Amsterdam Dance Event gears up for huge 17th edition

Taking over the capital of The Netherlands for five long days and sleepless nights, Amsterdam Dance Event is expecting more than 200,000 visitors in 2012. From next Wednesday 17 October to Sunday October 21, a host of conference sessions, masterclasses, showcases, panels and of course parties will be spread across the city, all dedicated to the many shades of electronic music. This is the 17th edition of ADE, so it’s fair to say they run a famously tight ship. Over 1700 dance artists will be converging on Amsterdam to take part in talks and the after-dark action, including Richie Hawtin, Jeff Mills, Skream, DJ Harvey, Paul van Dyk and so many more. In amongst the planned parties, DJ Mag is set to present the results of its 2012 Top 100 DJs poll at the Convention Factory, with the promise of a new #1.

If you’re heading over to Amsterdam, you’ll have some tough planning to do. A wide spectrum of dance labels are set to present parties, including Kompakt, Diynamic, Drumcode, Size Matters, Delsin, Cocoon and Toolroom Knights. Celebrated Dutch institution Awakenings will be stretched across three nights at the Gashouder, kicking off with Carl Cox’s Global 500 celebration on Wednesday. Enduring underground hero Josh Wink will lead an Ovum Recordings all-nighter, and we spoke to the DJ for the 12th entry in our Honour Roll series.

As for the daytime programming (which kicks off at 10am; see how sleep could be a rarity?), the main conference takes place at Felix Meritis and The Dylan Hotel. Some of the panels include ‘The World According to Armin van Buuren’, with the man himself holding the floor for an hour, ‘Remixing for the Digital Age’, a Q&A with Danny Tenaglia and even a ‘DJ cook-off’, with “five top DJs preparing a delicious meal in front of a live audience”.

With hard dance so vital to the Dutch, ADE has dedicated a special program, Hard Dance Event, to discussing the sound they do so well (check out the trailer below). There’s also the ADE University, which features interactive discussions and workshops. To get the full experience out of ADE, you need to burn the candle at both ends. Any of you heading over?