ADE 2026Data report · Wed 21 – Sun 25 Oct 2026
ADE 2026 in numbers
Amsterdam Dance Event 2026 (Wednesday 21 to Sunday 25 October) drew about 600,000 visitors, the organisation said, the same as its 2025 record. Its programme peaked on Friday 23 October at 23:00, with 136 dance events running at once. We read every event, hour by hour and venue by venue.
Images in this report are generated illustrations, not photos of ADE 2026.
- ~600kvisitors, matching the 2025 record (ADE)
- 136dance events running at once at the peak, Friday 23 October, 23:00
- 63%of the ADE 2026 programme were dance events
- 45%of ADE dance events started before 18:00
- 60%of ADE dance events were in the Centrum district
- 76%of artists on ADE dance line-ups played just one set
Key findings
Ten things the data says
- ADE 2026 drew about 600,000 visitors, the organisation said, the same as the 2025 record. The programme still grew: 1,300+ events and about 4,000 artists, against 1,200+ and nearly 3,500 in 2025; venues stayed at 300+.
- 63% of the ADE 2026 programme was dance events. The rest was the ADE Pro conference (15%), ADE Lab for young talent (5%) and art, culture and other activities (18%).
- ADE is a day festival as much as a night one: 45% of its 2026 dance events started before 18:00, and the afternoon (12:00–18:00) was the busiest start slot, ahead of the evening.
- ADE 2026 peaked on Friday 23 October at 23:00, with 136 dance events running at the same moment. Thursday reached 130 and Saturday 133.
- Friday (26%) and Saturday (24%) carried half of ADE 2026's dance events; Thursday had 22%, Wednesday 15% and Sunday 12%.
- The typical ADE 2026 dance event lasted six hours. Two in five ran six to eight hours, a quarter eight hours or more, and 31% ended between 04:00 and noon.
- House was on 69% of the ADE 2026 dance events with a genre, techno on 35%. Disco was the most often free (28%) and rarely started after 23:00; electro, hip-hop, techno and bass were the most likely to.
- ADE is a walking festival: 35% of its 2026 dance events were within 1 km of Dam Square, 60% within 2 km and 96% within 5 km. Amsterdam-Noord had 14%.
- ADE 2026 was spread over hundreds of rooms: the busiest venue, Melkweg, held under 2% of the dance events and the ten busiest only 12%; almost a third of venues held a single one.
- 76% of artists on ADE 2026 line-ups played once; the most-booked played seven or eight sets in five days. One in six dance events was free; where a ticket price was published, the median was €23.
01 · ADE visitors per year
ADE visitors per year, 2015–2026
ADE grew from about 365,000 visitors in 2015 to 600,000 in 2025, a rise of 64%, or roughly 5% a year. Growth paused in 2018–2019 and 2023–2024, and 2021 was a daytime-only edition for about 300,000 expected visitors; 2020 had no regular edition.
In 2026 the organisation reported about 600,000 visitors again, equal to the 2025 record (NH Nieuws, 26 October 2026). The supply kept growing: 1,300+ events and about 4,000 artists in Amsterdam and Zaandam, while the number of venues stayed at 300+. More on offer for the same crowd means each event had a slightly smaller share of it.
| Year | Visitors | Events | Artists | Venues |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 365,000 | 1,001 | 2,289 | – |
| 2016 | 375,000 | – | 2,200 | 140 |
| 2017 | 395,000 | – | 2,500 | 160 |
| 2018 | 400,000 | 1,000 | 2,500 | 200 |
| 2019 | 400,000 | – | – | 200 |
| 2020 | – | – | – | – |
| 2021 | 300,000 | 350 | – | 100 |
| 2022 | 450,000 | 1,000 | 2,500 | 200 |
| 2023 | 500,000 | 1,000 | 2,900 | 200 |
| 2024 | 500,000 | 1,000 | 3,000 | 200 |
| 2025 | 600,000 | 1,200 | 3,500 | 300 |
| 2026 | 600,000 | 1,300 | 4,000 | 300 |
Sources: ADE (2023, 2025, 2026), NH Nieuws, Gemeente Amsterdam, NL Times, DutchNews, NOS, Hart van Nederland, Festivalinfo, Mixmag, IamExpat; links below. 2020: no regular edition; 2021: daytime-only edition, expected visitors. Most figures were published as “more than” or “about”; a dash means no published figure.
