ADE 2026 Events: The Shows Worth Planning a Week Around

Amsterdam Dance Event turns thirty this year, and the anniversary programme is exactly as unreasonable as you would expect: five days, more than 1,200 events, over 300 venues. From Wednesday 21 to Sunday 25 October the city hands over nearly every room it owns. Picking a week out of that is less a question of taste than of geography and sleep.

So here is our shortlist. Not the full programme, and not a ranking. These are the shows we would build a week around, along with the clashes, the travel times and the two nights that are already gone. Where a show has sold out we have said so plainly rather than sending you to a checkout that will not load.

At a glance

Wednesday 21 October

Jean-Michel Jarre, AFAS Live

ADE named Jarre its guest of honour for the thirtieth edition, and the opening concert is his: Oxygene & Beyond, doors at 18:30, fifty years after the album that gave a generation of Dutch producers permission to buy a synthesiser. It sold out, which surprises nobody. We list it because it sets the shape of your Wednesday. An 18:30 door in Amsterdam Zuidoost means you are back in the centre well before midnight with nothing booked.

DJ Snake, Paradiso

Which is the case for the late slot. DJ Snake plays Paradiso from 23:59 to 05:00, and the room is the point. He has spent 2026 on stages measured in tens of thousands, so a night in a former church on the Weteringschans that holds around 1,500 is a genuinely odd booking, in the good way. Expect the hits and expect the floor to be very full very early. Tickets.

Thursday 22 October

Thursday is the day the week’s first real clash appears, and it is an awkward one, because both shows are on the western edge of town.

Glitterbox, Thuishaven

Glitterbox takes Thuishaven from 16:00 to 23:00, and the line-up is deep rather than top-heavy: HoneyLuv, Carl Craig, Eliza Rose, Ella Knight, Bridge, plus Horse Meat Disco, Melvo Baptiste, The Shapeshifters, Makèz, Laura Meester and Tonno Disko. That is a disco and house bill with a Detroit techno originator dropped into the middle of it, in a yard out in the western docklands. It is a daytime party that ends before the night starts, which makes it the single most forgiving booking of the week. Tickets.

Eric Prydz, Gashouder

Twenty minutes away at Westergasfabriek, Eric Prydz has the Gashouder from 18:00 to 22:00. The round hall reopens properly in November after its renovation, so ADE gets a pre-opening run, and Prydz gets one of the best-sounding rooms in Europe for four hours in the early evening. You can technically do the first half of Glitterbox and then this. You will enjoy neither.

Friday 23 October

Friday is the crunch. Four shows worth the trip, spread across three municipalities, with start times that refuse to cooperate.

Into the Woods ADE, NDSM

Seven indoor stages on the old shipyard in Amsterdam Noord, 13:00 to 23:00, with BIIA, Clara Cuvé, Cynthia Spiering, DIØN, Skin On Skin, Paramida, Sidney Charles, Antal b2b Danilo Plessow and Young Marco among more than twenty names on the Friday alone. TRYM closes the Betonkruid stage on Friday night, according to his team, although his name had not yet appeared on the public Friday line-up when we checked, so look at the timetable nearer the day. The festival runs again on Saturday with an entirely different cast. Our full Into the Woods ADE page has the wider picture. Tickets.

Pegassi All Day Long, Hemkade 48

Eight hours, one Belgian, no support: Pegassi plays 17:00 to 01:00 at Hemkade 48. It is sold out. Note also that Hemkade is in Zaandam, not Amsterdam, which is fine on the way there and considerably less fine at one in the morning when you had planned to be somewhere else by two.

Mochakk Calling, Gashouder

Back at the Gashouder, Mochakk brings his Calling concept to Amsterdam from 23:00 to 06:00, with ISAbella, Juliana X, MPH and Solarce Brothers. Mochakk’s pull is not really the records, it is the way he reads a room, and the Gashouder is a room with no bad angles. If you only do one late Friday, this is the one we would book. Tickets.

UNREAL by night x KUKO, AFAS Live

The alternative is harder and longer. KUKO plays all night long at AFAS Live from 23:30 to 06:00, as UNREAL Germany takes the venue for the whole day. One warning about the ticket page: the AFAS Live URL still carries the slug of the daytime show, UNREAL by day x CLOUDY, but the page covers both the 14:30 day session and the 23:30 KUKO night. Read the page before you pick a ticket. Tickets.

