Why I Love The Amsterdam Dance Event

This years Amsterdam Dance Event was the best ever for me personally. I attended the event already a couple of times the last years, but never really got to the point where I thought I should get the best out of it. This year, I had to make the best out of it and it was absolutely worth it. Here are the things I experienced and absolutely love about the Amsterdam Dance Event.

Amsterdam turns into a Playground

The beautiful city of Amsterdam turns into one big playground during the ADE week. It feels like if you’re at one big festival, where the different venues represent different stages. There is so much to do all week, it’s actually way too much for one person. The Black-Yellow flags are everywhere in the city, the whole city is breathing dance culture. 

Partying at ADE

Organizers love to throw parties during the ADE. In the ADE app you can keep scrolling and scrolling to see what is happening during the night. Myself I went to a few parties during the week. 

On Wednesday I went to Braaf in de Balie, where Pig & Dan were playing. They played a good set and I managed to give my USB to them, so who knows what might happen in the future! Tahko did the closing set that night and a cool fact is that I will be doing a remix for his new EP on Distortus Music soon!

On Friday in the afternoon I had to play a set at Comfort Sessions, a gathering of a couple Techno organizations and a lot of DJ friends! Partying during ADE does not always have to be at night!

Later on Friday there was this really unique party at the Bicycle Passage underneath the Rijksmuseum where Maceo Plex would be playing. It was announced a week before and there were close to 60K registrations for this free party that could held only 2000 people. Luckily I got two tickets and witnessed this unique event! I heard there were 60 sound detectors spread across the whole Rijksmuseum in order to prevent paintings to fall of the wall due to loud bass. The fact that it was possible to throw a party at this location says a lot about how Amsterdam is embracing the Dance culture.

@maceoplex at Bicycle Passage underneath the Rijksmuseum! Track: @egbertlive & @secretcinema - Maximaal 🔊

Een video die is geplaatst door Mitch de Klein (@mitchdekleinnl) op

On Saturday it was time to pay a visit to my friends of Villa Kakelbont, who held a party at the Q-factory with names such as Joran van Pol, Enrico Sangiuliano and Juan Sanchez. It’s always a pleasure to meet up with people during a good party!

Network events

For people working in the dance music industry, the ADE is the perfect occasion to meet with both existing and new contacts. Every day, there are a lot of get-togethers meant for people to meet with each other.

For example, I went to the InDeep’N’Dance store a couple times because of a producers meeting hosted by Unrilis & Loose Records and some DJ’s were playing there as well who I wanted to meet in person! Besides that, the InDeep’N’Dance store was a cool place to hangout and listen to some music.

I stopped by at the Funk ’n Deep & Friends event, went to the Armada networking drinks, hanged out at Comfort Sessions, Orange Recordings Network event and so on. It’s really nice to see people finally in person instead of talking to them through email of Facebook. And besides seeing existing contacts, it’s super easy and fun to meet new people.

ADE Conference

Amsterdam Dance Event is a great place to learn new things about all that’s happening in the dance music industry. From Wednesday till Saturday, there are over 400 talks, panels, masterclasses, Q&A's you can visit. The only disadvantage is that sometimes two interesting panels take place short after each other on different locations far away from each other. You really have to make the right choices on which panels you want to attend. After each panel there is a short amount of time where you can easily have a talk with the speakers, so it’s a great way to introduce yourself and exchange cards or give a USB with music. A few examples of panels I attended were ‘How To Get Noticed On Your Socials’, ‘The Science Of Succes’, ‘Spotify: Solving Problems’, '25 Years Of Soma Records'.

Meeting people

As said, the Amsterdam Dance Event is the most important week of the year for everyone involved in the dance music business. That means it’s the perfect time to meet up with people, whether they are new contacts or existing. When you buy an ADE pass, you’ll get access to the Delegates database, which means you can see which people also attend ADE. With help of the website, you can contact them to set up a meeting. It’s no problem finding a good spot to talk, because there are special lounges (for example in Felix Meritis) meant for networking purposes. Besides making new contacts, ADE is the perfect occasion to hang out with your ‘internet friends’. I found it more valuable to talk with each other face to face instead of Facebook Messenger. A big advantage: you’ll get to know new people much easier as your friend can probably introduce you to some other people standing nearby as well! 

 

Now, almost three weeks later, results of attending the ADE are already visible for me. I can't wait for next year! 
Have you attended the Amsterdam Dance Event and have you experienced something great as well, or do you just want to discuss the event?
Let me know in the comments!

Mitch de Klein

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