Visitors +64% since 2015. Venues more than doubled since 2016.
02 · What was in the programme
Six in ten ADE 2026 events were dance events
The ADE 2026 programme was 63% dance events: club nights, parties, DJ sets, boat and day parties, instore sets and live electronic shows. 15% belonged to the ADE Pro conference, 5% to ADE Lab, the programme for young talent, and 18% were art, exhibitions, film, wellness, sport and other activities.
84% of these dance events came from ADE’s programme as Evenitto read it; the other 16%, among them AMF at the Johan Cruijff ArenA and the Ziggo Dome and AFAS Live nights, reached Evenitto only through venue and ticket listings and are counted because Evenitto’s ADE guide includes them. The rest of this report is about the dance events unless a chart says otherwise.
| Part of the programme | Share of events |
|---|---|
| Dance events | 62.7% |
| ADE Pro conference | 14.7% |
| ADE Lab | 4.6% |
| Art, culture and other | 18% |
Source: Evenitto analysis of the ADE 2026 programme (dance events, 21–25 Oct 2026).
03 · When ADE 2026 was busiest
Friday 23 October, 23:00: 136 parties at once
ADE 2026 was busiest on Friday 23 October at 23:00, when 136 dance events were running at the same time. Counting the events running at each hour gives the festival’s heartbeat: every day it climbs from noon and falls to almost nothing by 08:00.
Thursday 22 October peaked at 23:00 with 130 events, Saturday 24 October at 20:00 with 133. Wednesday is a warm-up (15% of the dance events, peaking at 97) and Sunday a long afternoon (12%), peaking at 18:00 with 79.
| Hour | Dance events running |
|---|---|
| Wed 16:00 | 48 |
| Wed 20:00 | 80 |
| Wed 23:00 | 97 |
| Thu 00:00 | 85 |
| Thu 04:00 | 33 |
| Thu 16:00 | 64 |
| Thu 20:00 | 127 |
| Thu 23:00 | 130 |
| Fri 00:00 | 119 |
| Fri 04:00 | 59 |
| Fri 16:00 | 90 |
| Fri 20:00 | 129 |
| Fri 23:00 | 136 |
| Sat 00:00 | 130 |
| Sat 04:00 | 75 |
| Sat 16:00 | 101 |
| Sat 20:00 | 133 |
| Sat 23:00 | 123 |
| Sun 00:00 | 127 |
| Sun 04:00 | 63 |
| Sun 16:00 | 56 |
| Sun 20:00 | 73 |
| Sun 23:00 | 64 |
| Mon 00:00 | 47 |
| Mon 04:00 | 10 |
Source: Evenitto analysis of the ADE 2026 programme (dance events, 21–25 Oct 2026).
| Day | Share of dance events |
|---|---|
| Wed | 15.4% |
| Thu | 22.1% |
| Fri | 26.1% |
| Sat | 24.4% |
| Sun | 11.9% |
Source: Evenitto analysis of the ADE 2026 programme (dance events, 21–25 Oct 2026).
| 06–12 | 12–18 | 18–23 | 23–06 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wed | 0.2% | 5.4% | 7.2% | 2.7% |
| Thu | 0.5% | 8% | 9.9% | 3.7% |
| Fri | 1.4% | 10.1% | 8.9% | 5.8% |
| Sat | 1.3% | 10.4% | 7.4% | 5.3% |
| Sun | 1.2% | 6.3% | 3.2% | 1.2% |
Source: Evenitto analysis of the ADE 2026 programme (dance events, 21–25 Oct 2026).
