Amsterdam’s most open-minded festival returns for its 2017 edition this July!

The Milkshake Festival will go live on Saturday 29th to Sunday 30th July and is known over the world for its message of free love and tolerance. A collaboration between Amsterdam’s two biggest clubs, Paradiso and AIR, the Milkshake Festival believes that ‘nothing should be mandatory, anything is possible’.

A celebration of freedom and diversity, the Milkshake Festival will take place at the Westerpark culture park. This marks the 6th edition of Milkshake and will feature the Wham’bam Thank You Ma’am stage, as an homage to Wham, in honour of George Michael. Stage hosts from around the globe have confirmed their participation, including Dutch artist Erwin Olaf, who will tell a story through performances, light, and music as he has in previous editions of the festival.

Transformer by Joost van Bellen and Zubrowka International will be making its second appearance too. Transformer celebrates the transformation in many different forms, from falling in love to the transgender community.

There will also be a number of international contributions from Paris, London, Cologne, and Berlin. Paris’ Less Drama More Techno emerged from the less-is-more way of thinking. The WUT? CLUB from London will feature controversial colourful club kids, rebelling against traditional thinking. Germany will present Sexy Party Cologne, renowned parties that occur at the Bootshaus in Cologne, famously noted for their participation in one of the largest Gay Prides of Europe. Ostgut Ton is an internationally renowned record label owned by club Berghain in Berlin, which is famous for its fetish influences and is still seen today as the leading techno club in the world, with resident artists including Ben Klock and Len Faki.

The festival where ‘nothing is mandatory, but anything goes’, is home to diversity in any and all forms. Thick, thin, small, large, gay, straight, trans, black or white; Everybody is welcome here. Amsterdam and Rotterdam will be represented equally. “De Trut” which translates to “The Bitch”, is an Amsterdam non-commercial disco for dykes and queers since the year 1985, and provides a good atmosphere and good music. There will also be leather and fetish shops by Damage by Mister B, which has been a representative of the fetish scene since 1994. Rotterdam will be represented again by NOW & WOW and Liberated, whilst Gaybar will make his debut appearance by Spacemaker, and photographer Ari Versluis who will do the visuals.

Watch the teaser video for the 2017 edition of Milkshake here!

Watch out for a line-up announcement coming very soon! Check out their Facebook page here.

All images are courtesy of Milkshake Festival.