NEWS
EVENTS
Amsterdam Dance Event: we experienced the maddest week of the year in the city of freedom
House | Friday 24th October 2014 |
Now in its 19th year, Amsterdam Dance Event has established itself as a sort of mecca for anybody with involvement anywhere on the electronic music spectrum. With 300 events and 2000 performers during the 5 days across 80 clubs and venues, we decided it would be madness not to hop across the channel and get involved.
First stop was Mixmag's early evening party in partnership with Ciroc vodka on the Thursday. Held in a smaller, chilled out bar right next to Trouw, we enjoyed sipping on our free vodka cocktails whilst appreciating Ben Pearce's set on a soundsystem which belied the size of the place. As great as his house and disco tunes were, he was competing for our attention with the child-sized car decorated with Hawaiian Leis in the smoking area.
Whilst some of us went back for a quick power nap, some went on to Tini and the Gang in Cruquiusgilde which was way out in a desolate warehouse in an industrial estate - we drove past it five times. It was an amazing way to start the week - it came complete with an indoor forest, snack bar and sick vibes. On deck duty was Tini, along with Anthea and Dana Ruh who also stood out as big players. With the impecabble vibe and mad sound system, you knew it was Tini behind the decks when we arrived....the perfect jumping-off point for days of mayhem.
Some of us went on to Air club in Rembrantsplein, for the massive All Gone Pete Tong night. Tong is a man who needs no introduction, and his All Gone parties have become a staple across the globe. We were immediately taken aback by Air itself - it features two vertiginous balconies looking down onto the main dancefloor, as well as a darker, cooler room 2 and a whole network of little rooms and tunnels. Strips of light ran up and down the ceiling and panels above the DJ booth, whilst the soundsystem was floor-shaking. However, it ran an infuriating "Air Card" system for buying drinks - even tap water - which led to a somewhat chaotic bar situation. Whilst the line-up for the night did look great, we couldn't help but notice the crowd was very commercial, which was probably due to the club's tourist-trap location.
We arrived in time for the start of the irrepressible Heidi's characteristically pure, jacking house set. New Yorkers Walker & Royce kept a solid vibe going in the deeper and darker room 2, but when it was time for the man himself to appear in Room 1 the whole club flocked onto the main dancefloor. Tong's set sent the crowd crazy and was well-suited to the theatrical vibe of the place. However, unable to purchase any drinks and aware of the marathon weekend ahead of us, we took the sight of sparkler-adorned bottles of Grey Goose as our cue to call it an evening.
On Friday we felt refreshed and ready to take on Amsterdam. After a canalside brunch at the wonderful Bar Spek (the best food spot in Amsterdam in my opinion), plus stops at a record store, vintage camera store and coffee shop, we meandered through the streets adorned with bright yellow ADE flags and into the Vondelpark, where a "chill-out session" was being held in a pavilion/treehouse hybrid. Soft reggae and dub filled the fairy-light filled balcony overlooking the autumnal leaves in the early sunset light - it was a magical moment of calm that we needed before embarking on the night ahead.
Our first stop was the DGTL Paradise party, held at the incredibly atmospheric DSM Scheepsbouwloods, a sort of enormous warehouse complex that was only reachable by ferry - a great way to start the night. We arrived to find Richy Ahmed playing a set that could only have been described as "smashing it", and at 11pm the venue was already packed out with excited ravers dancing under red lasers and orange "Paradise" signs. Jamies Jones looked satisfied as he chilled in the booth with Magda, who came on at 1am and kept up and built upon the heavy pace set by Richy.
