The biggest dance music meet-up of five days in Europe this year was wrapped succesfully which saw more than thousands of people descend upon the Dutch capital to discussing business, forging new relationships and peer, wide-eyed, into the future of clubbing and club culture. Like every edition the 23rd edition of the ADE resulted into an unparalleled event, where fans, artists and industry folk from every sector of electronic music discussed a lot of important things for the progress in the dance music industry.  Top guns such as Martin Garrix, David Guetta, Bonobo, Charlotte de Witte, Nina Kraviz, Peggy Gou, Richie Hawtin & many more performed at ADE 2018. ADE is one of the best time of the year when a lot of new music is released , gigs, surprise performances are witnessed.

For the first time ADE welcomed over 400,000 visitors from more than 100 countries for an extensive day and night program featuring over 1000 events and leading artists and speakers from around the world. From 17 to 21 October there were more than 450 night and 600 daytime events spread over 200 locations, with over 2500 performing artists and around 600 speakers participating in keynotes, workshops and master classes on a variety of topics. The conference and festival program by day saw an increase in numbers attending with daytime activities exceeding more than 600.

Also during the ADE,  Martin Garrix has been announced as the highest ranking DJ in the world’s most popular DJ poll. The main focus of ADE 2018 was the anniversary of 30 years of Dutch Dance. Celebrations included the premiere of a three-part VPRO documentary and the launch/presentation of a reference book featuring the scene’s leading lights. South Korea was the focus country this year, consequently much attention was paid to the rapidly growing South Korean music scene. Several conference and festival events illustrated that musically and culturally South Korea has a lot to offer the rest of the world. Other countries highlighted as one to watch were Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Columbia and Mexico, with special industry network sessions and a growing number of artists performing in the day- and night-time program.

ADE General Manager Richard Zijlma looks back on a ‘fantastic edition’. This was the last edition under his supervision, with new director Mariana Sanchotene taking over.

Pre-register for ADE 2019 here: https://www.amsterdam-dance-event.nl/my-ade/newsletter/

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