Amsterdam Dance Event 2017 - 3 key performances
More than a festival, the ADE can also be compared to a marathon. With 375 000 participants and 1 000 parties planned on a period of time of 5 days and all announced between July and October, it is a real brain teaser to plan ! So the only resolution we took and the best piece of advice we could give to someone thinking about attending the festival is : don’t plan too many parties, make choices and stick to them.
But more than an accumulation of parties in the same cities, it is an incredible event with that particular atmosphere insofar as it gathers all the music passionate from all over the world in one of the best european cities. A pilgrimage than any electronic music lover has to make at least once in his life. And no description, no photo and no video can completely transcribe the singularity of this festival. That is why we will only focus on the three events that marked our experience.
If you have never been to Thuishaven, you should know that it’s probably what comes closest to party heaven. This venue is basically a winter circus situated at the outskirt of Amsterdam with three stages : one in a container and two underneath two different marquees. A tropical ambiance was set underneath the first one whereas the second one was truly circus themed. What best than this setting to hear the Life & Death team led by DJ Tennis then ?
The mood of this event was more focused on the global picture, the festive ambiance, the atmosphere provided by the sets but also the settings and the animations so much so that we decided to let ourselves be carried away by the party and not to worry too much about the timetable - even if that meant missing DJ Tennis. Oops. We then ended up dancing to the sets of Jennifer Cardini, Red Axes, Moscoman and Jackmaster. And the highlight was probably the performers that were wandering among the crowd : artists juggling with luminous skittles, girls wearing luminous dresses and carrying beautiful totems looking like fluorescent jelly fishes that from afar seemed to be floating on the crowd and also a long red chinese dragon. A magical day and evening !
Hivern Discs at De Marktkantine
On paper, this Hivern Discs night was already super promising : John Talabot to play a B2B with Alicia Carrera (Artistic Director of the label), plus a set by himself, plus another B2B with Giegling member DJ Dustin ! A quite interesting line-up with an unexpected B2B to close the night. But this was nothing compared to what we all experienced.
The club was already pretty full when we arrived around midnight. We first went to see John Talabot who was taking his time to build a mesmerizing atmosphere by blending one downtempo track after the other in the small room. Unfortunately, it might not have been Alicia Carrera’s night as her few mistakes interrupted the flow and made us leave the room, only to find a great performance by Genius of Time in the other room. They managed to convey their energy to the public through their characteristic groovy house rhythms. They left a pretty excited crowd to DJ Justin who kept the flow going with an impeccable selection of tracks.
We could all feel the excitation in the room when John Talabot arrived behind the decks. A balcony right behind the DJ booth allowed some of the attendees to watch the master at work. Every movement, every choice of his, every loop he made seemed to be made with utter precision. And what was more incredible to watch was how his eyes were focused on the CDJ’s when doing so.
And as one could expect, the b2b between Talabot and DJ Dustin was truly excellent, one of the best performances we saw in a long time ! Dustin, all smiling and dancing brought his special touch with dreamy synth waves on groovy beats to which Talabot added his legendary precision and more upbeat techno rhythms. A perfect combination that kept the crowd enthusiast until 8.15 am.
After Audio Obscura with Dixon B2B Job Jobse
We truly hesitated between going home and going to the after party. What we had witnessed at the Hivern Discs Night was so incredible that we weren’t sure if we wanted to hear anything after that. Anything seemed like it would sound dull after that night of magic. By the time we took our decision, it was already late and we thought it would be too late to get in. But determined to find an after party after that regain in motivation, we headed to the Shelter for the micro house VBX after-party. By chance it was then located right next to the Amsterdam Tower and we got a note that accredited press - as we were - were allowed to enter the Audio Obscura After Party. A disco elevator took us to last floor of the Tower and its door opened to an energetic crowd packed in front of a DJ booth controlled by Job Jobse and Dixon. Everyone was dancing their hands in the air and we could feel that the ambiance of the party was singular. The big windows of the room offered us an incredible view of the sun rising on Amsterdam. The perfect setting for this very special moment.
If Dixon ended up leaving around 11am, exhausted from the combo Innervisions night + after party and after delivering a good B2B, Job Jobse kept the party going until 3.30 pm transcended by the crowd. Oscillating between deep techno tracks, classic electronic tracks (Pachanga Boys - Time) and pop classics like ABBA and A-ha (Take on Me), he managed to grasp the mood of the party to give us unexpected moments and feed our energy at such an advanced hour of the day. A party that most of the attendees will remember.
List of Attended shows (9):
- Bicep live @ Paradiso ++++
- Afterlife @ Medihaven +
- Thuishaven Life and Death +++++
- After Breakfast Club +++
- Hivern Discs @ De Marktkantine +++++
- VBX @ Shelter ++
- Audio Obscura Job Jobse B2B Dixon @ AM’Tower ++++
- De School party +++
- Photon @ Gashouder ++
