Without a doubt, the annual Amsterdam Dance Event is an enormous festival on the calendar of electronic music fans across the world. Spread out over four days, the showcase festival and conference hosts around 700 of the world’s biggest and best DJs playing 40-odd venues across the party capital. Needless to say, we’re green with envy of anyone that makes the trek to attend the yearly ADE.

To really rub it in, the organizers behind the event have just announced the initial lineup for this year’s ADE (October 21-24), and our emotional state has quickly gone from envy to red-hot rage and then to crushing self-pity. The lineup includes superstars of the club community such as Sven Väth, Paul Van Dyk, Freemasons, Carl Craig, Boys Noize, John Digweed, Richie Hawtin and the world’s number 1 DJ, Armin van Buuren. And that’s just scratching the surface of this first announcement.

Amsterdam Dance Event is surely going to be an enormous event with all those big names pushing their wares in the one city, so if anyone’s got an oversized suitcase that could potentially be crammed with some desperate ITM staffers, hit us up. Seriously, we’d go through swine flu for this.

The first announcement for ADE includes 2000 and One (NL), 3-1 (NL), Appleblim (GB), Armin van Buuren (NL), Boxcutter (GB), Boys Noize (DE), Brian Sanhaji (DE), Carl Craig (US), Chris Liebing (DE), Dave Clarke (GB), Dean Rigg (GB), Dennis Christopher (NL), Dirty Disco Youth (DE), DJ Gomes (NL), Don Diablo (NL), Extrawelt (DE), Dennis Ferrer (US), Freemasons (GB), Funk d’Void (GB), Gregor Tresher (DE), Heiko Laux (GB), International Observer (NZ), Jason Verkerer (GB), Joel Mull (SE), John Digweed (GB), Joost van Bellen (NL), Josh Wink (USA), Junkie XL (NL), Karotte (DE), Krause (NL), Laurent Garnier (FR), Markus Fix (DE), Patrick Hagenaar (GB), Paul Ritch (FR), Paul van Dyk (DE), Phil Faversham (GB), Pitch Black (NZ), Richie Hawtin (CA), Sander Kleinenberg (NL), Scuba (GB), Silicone Soul (GB), Slam (GB), Steve Lawler (GB), Steve Rachmad (NL), Alexander Robotnick (IT), Steven Quarre (NL), Sven Väth (DE), Joris Voorn (NL), Tapes (NZ/GB), The Advent vs Industrialyzer LIVE (PT), The Black Dog (GB), The Dub Police (GB), The Good Guys (RS), Wouter de Moor (NL), as well as a load more soon to be announced.