Every year, Amsterdam has over 20 million tourists browsing around in its stroopwafel shops, buying overpriced tulips, and hoping to get a glimpse of a windmill. The city is often the staging ground of tourists trying to get a taste of its club culture, with ADE spanning the crown, but last week we unexpectedly got hit with an overwhelming amount of Brits whose festival suddenly got canceled. While walking back from Raum on Sunday morning I had three separate wide eyed groups in track suits shout at me ‘ANY CLUB STILL OPEN BRUV?’ This weekend is one of those rare chances where locals have their own little ADE with the parties starting on Wednesday with friends from Berlin taking over, and stuff happening all the way till Monday morning. The bender ‘o meter is striking red hot, so relax your nostrils and enjoy the ride. 

Wednesday 

Multisex

After taking over The Loft last year for the first time, Multisex is back. One time a guy in a smoking area somewhere described Multisex as what happens when you take the fashionable degeneracy of Eerste Communie, put it in a more heroin chic venue, and throw in a slight sprinkle of Berlin ego. In Berlin Multisex is known for its strict door policy and amazing house programming. Last year I unfortunately missed it and this year I will again unfortunately, but this promises to be a 24 hour party for the books. 

SMAAD w/ Clarisa Kimskii @ Export

The total opposite of the attitude you might encounter with Multisex can be found in Rotterdam, where Clarisa Kimskii is playing in Export. I am a big fan of her and recently she has moved to Rotterdam I believe so I expect to see her a lot more on lineups around here. Check out her set with Juana at Draaimolen. 

Thursday

HORST Festival @ Asiat Park Vilvoorde

Worth a mention is HORST festival, where I will be heading myself. I have already discussed HORST in the festival thread so I’ll just leave the mention here that because of the mildly uncomfortable weather you can snag a weekend ticket for 100 euros. 

RAW w/ Wes Lee @ Radio Radio

Starting in the afternoon RAW is taking over Radio Radio for a daytime-into-nighttime afrobeat get together. Wes Lee is one of my favourite DJ’s and after his 25 years of Waxfiend celebration last year this should be a more chill night for him. 

Intergalactic FM Festival

Hopping over to The Hague, Intergalactic FM is taking over PIP for the entire weekend. See the festival thread for a more indepth discussion. 

Friday 

Alex Kassian, Delano Legito and 36framez @ Export

I feel like Export has slowly been taking over the ‘gets-mentioned-every-night’ spot for its lineups and this one is no different. You might (or should) know Alex Kassian from his releases on Love on the Rocks, and he is joined by Rotterdam local Delano Legito and our favourite nightlife photographer/DJ/dancer 36Framez. 

Jezabel w/ MMIV and Shady Lady @ NAR

Going to 030, Jezebel is here and she’s ready to make you dance. For this mini edition we got MMIV and Shady Lady, your favourite Adonis DJ couple. 

Sissi's w/ SENNES b2b Lieke TR

Only giving this a shoutout for SENNES b2b Lieke TR, which I think is such a cool booking. 

RAUM invites Orphic

Orphic is back at RAUM with one room of Orphic techno, and the other filled with more bassey and experimental sounds. I’d be particularly excited about Vera Grace b2b SAMA and mul/anna. 

Pariah & Monty DJ @ Radio Radio

I don’t think I need to go any further into why I think this night should be fun. 

Animalia x Traumgarten @ LAAK

The other massive highlight of this weekend, which I am actually very sad to miss as I will be in Belgium. Animalia is teaming up with the Traumgarten team for a takeover of LAAK. Animalia is the Australian label run by Kia, who has become one of my favourite DJ’s after seeing her in De School first. I would describe the Animalia sound as very progressive bush techno that always has this trippy rolling sound to it. Check out their podcast for sure to get a feel of what they sound like. I’d be particularly curious about Ghost Dubs their live set. 

Club Romantico w/ Florentino, Styn, and Dengue Dengue Dengue @ Garage

Club Romantico is the label/party series run by Florentino, and they are taking over your favourite Garage in Noord for a night. This should be a night of a whole lot of latin booty shaking mixed with a ton of experiment, and perhaps a sprinkle of drum n bass. I saw Florentino tear down the Pit three years ago at Draaimolen, and he has a ton of good releases on labels like Tratratrax. Dengue Dengue Dengue is a producer/DJ duo that has gotten very good spots at parties like Abyss and REEF. Definitely check out their release on Club Romantico. It combines a lot of reggaeton influences with crazy experimental sounds. I love their track Paxagone especially, it has this very sexy but slightly dark sound to it.