Whilst one half of the Guestlist crew headed on elsewhere, it was time for me and my photographer to check out Sasha's Dream Don't Sleep night, held at the Concertgebouw, right in the middle of the famous Museumplein. When we told our taxi driver where we were going, he was horrified - in his eyes, it was as if the Royal Albert Hall had been turned into a club. It was a truly spectacular site: having secretly sneaked my way through the deserted VIP bars and golden cupids and into the upper dress circle with my photographer friend, I was truly taken aback by the scale of the event. Thousands of sweaty ravers were packed into the bottom dancefloor and up the stairs behind the DJ booth, backed by an enormous old organ and surrounded by ornate decor. Maceo Plex's set was perfectly accompanied by flashing blue and red circles and strobes of light. However, the venue did have its restrictions - the event closed down at a positively early 3am.
We spent much of of the night taking photos with the famous amsterdam sign and going on a nocturnal stroll of the seedier sides of the Dam - although this weekend was full of the most respected names in the music industry, there were still plenty of the typical tourists who seemed blissfully unaware of the historic event, as they whitied out dutch pancakes under the warm glow of the neon lights of the various "sports bars" of Amsterdam's version of Leicester Square.
Some of the Guestlist crew headed down to Sugar Factory to hit up Jazzy Jeff and Friends, the night hosted by MN2S and legendary hip hop star Jazzy Jeff. We got there, and for some of us, that's about all the memory we have of the night. For the rest us - we were in the club with arguably the greatest hip hop DJ that's ever lived in the middle of ADE. Suffice to say, Sugar Factory was rammed. Jazzy Jeff dropped tune after tune of classics, moving seamlessly from genre to genre. Let's just say at the end of his set, you knew you'd witnessed a momentous occasion. Next up, one of only a handful of DJs that could follow on from Jazzy Jeff's classic set - DJ W!ld. His set, mainly comprising of his own production, was an ADE-defining few hours of madness. W!ld's sexy, disco-tinged set was a break from the relentless uhn-tiss of the ADE landscape.
We were glad of it when the sun decided to show its face for Saturday, making it a perfect day to eat pancakes and nearly get run over by irritated cyclists. But the real attraction, of course, was our big night ahead at Westerunie, featuring an enormous lineup with 6 artists each from Avotre, Mobilee and 100% Pure & Fire in the Disco.
After a long, accidental car tour of Amsterdam and all its outskirts, we finally located the ultimate warehouse venue. Anja Schneider's impressive deeper house set in the brick-walled, high-ceilinged, blue-lit room 2 helped to ease us into the night
However, the main attraction of the night was in the even bigger "room 1" - a space which has to win my personal prize for "most phenomenal lasers" in a venue ever - the powerful, colour changing beams of light messed with thousands of sweaty raver's minds as they danced to Sidney Charles and Santé b2bing to create an unapologetically relentless tech-house set, which earned them genuine applause all-round as they finished up at half 4am. It was a big act to follow even for the legendary Hector Couto and Darius Syrossian who were next up.They kept up their hard-earned reputation, however, and succeeded in keeping the madness going and the (unexpectedly numerous) shufflers on their toes.
Those still going by the end of Westerunie decided it was nowhere near time to end the night. We soldiered onwards with Seth Troxler's fledgling, yet already infamous, Big Tittie Suprise Party in our sights. None other than deep house god Kerri Chandler was behind the decks when we stepped up to the dancefloor, lording it over the sweaty masses who'd shattered the 6am barrier and were jacking at full energy, spurred on by the abundance of giant statues of genitals and ubiquity of sex dolls blown up and suspended from the rafters. We gleefully joined them until closing time when the lights came on - but nobody left for a good, long while. I think I speak for everyone when I say I was left with the sense that I'd witnessed something special and significant, judging by the screaming and clapping standing ovation Chandler received long after his exit.
The journey home the next day was perhaps the most painful of my life, but there was no doubt it was worth it to experience such a huge part of dance music history. However, with so much going on every day, it's impossible to leave ADE feeling totally satisfied. Now we've had a taste of it, we are determined to return year on year in an attempt to totally experience all that Amsterdam has to offer in this famous few days of dance music paradise.
@MrOshi @Cristinaxt @MiriamEJohnson
