AADE

AADE (Amsterdam Alternative Dance Event) is an affordable, experimental, underground alternative to the big ADE festival that takes place every year in October. ADE started in 1996 as a small conference slash festival. Over the last decades the festival has grown out to one of the biggest electronic music events of the world. In 2025 ADE counted around 600.000 visitors, 1200 events and 3500 artists spread over five days/nights. It’s massive and most of the events are quite commercial and high priced.
We are not anti ADE but we started our own AADE in 2018 to offer a small scale alternative. Something a bit more weird, more fun and more affordable. Since 2018 our AADE has also grown. In 2025 we had about ten events in five different AA venues (OT301, Cinetol, Parknest, Ventilator Cinema and De Nieuwe Anita). All pretty small and cheap but lots of fun.

AADE is a decentral festival, all the venues decide on their own programming. They decide what bands, dj’s or performers they want to put on their stage, how much entrance is charged, what the opening times are and so on. It’s their event. Amsterdam Alternative only takes the lead on a couple of events like the AADE x ADEV after that always takes place on AADE Saturday in the OT301. We use this night as a benefit for ADEV and AA. What connects the AADE events is the fact that they are all organised by small scale, (sub)cultural, non-profit venues that are part of the Amsterdam Alternative collective. In order to combat the heavily promoted ADE events with all the big international headliners we use AADE to help promote the evenst of our AA venues. So all AADE events are being promoted extra by Amsterdam Alternative to make sure they get some extra attention.

Most of the AA venues don’t feel related to the big ADE festival. It’s become too commercial, too massive and there are many extra rules enforced on the venues taking part in ADE by the city government. For small scale venues like most AA venues it’s almost impossible to conform to all these rules and cover the costs for extra licenses that are required. The one big advantage of being an official ADE venue is that you are part of the collective exemption of closing times. Meaning that you can stay open a lot longer during ADE. Most AA venues have a license to be open till 03:00 o’clock during the weekend. If being an official ADE venue you can extend your opening times till 06:00 in the morning if you feel like it. Besides this one advantage there isn’t much other advantages for small alternative venues to be an official ADE venue. There isn’t more visitors coming because of extra ADE promotion. Most attention always goes to the big headliners at the big venues so small venues don’t benefit much from ADE promotion.

It isn’t our goal to grow AADE as big as possible but it’s very nice to see that we grow a little bit every year. From one single event in 2018 to ten events in 2025> Hopefully we can grow a bit bigger in the coming years. It would be nice to include some other AA venues to spread the joy a bit further through the different corners of town.

Artists that played AADE events in the last couple of years:
Unit Moebius, Noise Diva, Zohar, Parrish Smith, Fre2k, Cosmic Force, Noise Diva, Jasmin, Black Beach, Wilco Prinsen, Teqmun, French II, Lenxi, Alberta Balsam & Cosmic Force, audt98, mul/ANNA, Null Wave & Mistaeks, VOLPEVOLPE, rRoxymore, Coline Cornelis, Borokov Borokov, ECHT!, Heijmat, BlackBeach, Subfiction, Klankspoor, Malvae, GANZ, Kelbin, Bastian Benjamin, Uramaki., Papi Gaba, Vergaarbak & Garcon Taupe, HoutjeTouwtje Soundsystem, Snufkin, Bebe Bad, Space Exposure, DJ Gysele, Lena Willikens, Know V.A., Karel, Radio Parkplatz, Dymph, Barros & Boutique case, DJ Marcelle / Another Nice Mess, Eboman, KRAZ, LHISPR, Steven de Peven, Power vs Power, Rank Assistant, Afra, Intergalectic Gary, MVSTRS, Thrasher, Krista Bourgeois, Deformer, Limewax, Adamant Scream, Dolphin, Aliienmia, Magda, Star City, Fellatio, FuckFuckFuck, The Rills, Dead Finks, Forbidden Wizards, VULVA, Cristel Ball, Alfred & the Disappointments, Fuck Fuck Fuck, Klaplong, DEAFDEAFDEAF, Shaemless, The Covids, Vero, Charlie & The Lesbians, Treeboy & Arc, Dear Omens, Tender Chunks in Gravy, Pizza Knife, ĠENN, Kalaallit Nunaat, Hate Moss, L.A. Sagne, Another Taste, Lefto Early Bird, Dim Browski, Pilar Madimin, whiterose, corecore DJ's, Fausse Sceptique b2b Jente Waerzeggers, Tea Eater, The 113, Shaemless, badtime, kboy en de goedzo jongens, Achterlicht, Jéroboam, Collettivo Immaginario, PleasureInc., Oh Boland, Polevaulter, Snackbar, Eigen Risico, Eggnostic Shellshock, SDk sDUk PheFV, Lex6i, The Instruction Manual, Servo, Oh Non, Teardrinker, Natural Rhythm, DJ Charley, Frans Doedel, Juno, Robotpoolparty, De Autoriteit, DJ Manon, DJ Blackcat