Niches · 8 picks · Wed to Sun
Open-to-close sets and marathons.
For people who want one DJ to tell the whole story. Extended sets and long marathons where the warm-up, peak and close are all the same hands.
By Songpot desk · from the ADE programme, our venue guide and artist notes
Big-room techno to open the week.
Alan Fitzpatrick's kick-first techno, Joyhauser's riffs and melodic lift and T78's fast, hard drive, in a music complex of studios and stages. Starts early enough to make after the conference.
For fans of Adam Beyer, Charlotte de Witte
A label night in an 1888 chapel, open to close.
NTO plays piano-led melodic techno with big emotional lifts; Acid Arab bring acid lines, dabke rhythms and Arabic vocal hooks; Mandragora takes it somewhere much faster, into melodic psytrance.
For fans of Ben Böhmer, Worakls
Defected at Thuishaven: house with hooks.
TSHA's glossy, light-footed club tracks, RUZE's chunky vocal house and Melé's tribal swing, at an outdoor festival site with warehouse spaces. A Thursday that feels like Saturday.
For fans of Jayda G, Green Velvet
DGTL's emotional side, in a shipyard hall.
Joris Voorn's rolling, melodic club tools, NTO's piano-led live techno and Kevin de Vries' trance-lifted melodic techno, in the vast NDSM Warehouse. Big chords, big room.
For fans of Anyma, Kölsch
Six hours of two DJs who never rush.
Sasha helped define 90s progressive house with Northern Exposure; Patrice Bäumel plays patient, bass-heavy techno. Together: long phrasing, slow builds, controlled release, in daylight. Paul Thomas keeps the warm-up in the same unhurried lane. The promoter says every edition has sold out.
For fans of Hernan Cattaneo, John Digweed
Chunky house all night on the NDSM wharf.
Sidney Charles' Heavy House Society: jacking percussion, tight drums and dirty highs, with Robbie Doherty's bright, vocal-led house and Dennis Quin's warm, classic chords. A tech-house night with a sense of humour, at Pllek by the IJ.
For fans of Michael Bibi, Patrick Topping
Three hours of gabber-edged hard techno on a Sunday.
Kruelty and Vieze Asbak go back to back for three hours, Vieze Asbak bringing fast gabber, tekno and hardcore, with Yoshiko's pounding hard dance, in a raw former industrial hall by the North Sea Canal. Not a recovery session.
Intercell closes ADE across a whole former prison.
For the first time Intercell runs several connected rooms inside Bajes at once: BASHKKA's tough, flirty house and techno with ballroom edits, Chloé Caillet's house and disco from her SMIILE parties, and D Stone's live-instrument house. The week's last big night.
For fans of Honey Dijon, Peggy Gou
Times, lineups and tickets are on each event's ADE programme page. Songpot is independent of the festival.