The Amsterdam Dance Event is the world’s
biggest club festival with over 450 DJ’s/artists performing
in 40 of Amsterdam’s finest venues. Last year 57,000
clubbers came to Amsterdam to see DJ Tiësto, Sven Väth
and Ricardo Villalobos, Bugz In The Attic, Dave Clarke, Fedde
Le Grand, Kraak & Smaak (nl), Carl Craig (us), Josh Wink
(us), Paul van Dyk (d), Miss Kittin (f), Sander Kleinenberg
(nl), Benny Benassi (i) and many others.
Apart the festival, ADE is also a music conference for professionals
in the electronic music field with over 1450 professional
participants and companies bringing their DJs and artists
to Amsterdam resulting in one of the most challenging programs
in the electronic music realm.
Basically it’s like the Miami Winter Music Conference
but in Amsterdam.
Amsterdam Dance Event Review...
In its 11th edition, the Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) surpassed
all expectations - proving its place as the preeminent international
dance music summit.
Comprised of a daytime conference for industry and a series
of nighttime programming events, ADE succeeds in no small
part by keeping the two integrated, yet separate. The daytime
is for business with panel and meetings at the Felix Meritus.
The nighttime is for parties and social events. By keeping
the two scheduled separately, no one is missing meetings to
run off to the National hotel pool party for an open bar.
Starting daytime events after twelve noon insures everyone
has had enough sleep to be sentient after going out the night
before.
A music industry event where business occurs - what a unique
concept! The Amsterdam Dance Event succeeds, with the Felix
Meritus bustling with nearly 1700 registrants.
An ingenious registration system organizes everyone by category
(label, producer, artist, manager) so that its easy to email
people to set up meetings. Numbered tables are set up on three
floors with CD players and computers for registrants to demonstrate
their wares. Badgesurfing is also a great way to catch people
you might have missed.
The daily panels covered everything from digital takeover,
new media, and Compilations to area-specific (Eastern Europe,
US and Asia) issues. Moderators from Billboard Magazine (Gary
Smith, Michael Paoletta, and Lars Barndle) as well as industry
heavyweights Pete Tong, Josh Wink, Dave Clark, and Ben Liebrand
kept the discussions going by bringing out viewpoints and
controversial topics throughout the three days. See the next
page for some interesting quotes from the artist panel that
featured Paul Van Dyk, Nick Warren, Benny Benassi, DJ Pierre,
Joost Van Bellen, and Armin Van Buuren.
The bar at the Felix Meritus served as a meeting point as
well a spot for impromptu performances. Popping in for a drink,
I had the luxury of catching a fierce house set from Glen
Thornton (Slaag) with impromptu vocals from Dawn Tallman,
CeCe Peniston, and MonaLisa. Where else is something like
that going to happen
Sheer diversity of musical genres is another strength of
the event. ADE embraces all commercial and underground genres
of electronic/dance music - drum & bass, house, techno,
breakbeat, trance, tech, downbeat, hiphop - in both panels
and nighttime events. With over 550 artists and DJs performing
at 41 local venues, there was room for everyone to come to
the party. Door-drama free entry for registrants and reasonable
cover charges for punters made clubhopping painless - a nirvana
compare to the nightmares of admission to Miami clubs during
the Winter Music Conference. This was a point not lost on
the nearly 60,000 people who attended the parties over three
nights.
While it was nearly impossible to make it to every party,
a few personal highlights were Ron Carroll taking the crowd
to church at Defected, Addictive TV's VJ set at Paradiso,
MC Bunty chanting as Mike Van Loon spun the Fierce Angel party,
A Skills throwing down at Finger Lickin, Number One DJ Paul
Van Dyk at Escape, DJ Isis getting intimate at the Supperclub,
and buzzman Fedde Le Grand at the CR2 event. I wish I could
have gone to more, as there were so many great options every
night.
If you are at all involved in the dance music industry, plan
to register and attend Amsterdam Dance Event 2007. If you
are a dance music lover looking to enjoy 3 nights of phenomenal
dance music from top international talent, plan to attend
ADE 2007. Just be sure to explore the city and check out a
few museums and parks during the day as well!