Saturday 24 October

Verknipt ADE Special, AFAS Live

Verknipt takes AFAS Live in daylight, 13:00 to 22:00, with TRYM alongside Angerfist b2b KARAH, Ben Techy b2b SANTØS, MANDY b2b Negitiv, Onlynumbers, Divasi, Hardsok and AIDEN. Worth doing the arithmetic here: if TRYM does close Betonkruid on Friday night, he is on stage in Zuidoost roughly fourteen hours later, and so are you. A 22:00 finish is the other reason this works. It leaves the night open. Tickets.

Adriatique, Sugarfactory

And the obvious way to spend it: Adriatique play all night long for Awakenings at Sugarfactory, 23:00 to 07:00. Eight hours from a duo who are at their best when they are given time to get somewhere slowly. Sugarfactory is in Halfweg, between Amsterdam and Haarlem, so plan the return leg before you leave.

Sunday 25 October

Sunday is a straight head-to-head, and both options are long.

Awakenings Sunday Sessions, Sugarfactory

DJ Gigola b2b Pegassi headline from 14:00 to 21:30, with Benwal b2b DJ Heartstring, Helena Lauwaert, CVNTS and Southstar. It is sold out, and Awakenings do not list an official resale or waiting list for it, so anything you see elsewhere is at your own risk. Pegassi fans will have noticed the pattern: he plays twice this week and both shows are gone.

Reinier Zonneveld, Mediahaven

Reinier Zonneveld plays eight hours live with Loveland at Mediahaven, 13:00 to 22:30. Live, not a DJ set, which is the part people underestimate: hardware, in a room, for a full working day. It overlaps almost exactly with the Awakenings show, and given that one is sold out, the choice has largely been made for you. Finishing at 22:30 on a Sunday is also the most humane closing time of the week. Tickets.

Getting around, and what to book first

Four of these venues are not in Amsterdam in any useful sense. Hemkade 48 is in Zaandam. Sugarfactory is in Halfweg. AFAS Live is in Zuidoost, which is quick by metro and slow by everything else. NDSM is across the water, reached by the free GVB ferry from behind Amsterdam Centraal, about fifteen minutes, so check the last sailing before you commit to a late one. Only Paradiso is somewhere you will wander past.

The realistic combinations are fewer than the timetable suggests. Wednesday works because Jarre finishes early and DJ Snake starts at midnight. Thursday does not work, so choose. Friday, NDSM until 23:00 then the Gashouder is doable if you accept arriving after midnight, and Zaandam into anything is not. Saturday is the one day that gives you both a daytime and a night show without a fight.

On tickets: the pattern this year is that extended solo sets go first. Pegassi sold out twice, Jarre sold out, and the Sunday Awakenings show went before most people had booked flights. If something on this list is still on sale and you are certain about it, treat it as the thing you buy now and build the rest around later.

The TA view

The most interesting bookings of this ADE are not the biggest names, they are the longest sets. Zonneveld’s eight hours live, KUKO through until six, Pegassi alone from teatime to one in the morning, Adriatique with a whole night to fill: these give you something a 90 minute festival slot structurally cannot. Our advice for the thirtieth edition is to pick four shows across five days and actually be present at them, rather than collect eleven and remember none. The programme is designed to defeat you. Let it.

Read more: work out which ticket you actually need with our guide to what an ADE pass gets you, go deeper on one promoter’s week in our Awakenings ADE week guide, and read how the anniversary edition took shape in ADE turns 30 and reveals its first line-up. Dates, venues and the wider programme live on our ADE festival page, and everything we publish on the week is filed under ADE.

Sources: ADE programme, Glitterbox, ADE programme, Eric Prydz, ADE programme, Mochakk Calling, ADE programme, Into the Woods Friday, ADE programme, Pegassi All Day Long, ADE programme, UNREAL x KUKO, ADE programme, Verknipt ADE Special Saturday, ADE programme, Adriatique, ADE programme, Reinier Zonneveld 8hrs, ADE news, Jean-Michel Jarre guest of honour, Paradiso, DJ Snake, AFAS Live, Jean-Michel Jarre, AFAS Live, UNREAL by night x KUKO, Hemkade 48, Pegassi All Day Long, Awakenings, Sunday Sessions, Loveland ADE programme.