On Friday 23rd of October we released ‘Drift, a new track by Amsterdam based BlackBeach.
BlackBeach is a live electronic 3-piece from Amsterdam. Their sound ranges from space to rave, organic to energetic. Expect rapid beats, melodic synth riffs and extreme modulations, all generated live.
Read more
Listen on Soundcloud // Spotify // Beatport
Rad-Ish #014 – Kickstarting AADE: on ADEV as a movement with Layla Gijsen
In this episode, we dive into the intersection of art and organizing with Layla Gijsen. Layla, aka dj Sjaak, is an Amsterdam based graphic designer, illustrator, dj, and programmer. We walk through what we can expect from ADEV as an alternative to the commercialization of ADE, explore how as an artist Layla navigates the balance of being situated within commercialized and non commodified spaces, and how her art reflects on social structures and struggles.
Listen on:
AA website // Soundcloud // Spotify // Youtube
Now online: Fragmenta #003 - Tatiana Spiewak & Sarah Zechut
Interview with choreographic duo Tatiana Śpiewak & Sarah Zechut about their new performance ‘The upgraded woman’ (March 2026) and their first piece, which they performed in the boiling heat and chaos of the Amsterdam Alternative part of the Ring party on the 21st of June 2025.
Amsterdam Alternative just launched a new video department called Fragmenta.
Check out the Fragmenta page for more info about this project and how to join as a video maker.
Amsterdam Alternative publishes articles about free spaces, gentrification, politics, climate, music, art, housing and other urgent topics. We publish in our bi-monthly free newspaper as well as online.
See all articlesIn Amsterdam groeit een beweging die haar woningen al zelf beheert - en die nu ook haar digitale leven wil terughalen. In een stad vol wooncoöperaties, voedselcollectieven en vrijplaatsen draait vrijwel alles op Google, Microsoft en andere Amerikaanse techgiganten: de data zit opgesloten bij bedrijven die ver achter de oceaan de dienst uitmaken. Sergei Zhilin en Danny Groenewegen denken dat het anders kan. Met eCommons bouwen ze aan een coöperatief digitaal alternatief: open-s
Techno has always been about providing safety for marginalised groups who use the dancefloor to escape from daily confrontations with discrimination and harassment. In light of its rising mainstream popularity, techno is now predominantly associated with Berlin’s Berghain, Black leather wear and illegal intoxication rather than free self-expression. Strict door policies further mystify techno into an exclusionary unknown; power hierarchies inside the club reproduce harmful social inequalit
Een jaar lang dachten 175 gelote Nederlanders na over klimaatbeleid. Het kabinet zegt de helft van hun advies over te nemen. Wie de kleine letters leest, vindt vooral beleid dat er al was, en besluiten die steeds verder vooruit schuiven. Op 29 mei 2026 krijgen de deelnemers van het Nationaal Burgerberaad Klimaat antwoord. Een halfjaar eerder leverden ze hun klimaatadvies in; nu komt het kabinet in Den Haag vertellen wat het ermee gaat doen. Ruim zeventig deelnemers zitten in de zaal als klima
In 2022, sound artist and ambient musician Joseph Kamaru, artistically known as KMRU, released Temporary Stored, an album built around archival recordings found in the sound archive of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Belgium. The project explores the colonial histories and structures underlying the preservation of sounds originating from different African communities. In 2024, he expanded the project with Temporary Stored II, a collaborative album that brings together other artists to rei
Amsterdam Alternative has initiated a wide variety of projects since 2015. Some were temporary but most are still running. Check some of the most current projects below or visit the projects page to see a full overview.
See all projectsFrom the 1st of February 2023 Amsterdam Alternative is running the cinema + bar on the second floor of the OT301. The spaces are being used for film & documentary screenings, discussion nights, comedy, music, dance performances, workshops, book launches, podcast recordings and more.
AADE is organised by Amsterdam Alternative since 2018. We started the AADE not as an anti ADE event but to offer an alternative music program that is more affordable, more experimental and far from all the commerce that comes with the big, and most often commercial ADE (Amsterdam Dance Event).
Anderworld is a record label founded in 2026 by Amsterdam Alternative. Not a traditional, hierarchical label, but a cooperative, post-capitalist initiative focused on music, research, and experimentation. Alongside joy and creativity, we stand for collective ownership models, community meaning, hope, and radical imagination.
Sometimes, you sense it. A gesture, a sound, something pulses quietly beneath the surface of the city. A story waiting to be heard. Rad-Ish is a podcast about the silent dreamers, everyday radicals and hidden dissenters who keep the city alive. We seek out the voices of the underground, the pillars of movements that often go unseen yet build the foundation for collective spaces and a desirable future for the many, not the few. On a regular basis we release a short episode where we pull that little red thread that runs through Amsterdam, from the people directly shaping alternative culture to those nurturing it in the background. We're here to pay attention to those who resist the obvious, and talk to those who quietly practice other ways of being.
Thanks to all the talented photographers in the Amsterdam Alternative collective we always have great images in our newspaper and lots of nice photo reports online.
See all photographyThis years ADEV street parade took place in Amsterdam Noord. The parade went from Oostkant Noorderpark (Meeuwenlaan 331) to the IJpromenade (at Eye).