04 · How long ADE parties last
Six hours, and often past four
The median ADE 2026 dance event lasted six hours. Two in five ran six to eight hours, and a quarter ran eight hours or more.
ADE 2026 start times split the festival in two: 40% began in the afternoon (12:00–18:00) and 37% in the evening, while 19% started at 23:00 or later. The nights run long: 31% of the dance events ended between 04:00 and noon.
| Length | Share of dance events |
|---|---|
| Under 2 h | 3.2% |
| 2–4 h | 5.8% |
| 4–6 h | 24.1% |
| 6–8 h | 40.6% |
| 8–10 h | 17.5% |
| 10–12 h | 4.3% |
| 12 h or more | 4.5% |
Source: Evenitto analysis of the ADE 2026 programme (dance events, 21–25 Oct 2026).
| Start | Share of dance events |
|---|---|
| Morning 06–12 | 4.7% |
| Afternoon 12–18 | 40.1% |
| Evening 18–23 | 36.6% |
| Night 23–06 | 18.6% |
Source: Evenitto analysis of the ADE 2026 programme (dance events, 21–25 Oct 2026).
05 · ADE’s genres
House everywhere, techno after dark
ADE tagged 85% of the dance events in its own 2026 programme with at least one genre, many with several. House appeared on 69% of them (including deep house and tech house), techno on 35%, melodic and progressive on 15%, trance and hard dance on 13%.
ADE’s genres keep different hours. Electro, hip-hop, techno and bass had the highest share of events starting at 23:00 or later (20–24%). Disco was the most often free (28%) and rarely started after 23:00 (7%); melodic and progressive events were the most likely to start in daylight (56%).
| Genre | Share of dance events with a genre |
|---|---|
| House | 69.2% |
| Techno | 35.1% |
| Melodic & progressive | 15.3% |
| Trance & hard dance | 13.4% |
| Afro, Latin & global | 11.7% |
| Disco & funk | 11.1% |
| Bass, drum & bass, UK | 7.7% |
| Electro & wave | 5.6% |
| Hip-hop & rap | 2.6% |
| Ambient & listening | 2.6% |
Source: Evenitto analysis of the genres ADE gave its 2026 dance events.
| Genre | Starts before 18:00 | Starts 23:00 or later | Ends 04:00–12:00 | Median length | Free | In Noord |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| House | 46.0% | 14.9% | 33.0% | 6.5 h | 20.2% | 16.5% |
| Techno | 47.0% | 20.0% | 34.7% | 7 h | 16.0% | 17.0% |
| Melodic & progressive | 55.6% | 13.5% | 25.4% | 7 h | 18.3% | 16.7% |
| Trance & hard dance | 46.4% | 16.4% | 35.5% | 7 h | 12.7% | 16.4% |
| Afro, Latin & global | 39.4% | 12.8% | 34.0% | 6 h | 17.7% | 8.3% |
| Disco & funk | 51.6% | 6.6% | 17.6% | 6 h | 27.5% | 7.7% |
| Bass, drum & bass, UK | 47.6% | 20.6% | 34.9% | 7 h | 15.9% | 22.2% |
| Electro & wave | 43.5% | 23.9% | 32.6% | 6 h | 13.0% | 21.7% |
| Hip-hop & rap | 23.8% | 23.8% | 28.6% | 6 h | 14.3% | 0.0% |
| Ambient & listening | 33.3% | 4.8% | 9.5% | 4 h | 14.3% | 9.5% |
Source: Evenitto analysis of the genres ADE gave its 2026 dance events.
06 · Where in Amsterdam
ADE is a festival you can walk
We placed every ADE 2026 dance event on the map. 60% were in the Centrum district, and the same share was within two kilometres of Dam Square: a 25-minute walk. 96% were within five kilometres.
