LUCID x Amsterdam Dance Event

Last Wednesday, we embarked on our first-ever Lucid trip to ADE, the holy land of electronic dance music, which was celebrating its 30th anniversary, and boy, did it deliver. Braving stormy conditions and a grim weather forecast for the week ahead, we landed early Wednesday morning and set about exploring the city and getting to grips with how it all worked. ADE has been a staple for electronic dance music fans for decades, growing tenfold over the years in visitors and events. In preparation, we spent hours scrolling relentlessly through the hundreds of events taking place, working out what to prioritise, because the range of talent on show and the stacked line-ups were, simply, outrageous.

Exploring the Event & Industry

For the rest of Wednesday, we got on top of emails and ticked off a few meetings, which was a great chance to meet new people and compare notes for the days ahead. In the evening, we dropped into pop-ups, including a house set at Bordello Aperitivo, before braving the rain and venturing over to the Because Music x REX event at Radio Radio, where the likes of Logic1000 and BAMBII laid down high-quality sets throughout the night. It was great to see familiar faces from across the industry who had gathered there, and to meet new people too. Not wanting to overexert ourselves, we headed back to rest, ready for another busy day on Thursday.

By the time we’d wrapped up emails and work it was time to head to our first event of the day at !K7 Records, who had one of their recent DJ-Kicks artists, Dam Swindle, playing a beautiful array of house and disco in a small, packed-out bar on the canal. Even though it was relatively early in the day, the energy was high. Afterwards, we headed across the road to Resident Advisor’s Greenhouse event, one of the most anticipated within our wider circle thanks to its stacked line-up, including the likes of Zack Fox, BASKKA, Nicolas Lutz and Marcel Dettmann, who rounded off the event in style. Taking place in a sleek wine bar called San Francisco, RA had set up its own soundsystem, which churned out immaculate sounds across the house, techno and electro spectrum. With darkness falling, we just had time to pop into the HÖR x Sennheiser pop-up, which was bouncing, before settling down to eat with a couple of close friends and editors from UK magazines.

The Weekend

Friday was definitely the busiest day in central Amsterdam, as hundreds of thousands more punters arrived in time for the weekend’s antics. With plenty of British accents across the centre, it was amazing to see people connect over something they all had in common: electronic music. By this point, we were already seriously impressed by ADE and what Amsterdam had to offer.

After dipping into Café Schuim in the early evening to catch some drum and bass in a traditional pub (the soundsystem was crazy), we headed out of town into the suburbs to a small independent record shop called Tale Of Bus, where the legendary Craig Richards was booked to lay down some of the best chuggers and dancefloor wobblers. Arriving at an industrial park reminiscent of Bermondsey’s Venue MOT, we tracked down the venue and swiftly stepped into what would turn out to be our favourite party of the week. Tucked away in an almost garage-like building was a small creative space and record shop that looked like someone’s living room, with decks at the back, where Craig Richards seamlessly skipped between records in front of only about 50 people, over another impressive soundsystem. It was the perfect size: intimate, with everyone on good form and enjoying the tunes.

Not wanting the night to end, we headed off in the early hours to our final event of the week at Lofi, where VBX delivered a stellar line-up of Francesco Del Garda, Christian AB, Dresden and others, laying down perfect sets across two high-ceilinged, warehouse-like rooms holding around 2,500 dedicated heads. Once it hit 6am we had to tap out, but many others carried on into the late morning. Staring out of the taxi window at the crack of dawn, we shared our thoughts on ADE, both saying how impressed we were with not just the clubs and soundsystems but also the people and communities of Amsterdam who have helped shape the festival into what it is today.