Page 34 - Zone Magazine Issue 006

ade report 2015 part 1 - krafted music crew
Amsterdam Dance Event celebrates successful 20th anniversary edition The organizers of Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) have declared this year’s event a huge success. The world’s biggest club festival and business platform for electronic music attracted a record number of 365,000 visitors and 5,500 professionals from the music world to make the 20th edition of the five-day event the biggest one yet.
As usual, thousands of dance music fans and music industry professionals flocked to Amsterdam to experience global electronic music culture in all its aspects. The ADE Conference noted another sold out edition, the music culture program ADE Playground showcased electronic music in art, film, gear installations and ADE Festival kept 180,000 people dancing at the same time on the busiest night (Saturday).
Day One:
It was our third year at Amsterdam Dance Event and each year becomes busier. We left Southampton airport on Thursday morning nice an early (6am) to make sure we arrived in good time to squeeze in as many meetings as possible.
Our dairy was already full from 10am until 5pm with 30 minute meetings, but we have already experienced the effects of ADE and know that some meetings will not happen dependent on the evening before.
As expected our first two meetings were a no show, the guys we were meeting had been to some of the events that ADE offer. This year there were somewhere in the
region of 1000 events, even more than 2014.
In all there were 365,000 Festival and Playground visitors and 5,500 conference visitors. That's pretty impressive and somewhat a huge plus for the Dutch economy. It's no wonder that the Mayor of Amsterdam is more than happy with what has become the busiest weekend in Amsterdam.
There were 510 speakers in all at the conference, but having so many meetings booked, we were unable to attend the conference talks on the first day.
Among the many speakers at ADE Conference and ADE Playground were Dave Smith (Grammy-winning Synth designer, US), Greg Consiglio (President & CEO, Beatport, US), Hardwell (NL), Jeff Mills (US), Juan Atkins (US), KiNK (BG), Kölsch (DK), B.Traits (CA), Kyle Hopkins (head of music supervision, Microsoft, US), Machinedrum (US), Matt Black (Ninjatune, GB), Rob Stone (The FADER/Cornerstone, US), Robert Hood (US), Roger Linn (LinnStruments, US), Sean Wilder (Immersive, GB), Skrillex (US), The Black Madonna (US) and many others. At ADE Festival emerging talents, current superstar acts and electronic music pioneers were among the 2,289 performing artists from all over the world who showcased the latest musical trends.
ADE is the perfect place to connect with fellow musicians, artists, press, label owners, agents and more. A short walk from the Dylan Hotel was our meeting with Toolroom who had hired out a bar for holding their meetings. It was a perfect choice as the hustle and bustle of the meeting rooms at the conference sometimes make it difficult to hear each- other when meeting to discuss business.
After our meetings had completed we made our way to one of the 'Shop & Dance' events that take place in some of the outlets that sell clothing more suited to the clubbing scene. This is where Paul Sawyer played for a couple of hours and was a great warm up to the evening ahead.
So by the time we got to 8pm, it was time to make our way to our apartment to check in. Finally, we had a moment to rest and regroup! Two of the Krafted team joined us at 10pm for a meeting regarding our label Sounds of Juan. Bram Troost and Kevin Helmers are the A & R guys for the Techno label and it was a perfect opportunity to discuss the year ahead with the guys as they are based in Amsterdam. From here we made our way back to the City Centre and met up with Paul Sawyer's agent and also met with the vocalist from Bent, Katty. Hours later we were finally back in our apartment and completely worn out.
Day Two:
After catching a few hours sleep we were back on our way to the Dylan Hotel for another series of meetings with various artists and label owners. We hooked up with Jay from One Fold Records, a label that we've respected for some time and also met with Decoded Magazine's Damion Pell.
The day flew by in a flash and before we knew it, we were on our way to our joint 'Meet & Greet' event at The Tara. We were hosting the event with Decoded magazine and were lucky enough to be able to showcase some of our DJ's as well as have Habs Akram provide us with some amazing visuals throughout the event.
34 ZONE-MAGAZINE.IE