Saturday 

Upclose @ Spaarnwoude

Upclose! I’ll leave my description to the one I put in the festival thread. 

Het Festival @ NAR

I actually forgot to post this in the Festival thread, but NAR is back with their annual festival. While last year they had some more bands playing as well, this time around it is mainly DJ’s on the bill. Wildeburg ochtendgloren duo Elias Mazian and Tsepo are back, along with Natalie Robinson and a bunch of local selectors. 

Labyrinth @ Radion

While I am definitely not a Radion fan and rarely include them in my weeklies, I have to commend them for developing their own Labyrinth concept for the past year. I actually really like the lineups of these and think that this one has a nice mix of locals and international DJ’s. I’d be curious about Red Rooms and P.E.A.R.L.

Mantis Records @ Garage Noord w/ forest drive west, Lynne, Matikk

Mantis Records is taking over Garage for a night of techno, drum n’ bass, ambient, and anything that sort of comes in between. 

Upclose after @ Lofi

For those who are not done yet after Upclose, they are also hosting an after at Lofi. The lineup is fairly stacked, with DJ Red being forced to the Colorfloor even. I usually don’t like afters of festivals because half of the people there didn’t even go to the festival, while the other half should just go home, so do with that what you want. 

Raum invites Clone Records

The vinyl and fishnet combo is back again, with Clone Records being invited by RAUM for a takeover. One of our esteemed readers will be particularly happy to finally see Legowelt live at RAUM. Mell G her B2B with Serge last year is still fresh on my mind, where they completely tore down the Expo room. This time she is playing a solo set, so get your electro boots on. 

Sunday 

Upclose @ Spaarnwoude

Upclose is still happening at Spaarnwoude, see my festival discussion for my limited breakdown of the lineup. 

Antidote anti war fundraiser @ Tilla Tec

Just like last year, Antidote is back with their anti war fundraiser for War Child. There are some really good names on the lineup like Delano Legito, Kr!z, LOLSNAKE, and a mystery guest (which could be pretty sick as Upclose is in town). 

Like always: don’t be a dick, enjoy the ride, and stay hydrated.

Not entirely the music preference of this sub but pretty shit to have it happen

We’re back with the monthly festival posts! Last year we weren’t exactly on track to post it every month and I do have to take the blame for posting this one a bit too late (woopsie) but from now on you can expect a highlight of all summer festivals you could possibly visit. For most of these posts the highlights will be in The Netherlands, but I will also take the opportunity to highlight some of the festivals abroad that you could keep an eye out for or that have amassed a legendary status by now. 

May 1st in Berlin
Just missed this by 2 days, but besides Berlin Pride or the Love Parade one of the bigger holidays in Berlin is Labour day. I’ve never been myself but from the stories the entire city becomes a giant open air festival. 

Bevrijdingsfestivals 
Where: basically every large or small city
When: 5th of May (liberation day)
Taking place today! On the 4th of May we remember all casualties from wars worldwide, but on the 5th of May we celebrate our freedom. All over The Netherlands Bevrijdingsfestivals are taking place. I would have to admit that most festivals that take place tend to not be the preference of this sub (at all), but there are some fun outings to go to. 

Transcendence festival Where: Japan
When: May 8 - 10
Who: 
Heading all the way to Japan for Transcendence festival. Transcendence has been taking place for the past 5 years and has featured techno talent from all over. It is organised by DJ MARIA and this year features names like Garcon, Dj Nobu, Timnah, upsammy, Paquita Gordon, and a ton of local Japanese talent. I’d be most excited for Zurkin b2b Zitto. 

