The Biggest Parties at Amsterdam Dance Event 2024

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Amsterdam Dance Event will consist of over 1,000 events. Here are five great starting points if you don’t know where to turn.

Needless to say, Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) is a big deal. Don’t be be fooled by the lineup announcement — it’s much more than a festival. ADE is a giant constellation of concerts, panel talks, art exhibits, and after-hours gatherings, plenty of which operate autonomously from the conference itself, and it’s only grown bigger as time has passed.

The 1996 debut edition of ADE famously took place in a single hotel, De Balie, with after parties running later at local clubs like Paradiso, Club Escape, and Melkweg (more on the lattermost venue later!). Only 300 delegates attended this seminal event. Since then, it has expanded to include over 1,000 gatherings at more than 200 venues that collectively bill over 3,000 artists across each five-day installment.

Ahead of the 2024 edition of ADE — which will run from Tuesday, October 16 – Sunday, October 20 — you might feel overwhelmed by all the options at your disposal. Let us point you in the right direction. Read on for some of the most popular events going on during conference for an authentic Amsterdam nightlife experience.

The Biggest Parties at Amsterdam Dance Event 2024

Awakenings ADE

Plenty of ADE guides available online will tell you to pace yourself, that “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” and you should avoid going too hard too early in the week. We think you’re fully grown (well, if you are fully grown) and can make your own decisions. Awakenings‘ daily events at Gashouder and Ziggo Dome can get you all the way into ADE mode as early as Wednesday if you’re willing.

Every day of ADE, the techno festival brand is hosting parties headlined by the likes of Adam Beyer, Amelie Lens, Four Tet, Joseph Capriati, and Adriatique. A number of them are already sold out — but second-hand tickets are available on sites like StubHub and Ticket Swap.

When: Wednesday, October 16 – Sunday, October 20, 2024
Where: Gashouder (Klönneplein 1, 1014 DD) and Ziggo Dome (De Passage 100, 1101 AX)
Ages: 18+
Tickets: PURCHASE HERE

Dave Clarke Presents

While he’s not Dutch himself, Dave Clarke‘s namesake event series has been a fixture of ADE since long before the globetrotting DJ relocated to Amsterdam from the UK. Dave Clarke Presents happens to the longest-running event under the ADE umbrella. With a lineup carefully curated for fans of dance music’s specialist side, it’s easy to see why.

This year’s edition will feature performances by Detroit mainstays Octave One and DJ Stingray, German DJ and producer Len Faki, and UK techno figurehead Paula Temple. It takes place in both rooms of Melkweg, a factory building-turned-club with more than five decades of history in Amsterdam nightlife.

When: Friday, October 18, 2024 11pm
Where: Melkweg – Lijnbaansgracht 234A, 1017 PH
Ages: 18+
Tickets: PURCHASE HERE

Dockyard Festival

Another Dutch brand that has now operated for ten years is none other than Dockyard Festival. To celebrate, it’s adding a second event. The main festival will still take place at Amsterdam’s Havenpark, while Dockyards Warehouse Festival will make its grand debut at former industrial space Hembrugterrein — both during the day on Saturday.

The outdoor festival has billed house and techno mainstays like Anfisa Letyago, Chris Liebing, Juliet Fox, and Eli Brown. The warehouse festival just added Indira Paganotto to its lineup, complementing other respected names like Artbat, Partiboi69, and Adiel B2B Grace Dahl.

When: Saturday, October 19, 2024 12pm
Where: Havenpark (Wethouder van Essenweg) and Hembrugterrein (Hemkade 18, 1506 PR)
Ages: 18+
Tickets: PURCHASE HERE

ADE Revealed Label Night 2024

ADE isn’t all underground music. Far from it, in fact, as the Netherlands is home to some of the world’s most famous superstar DJs. One of the most notable among them is Hardwell, whose Revealed Recordings label just celebrated its tenth anniversary. Now in its second decade, the imprint is raising the bar on its annual ADE gathering.

When Revealed takes over the Q-Factory, music will be split across two areas: the Legacy Stage and the Destiny Stage. According to a description, the former highlights “old-school EDM” thanks to “artists who helped shape our journey” like Dyro, Dannic, and Sick Individuals. The latter aligns more closely to Revealed’s “big room techno” sound of late, billing the likes of Sub Zero Project, Nifra, and Olly James.

When: Saturday, October 19, 2024 10pm
Where: Q-Factory – Atlantisplein 1, 1093 NE Amsterdam
Ages: 18+
Tickets: PURCHASE HERE

Verknipt ADE Sunday | The BIG Closing

What better way to close out ADE than a party hosted by Verknipt? Hard techno is all the rage in 2024 as evidenced by the event brand’s record-breaking summer gathering. Lots of people with their fingers on the pulse of dance music will surely flock to AFAS Live to see what all the fuss is about.

In the main room, artists like Nico Moreno, Xenia, and Fantasm will demonstrate what hard techno is all about. Meanwhile, in Studio 2, Remon Verhoeve, Nice Keed, and Negativ will offer a counterbalance. Altogether, it will be the ideal setting to exorcise every last demon left in you before returning to everyday life.