This year, we were reclaiming the streets of Noord, the district where the raw reality of gentrification hits harder than ever. As the historic working-class neighborhood transforms into a playground for expats and real estate investors, true Noorderlings and our cultural safe spaces are being ruthlessly priced out of the city. And our city government? They’d rather cut budgets for the district than invest in its people. While the NDSM wharf turns into an unaffordable and inaccessible amusement park, packed with overpriced ADE parties, unique safe spaces and socio-cultural initiatives like Het Groene Veld, De Modestraat, and Buurthuis de Bol are disappearing. They’re being sacrificed for the profit margins of investors and developers. Together with other action groups and organizations in Noord, we demand that our safe spaces and facilities remain or are given a permanent place in the neighborhood. We won’t let our city be stolen by big money!
Photography: Brian Frank
On Friday 23rd of October during our AADE (Amsterdam Alternative Dance Event). We organised our second Anderworld Records release party to celebrate the release of ‘Drift’ by BlackBeach.
Besides a great live performance by BlackBeach we had performances by Omar Media, Camy Huot, vvvoidangel and Parrish Smith.
Photography by Andrey Budzinauskas
In summer 2026, Amsterdam held its first WorldPride celebration. As the city filled with massive events, tourists, and corporate branding, Café Saarein - one of the city's oldest feminist and queer bars - decided to host a celebration on its own terms. They closed off the street outside their doors and hosted a free, ticketed party: a safe, intentional haven only for the community.
One of the attendees depicted was Marjan Sax, a groundbreaking Dutch feminist lesbian activist and one of Saarein's original founders - the very woman who fought to open this historic women's and queer café back in 1978. All these years later, we are still here: celebrating, protesting, and carrying the torch for the shared cause.
Photographer: @ljuba._.glitzern
(Big thank you to Talisa for making this reportage possible)
Amsterdam Alternative started as a network of solidarity and free newspaper but we’ve alwys had the ambition to create inspiring videos as well. In 2024 we created and published about 50 hrs of video about collective ownership, in 2025 we started a new video department called Fragmenta.
See all videoRed Rebel Brigade symbolises the common blood we share with all species,
That unifies us and makes us one.
As such we move as one, act as one and more importantly feel as one.
We are unity and we empathise with our surroundings, we are forgiving
We are sympathetic and humble, compassionate and understanding,
We divert, distract, delight and inspire the people who watch us,
We illuminate the magic realm beneath the surface of all things and we invite people to enter in, we make a bubble and calm the storm, we are peace in the midst of war.
We are who the people have forgotten to be!
Doug Francisco
Known around the world as the Gangsta Gardener, Ron Finley transforms overlooked spaces in South Los Angeles into gardens, food and community. His garden is living proof that meaningful change can take root right where you live.
Gangsta Gardener explores resilience, revolutionary thinking and the power of community-driven change.
Directed by Miranda Winters and Rocky Romano
Camera: Pablo van Wetten
Audio/music: Peter Rutten
Edit/animation: Ivo Schmetz
Met dank aan/Thanks to:
People: Ad Vlems, Diny
Funding: AFK, Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie
In the Amsterdam Alternative agenda you’ll find the public programming from our participating venues.
See the complete agendaHelicopter Amsterdam is an initiative by Vincent Polak, Sophie Neijts and Bernard van Veen, founded in 2010 – as Sink Or Swim at the time. Our goal is to provide workspace for performing artists, mostly (live) musicians. As of 2020 Helicopter Amsterdam manages 500m2 for creative purposes
Rialto is een combinatie van twee bioscopen, onder verdeeld in Rialto De Pijp, in de Amsterdamse wijk De Pijp. En Rialto VU, het kloppende culturele hart dat de bewoners en bezoekers van Buitenveldert, de Zuidas en de VU Campus met elkaar verbin
De Culturele Stelling van Amsterdam is een verdedigingslinie in en rond de stad waarin onafhankelijke creatieve initiatieven, zelfstandige woon-werkpanden en vrije culturele ruimten zich hebben verenigd sinds 2012. Amsterdam heeft van oudsher een reputatie als ‘vrije stad’ en ‘v
Sinds 2008 lagen de gebruikers van de Fabriek pand in een clinch met de gemeente, wat graag nieuwbouw had gezien in plaats van de voormalige drukkerij. Het pand in de Van Ostadestraat werd in 1980 gekraakt, waarna in 1983 een erfpachtcontract werd afgesloten met de gemeente. Dat liep in 2013 af. Gel
Pakhuis Wilhelmina is a unique culture centre on Amsterdam’s Ij banks. On June 25, 1988 during the European Football Championship, a group of artists squatted Pakhuis Wilhelmina just as the tournament crowned the Netherlands as the European champion
ZID Theater is een culturele organisatie, een producent en een podium in Amsterdam. ZID produceert multidisciplinaire voorstellingen en het jaarlijkse internationale ExploreZ Festival en verzorgt trainingen voor makers en performers. Talentontwikkeling en kansen creëren voor aanstormend talent
A volunteer-run nonprofit space for you to exist / express / connect. A modular living room. A buurt-hub for practice / performance / music / poetry / experiment / exhibition / film +++ Insta
In the heart of Amsterdam, you’ll find Splendor: a club for every kind of music, conceived and founded by 50 top-flight musicians and their public. Splendor is a meeting place, a club, a workspace, a musical laboratory and much, much more. Splendor is made possible by its 54 music
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