissing all around us. Limousine Dream was sexy, fun and unexpected. After getting stuck in the rain for an hour, dodging a £50 taxi before settling on one for £17, we were back to the cosy Generator in no time. 

Friday: 

Audio Obscura x EXHALE by Amelie Lens: Adiel (IT) / Amelie Lens (BE) / Anfisa Letyago (IT) / Blondex / Dax J (GB) / DJ Nobu (JP) / Ellen Trenn (DE) / Flour (IT) / Grace Dahl (NL) / HAAi (AU)

Our Friday line up is stacked. After some sleep and ramen, we head to the G-Star RAW's minimalist headquarters for some pulsing techno to wake us up. Inside the sprawling factory, we catch Adiel and Haai play b2b for the first time (which seems like it should have happened already by now) and the ladies don’t hold back. This is the definition of shelling it. Both playing on vinyl without a clang in sight, HAAi’s thumping heavy hitters were coming hard and fast as she sipped champagne, alongside Adiel’s signature, sprawling, world-building tracks. We left full and energised.  

I have a habit of overbooking my calendar. So we sadly missed Kiosk Radio's Sounds of Beligum at Pllek, and I was gutted. But the ADE rain and travel logistics had us down bad. My plus one was getting a bit wet and grumpy (fair), and before long it was time for PARAMIDA’s Love On The Rocks. 

PARAMIDA’s Love On The Rocks, Alexia Glensy (BR) / BASHKKA (DE) / Cassy (AT) / Fais le beau (BE) / Giammarco Orsini (IT) / Melody (FR) / Pancratio / PARAMIDA (DE) / Peach (GB) / Satoshi Tomiie (JP) / Simone De Kunovich (IT) / Vuur (NL)

Having interviewed Fabric’s newest, esteemed resident PARAMIDA the day before, I was keen to see her put on a show. With a line up stacked to the nines with b2bs of delight, it was sure to be a class act. When we arrive at the Italian restaurant Klaproos (complete with its own upstairs pub and pool room), we catch Peach and Pancratio come on to also smash their first ever b2b, as well as Alexis Glensy and Melody in room two. Soon, it becomes pretty clear this is probably the most sought-after event of the evening. A few people I know haven't been able to sort list for the first time in years, and Amsterdam’s extremely well-dressed crowd start pouring inside. Volkan Akin's live set was also a stand out, before PARAMIDA and BASHKKA’s grand finale, which had the entire room transfixed. Their set was a drawn out, silky, unpretentious paradise, and their ability to inject energy into the space blew us away. Hazy, sultry beats pulled everyone into the same rhythm, and a stripped back version of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean sealed the deal. Pure euphoria, the clips don’t do it justice.  

Saturday 

Alien Communications x Craigie Knowes ADE with DJ Masda, Reptant & Luna Ludmila 

A quick kip at The Generator next to our beautiful view of the park, and before we knew it, our final day had arrived. There was only one way to finish ADE: Alien Communications and Craigie Knowes’ event in, you guessed it, another restaurant, Café Café, which serves seasonal flavours and long lunches by day, and world class lineups by night. The place was intimate, low key, with a bit of edge to it. It was kind of like your-mates-first-event-in-a-local-pub, if your mates knew exactly what they were doing and booked Reptant.

The cloakroom ran on trust, bent hangers and puffers dumped in corners, and the singular room felt like an 80s disco but with spacey wobblers. After settling in with Craigie Knowes to a busy and heavily UK crowd (if northerners are in the mixer, it’s always a good sign IMO), we managed to scuttle towards to the decks for the optimum audio from the custom-made sound system. Once Reptant and Alien Communications came on, we were truly settled into the rave, the tiny dancefloor as one. Tiga's Mind Dimension (Adam Sellouk Remix) was mixed in and we leaped about, before DJ Masda squeezed past us and mesmerised.  

Soon, it’s 5am, and I need to scuttle home to pack for my 8am Eurostar, which was bleak as expected (worth it though). I crashed out and landed back in London for 12:30. When you don’t even feel that rough from the marathon, you know it’s a good time. With so much on offer, the beauty is that you can tailor ADE exactly to your taste.

📝: Kelly Washington