Amsterdam. The city that doesn’t sleep, and one we seem to never tire of. It is of no coincidence that the Netherlands is seen as a haven for music festivals, hosting more than 700 annually across many genres of music.

ADE captures a huge array of these as hosts of various parties throughout the five days. A great variety of names, parties, promoters and festivals from the electronic scene can all be found here for this monumental event.

You really sense something special is happening in the city from the moment you step out of Schiphol Airport and are greeted by giant billboards promoting various events, or by the hundreds of flags throughout the city. At every corner there is a party, conference, or talk hosted by the over 2,000 artists attending over the five days.

This year marked the 21st edition of this remarkable event. We were instantly captured by the electric vibe throughout the city, with smiles on everyone’s faces and every person more than willing to offer help, advice, directions or just have a friendly chat.

We started off our adventure on the Friday and went straight to the Compagnietheater to receive a one-hour lecture by one of the most creative artists Techno has ever produced; Richie Hawtin.

The Canadian pioneer held a one- hour talk about his new PLAYdifferently mixer. This new fully analogue mixer is the Rolls Royce of mixers.

Seeing how his mind works is fascinating in itself, but to then see his set up and provide us with a live performance masterclass in a dark room in Mediahaven is nothing short of mind blowing.

Hawtin performed under very dim-light lights, leaving only a silhouette of himself to be seen mixing over four channels on Traktor and two spurs on Ableton Live run through his laptop; plus a drum pad to create some of the darkest minimal we have heard in years.

On Saturday we headed to Verknipt to catch three of Paradise’s hottest residents, Patrick Topping, wAFF and Russ Yallop. The venue for this tech house loaded party was Amsterdam Studio, a venue rather dark and intimate which seemed perfect to host the Wednesday resident’s of DC10, a club of rather similar layout and feel.

The visuals were kept to a minimum with green and purple lasers brightening up the otherwise very dark dance floor with the kick drum kicking in.

Topping got behind the decks and welcomed us with the timeless classic ‘Welcome to the Jungle – Thick Dick’ leaving nobody standing still. As he turned out tech house anthem’s of the finest quality the crowd was smiles with euphoria all round. Just before passing over to wAFF and Russ Yallop, he played ‘Swim – Danny Daze’, which has to be one of the best tracks this year.

The very much Techno focused track gave us all the final kick we needed before the fine back to back session we were about to witness. wAFF captured the crowd right from his first ballad, before Yallop then had his turn in showing us his finest tracks.

It seemed like the pair of them were having a competition between them of who had the most energising tech house tracks. Their great mood and smile wore off onto us in the crowd as we experienced one of the best tech house sets we had ever heard. The atmosphere was buzzing right until the end, with wAFF seemingly reluctant to stop even with the promoter repeatedly asking him to.

Sunday was a day we wished would never come, the last day of this astonishing event. Nonetheless we embraced it with full commitment and started by seeing none other than the almighty Sven Väth. Adoringly called Papa Sven by his fans, twenty years ago he established one of the most globally recognised techno brands, Cocoon.

To celebrate he hosted ‘20 YRS Cocoon’ at Stadspodium and gifted his fans with a three-hour journey into his world of techno. You could tell Sven has become a superstar in the scene who has captured fans worldwide throughout his thirty-five-year career, as the dance floor varied hugely in age and demographics.

Once he started his set with his first beat, the hugely diverse crowd united in joy and passion for techno and the godfather of the genre. Sven carried on taking us into a deep journey of techno, which told a story of highs, lows and exceptional joy.

We decided to catch the last 90 minutes of Darius Syrossian B2B LEON B2B Detlef at Do Not Sleep’s party in an industrial estate by the water. The setting was a small tent filled by relentless fans of the excellent Ibiza event row.

The size of the tent and its distant location gave the party a fantastic intimate feel, which Syrossian and co used to bring us inspiriting tech house with more than its fair share of funkiness.

The highlight of this thumping back2back2back has to be Syrossian playing ‘How we do – Raffa FL’ and getting us all bouncing one final time at ADE. A fantastic track with a distinctive urban taste to it, which really leaves nobody querying what to do other than dance!

Amsterdam seems to really bring out the best in people, and at this city wide dance event it seemed to go one step further. The DJ’s performed at dizzying heights, with no performance being anywhere near average.

Its impossible to imagine this event being held in any other place, which also adds another layer of charm to it. The liberal city with a deep understanding of culture fully embraces events like these.

Amsterdam Dance Event you have set the bar sky high, and we cannot wait to see what you have in store for us next year. Till next time!