For those of you who don’t already know, the Amsterdam Dance Event, or ADE, is a five-day electronic music conference and festival held every October in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
ADE is easily one of the leading electronic music platforms in the world, accompanied by the biggest club festival that covers the whole spectrum and taps into every electronic sub-genre.
With this year’s edition currently taking place, we thought it appropriate to delve into the finer workings of the event. Here is everything you should know about the best dance music congregation in the world
1. ADE has been around since 1996. It started as a three-day conference, and has grown into a five-day conference + festival…
…that unites and provides a platform for networking, business and critical dialogue in the field of electronic music.
2. Every year, the conference picks focus countries and regions to concentrate on in terms of music, upcoming talent, technology and their general dance music scene.
This year Asian countries like South Korea and Japan are on the forefront, while Sweden is the pick from the European front.
3. ADE hosts the biggest club festival in the world.
Last year, included 2000 artistes, 450 events and 100 locations over a span of five days. How can that promise anything short of a kick-ass time?
4. Behold the DJ cook-off.
This event witnesses DJs battling each other in an intense cook off. You can imagine how incredibly fun this must be to watch. Seth Troxler seems to be the man of the competition as he’s won in the past three years.
5. Fancy a DJ masterclass?
If you’re an aspiring producer-DJ, attending ADE will probably be the best thing to happen to you. Masterclasses on almost everything to do with the technicals of production and DJ-ing.
ADE Next is a conference for any upcoming music professional. It is probably the only conference in the world that includes so many decision makers, DJs and other music professionals at one spot at the same time, “all dedicated to sharing their knowledge with the next generation and all looking for new opportunities.”
6. The ADE Playground is the most interesting part of the event.
The ADE Playground is the event’s latest initiative. It started as a new technology showcase but since 2012, it has featured more than 20 pop-up events, surprise daytime appearances by top DJs, special product lines, film screenings, and discounts in shops and bars.
(Image Courtesy : ADE website)
7. ADE Workshops are bound to blow your mind
This year, a workshop based on the experience 4-Dimensional music with Max Cooper and some other kick-ass sound geniuses will be a special ADE showcase.
4DSOUND sound will undoubtedly revolutionise the way that music is listened to. It enables you to walk through space and experience sound from all directions. Audio seems to hover in space, like a phantom. It moves around, above, beneath and in between the listeners. Led by your ears, you’re encouraged to explore the space. You can move between blocks of sound, touch lines of sound and even walk through walls of sound. The new sound experience hosts four nights of ground-breaking spatial sound performance at the Compagnietheater at the Amsterdam Dance Event this year.
8. A perfect place to network your ass off
Apart from being educative, ADE is also an extensive business platform and the world’s number one networking destination for the electronic music industry. Last year, around 5000 professionals sold out in record time.
This year, the speakers include Shailendra Singh from Sunburn, composer Hans Zimmer, DJs Markus Schulz, Martin Garrix, Seth Troxler, Hardwell, Pedro Nonata and many more.
9. This year, ADE Green will provide free drinking water for everyone attending the event
ADE Green is all about giving back to society. This year, a showcase called The Tapwater Project will be the highlight. This project aims to provide unlimited fresh water at the festival To facilitate this, you will find a free water pouch in your ADE conference bag for unlimited refills, with refill stations spread across the venue.
(All Images Courtesy: www.amsterdam-dance-event.nl)