HORST Arts & Music Festival
Where: Vilvoorde (near Brussels), Belgium
When: 14-16 May 2026
A little closer to home we got HORST festival. This will actually be my first time visiting the festival but I have heard only positive stories about it. HORST takes place in Asiat Park, an old military site that has been transformed into a park. During the festival all stages are designed by architects or artists, and most of them actually turn into permanent sites for the park. Besides the breadth of musical exploration that you can do there is also an extensive art programme that you can indulge in. HORST in the last year has taken an even sharper turn to basically only programming local talent with just a few international headliners which makes me even more excited for getting lost and ending up at whatever weird stuff they have put there for me. 

Intergalactic FM festival Where: PIP/The Hague
When: 14 May
Who: A bunch of names I don’t know but all curated by I-F. 
Intergalactic FM Festival takes over PIP for 4 days with a super long programme with among others Legowelt, David Funk, I-F, and a bunch of stuff I don’t know but that I trust is curated carefully. 

Wire festivalWhere: New York
When: 14 May
Who: Every name that is cool in techno, including Dax J, CEM, MCMLXXXV, Voices from the lake, Quelza, Salome, Boris, Tama Sumo, ISAbella, Lakuti, Akua, Amelia Holt, Chlar, D.Dan, Holden Federico, Philippa Pacho, Yanamasta, Avalon Emerson, Pablo Bozzi, BASHKKA, Courtesy, Massimiliano Pagliara, and many many more. 
Taking place in the Knockdown Centre, Wire Festival is a 50 hour spanning festival. Different nights are hosted by Herrensauna, Mutek, WHOLE festival, and FOLD. It is organised by the team behind Basement.

Awakenings Upclose
Where: Spaarnwoude
When: 16-17 May
From the pipeline of Awakenings themselves, Upclose is the smaller scale, more nerdy/underground and dancefloor focussed version of Awakenings. In recent years Awakenings has been expanding their summer festival to crazy numbers (over 100K visitors over the entire weekend), but also decided to make their spring edition a lot smaller and rebranded it to Upclose. The lineup focuses a lot more on underground names and stages are a lot smaller. Personally I do actually have a lot of FOMO for Four Tet b2b Ben UFO, but there are lots of other cool names on the lineup such as Claudio PRC b2b Cio D’Or, Collabs 3000, DJ Red, Dr. G, Ignez x Rodhad, LSD, Ogazon, Rene Wise, Ryan Elliott, and the closer of all closers: Jeans b2b Spekki Webu b2b Woody92. 

Lentekabinet 
Where: Het Twiske
When: 23 24 May
The ‘little’ brother of Dekmantel that is not so little anymore. Lentekabinet is taking over Het Twiske with four stages. CCL & Verraco, DJ Chuckie & DJ Moortje, Goldie, Identified Patient, all on the same stage. Besides that the regular suspects of Call Super, Job Jobse, Peach, BASHKKA, and many more are making a return to Het Twiske. I’d be most curious though about Chris Stussy and Shanti Celeste. Believe it or not and shoot me, but I have seen Chris Stussy twice and he’s actually such a good DJ that pulls such a dogshit crowd of frat bros and UK fucked up punters. I wouldn't have too much faith for this gig honestly but it did make me curious. 

MovementWhere: Detroit
When: 24 May
Taking place in Detroit, the birthplace of this all, is Movement. Spanning 3 days and bringing everything techno back to its home. The lineup brings together a lot of new stuff with Detroit legends like Mark Flash, Richie Hawtin, and Delano Smith. 

Fiber FestivalWhere: Amsterdam
When: 28-31 May
Fiber Festival has been taking place since 2010 and brings together contemporary audiovisual art, experimental electronic music, and daring conversations in relation to technological developments and societal issues. Its first edition started in the basement of Trouw, and these days takes over multiple venues over four days. Its lineup has a ton of cool experimental artists like Bobby Beethoven, Batu, upsammy, Xenia Reaper, and many more. 

Soenda
Where: Utrecht
When: 30 May
A mainstay in Utrecht, Soenda Festival takes place in Groenekan on the edge of Utrecht, and has grown to one of the biggest festivals in The Netherlands by now. Its lineup has some cool names but leans more towards the mainstream stuff like Tjade, Partiboi69, whatever hardtechno DJ with Ø in their name, and also some cool stuff like Saidah, Mama Snake, Philippa Pacho and Yanamaste. 

Hope that good weather blesses your souls for this festival season! Let us know what you’re up to and be safe :)