Monthly newspaper and online publication targeting 18 to 35 year olds. The ultimate guide to the hottest parties, going out and having fun. Music, fashion, film, travel, festivals, technology, comedy, and parties! London, Barcelona, Miami and Ibiza.
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7 35 Issue 68 / 2014 FESTIVALS guestlist.net The legendary ADE wows the Guestlist team! Now in its 19th year, Amsterdam Dance Event is a certified Mecca for anyone in- volved in the vast spectrum of electronic music. With 300 events and 2000 perform- ers during the 5 days in 80 clubs and venues, we decided it would be madness not to hop across the channel and get involved. First stop was Mixmag's early evening par- ty in partnership with Ciroc vodka on the Thursday. Held in a smaller, chilled out bar right next to Trouw, we enjoyed sipping on our hard-earned free Vodka cocktails whilst appreciating Ben Pearce's set on a sound- system which belied the size of the place. Af- ter a quick detour to sit in the child-size car decorated with Hawaiian Leis in the smok- ing area, we realised it was time to head home for a disco nap. Three hours later and we were napping on the metro to Air club in Rembrantsplein, for the massive All Gone Pete Tong night. Tong is a man who needs no introduction, and his All Gone parties have become a staple across the globe. We were immediately taken aback by Air itself - it features two vertiginous balconies looking down onto the main dancefloor, as well as a darker, cooler room 2 and a whole network of little rooms and tunnels. Strips of light run up and down the ceiling and panels above the DJ booth, whilst the soundsystem was floor-shaking. However, it ran an infuriating "Air Card" system for buying drinks - even tap water - which led to a somewhat chaotic bar situation. We arrived in time for the start of the irrepressible Heidi's characteristically pure, jacking house set. New Yorkers Walk- er and Royce kept a solid vibe going in the deeper and darker room 2, but when it was time for the man himself to appear in Room 1 the whole club flocked onto the main dance- floor. Tong's set sent the crowd crazy and was well-suited to the theatrical vibe created by the balconies. On Friday we felt refreshed and ready to take on Amsterdam. Our first stop of the evening was the DGTL Paradise party, held at the incredibly atmospheric DSM Scheeps- bouwloods, a sort of enormous warehouse complex that was only reachable by ferry - a great start to the night already. We arrived to find Richy Ahmed playing a set that could only have been described as "smashing it", and come 11pm the venue was already packed out with excited ravers dancing un- der red lasers and orange "Paradise" signs. Jamies Jones looked satisfied as he chilled in the booth with Magda, who came on at 1am and kept up and built upon the heavy pace set by Richy, but it was already time for us to hop on the last ferry back into the centre. It was time for us to check out Sasha's Dream Don't Sleep night, held at the Concertge- bouw, right in the middle of the famous Museumplein. When we told our taxi driver where we were going, he was horrified - in his eyes, it was if the Royal Albert Hall had been turned into a club. It was a truly spec- tacular site: having secretly sneaked my way through the deserted VIP bars and golden cupids and into the upper dress circle with my photographer friend, I was truly taken aback by the scale of the event. Thousands of sweaty ravers were packed into the bot- tom dancefloor and up the stairs behind the DJ booth, backed by an enormous old or- gan. Maceo Plex's set was perfectly accom- panied by flashing blue and red circles and strobes of light. However, the venue did have its restrictions - the event closed down at a positively early 3am. On Saturday, after a long accidental car tour of Amsterdam and all its outskirts, we finally located the ultimate warehouse venue. Anja Schneider's impressive deeper house set in the brick-walled, high-ceilinged, blue-lit room 2 helped to ease us into the night, but the main attraction of the night was in the even bigger "room 1" - a space which has to win my personal prize for "most phenom- enal lasers" in a venue ever - the powerful, colour changing beams of light messed with thousands of sweaty raver's minds as they danced to Sidney Charles and Santé b2bing to create an unapologetically relentless tech-house set, which earned them genuine applause all-round as they finished up at half 4am. It was a big act to follow even for the legendary Hector Couto and Darius Syros- sian who were next up. They kept up their hard-earned reputation, however, and suc- ceeded in keeping the madness going and the (unexpectedly numerous) shufflers on their toes. The journey home the next day was perhaps the most painful of my life, but there was no doubt it was worth it to experience such a huge part of dance music history. However, with so much going on every day, it's impos- sible to leave ADE feeling totally satisfied. Now we've had a taste of it, we are all deter- mined to return year on year in an attempt to totally experience all that Amsterdam has to offer in this famous few days of dance music paradise. WE SURVIVED AMSTERDAM DANCE EVENT - JUST!