This year’s Amsterdam Dance Event – one of the most well-known conferences and music festivals in the electronic music world, and arguably the most dominant in Europe – has come to a close after this weekend. In its 22nd year, it yet again demonstrated its leadership as one of the most looked-to places for developments in the electronic music scene.
This year’s event broke records with a total of 395,000 visitors in attendance. Over 7,200 representatives from 90 countries attended the conference, and even more spent their time in clubs and venues across the city at ADE programming.
ADE also offered a wide variety of activities – from panels and lectures to live demonstrations and DJ performances – that covered all facets of the music industry. To name a few:
The ADE Soundlab offered the go-to place for DJs and producers to dive into the technical aspects of what they do and why they do it. Artists including Richie Hawtin, Tiga, Soulwax, KiNK, Oliver Heldens, Honey Dijon and many more shined a light on their work and gave us insight into their musical minds.
ADE’s Global View highlighted Morocco as a growing music scene where musicians are beautifully combining a bass line with local sounds that inspire them. China also hosted a special pavilion in which they hosted an array of activities for the music industry.
The nightly offerings – a mixture of label showcases, massive warehouse parties and more – were vast and filled with incredible music. Underworld performed at the Rijksmuseum; Sabo‘s Sol Selectas held a label showcase on Saturday night and Seth Troxler performed at Shelter as part of his label showcase, Play It, Say It ADE. No matter what type of electronic music you were interested in, there was absolutely something to fit your fancy.