Amsterdam-Noord was the second district with 14%, from the NDSM wharf to the A’DAM Toren, ahead of Oost (10%) and West (6%). Zuid, the Westpoort warehouses, Nieuw-West and Zuidoost, home of the Johan Cruijff ArenA, the Ziggo Dome and AFAS Live, together held about 10%.
| District | Share of dance events |
|---|---|
| Centrum | 60% |
| Noord | 14.4% |
| Oost | 9.8% |
| West | 5.6% |
| Zuid | 4% |
| Westpoort | 2.8% |
| Nieuw-West | 1.5% |
| Zuidoost | 1.9% |
| Elsewhere | 0.1% |
Source: Evenitto analysis of venue addresses; districts from postcodes.
| Distance from Dam Square | Share of dance events |
|---|---|
| 1 | 34.9% |
| 2 | 59.8% |
| 5 | 95.5% |
Source: Evenitto analysis of venue locations; straight-line distance. Each disc’s area is its share.
07 · The venues
No ADE venue held more than 2%
The busiest ADE 2026 venue, Melkweg, held under 2% of all dance events, and the ten busiest together only 12%. Almost a third of the venues with dance events held just one; the city’s bars, cafés, hotels and boats carry ADE as much as its clubs.
This counts events, not people: AMF at the Johan Cruijff ArenA (tens of thousands of visitors, says ADE) or a night at the reopened Gashouder counts as one event, the same as a bar’s DJ set. A 100-hour radio stream listed in slots counts once.
| Dance events at the venue | Share of venues |
|---|---|
| 1 event | 31.6% |
| 2 events | 12.7% |
| 3 events | 11.3% |
| 4 events | 7.2% |
| 5 events | 10.3% |
| 6 or more | 26.8% |
Source: Evenitto analysis of the ADE 2026 programme (dance events, 21–25 Oct 2026).
- Melkweg21
- A’DAM Toren16
- Bordello Aperitivo15
- 50:HERTZ Café Rembrandtplein14
- Panama13
- 50:HERTZ Club Rembrandtplein12
- Club Baggerbeest12
- Bar 2211
- Faralda Crane Hotel11
- Radio Radio11
- The Tequila Club11
- Blend XL10
- Heineken Hoek10
- Het Veronica Schip10
- IJland10
- The Bulldog Palace10
Source: Evenitto analysis of the ADE 2026 programme (dance events, 21–25 Oct 2026).
08 · Line-ups and artists
Three quarters of ADE artists play once
An ADE 2026 dance event in the official programme that named its line-up listed a median of six acts; one in seven named ten or more. A quarter named none.
76% of the artists on ADE 2026’s dance line-ups played a single set; 18% played twice and 2% four times or more. The table lists every artist with five sets or more.
| Acts named | Share of dance events |
|---|---|
| None | 25.6% |
| 1 | 7.2% |
| 2–3 | 11.4% |
| 4–6 | 24.6% |
| 7–9 | 16.5% |
| 10+ | 14.7% |
Source: Evenitto analysis of the line-ups in ADE’s official 2026 programme.
| Sets | Share of artists |
|---|---|
| 1 set | 76.4% |
| 2 sets | 17.6% |
| 3 sets | 4.4% |
| 4 or more | 1.6% |
Source: Evenitto analysis of the line-ups in ADE’s official 2026 programme.
- Nelson Dior8 sets
- Dirk Schot7 sets
- Luca Testa7 sets
- Lady Deep6 sets
- ANNĒ5 sets
- Better5 sets
- Gai Barone5 sets
- Heleen Blanken5 sets
- Laura Meester5 sets
- MADAX5 sets
- Ryan Elliott5 sets
- Sophia Bulgakova5 sets
- You Mann5 sets
Source: Evenitto analysis of the line-ups in ADE’s official 2026 programme; ties in name order.
09 · Free events and ticket prices
One in six ADE parties was free
16% of ADE 2026 dance events were free, from instore sets to bar takeovers: by Evenitto’s count of events with free entry, not only those ADE tagged free (7%). Thursday had the highest share (18%) and Sunday the lowest (13%).
One in fourteen ADE 2026 dance events had a published ticket price on the pages we read. Their lowest price had a median of €23; a quarter cost under €18.25 and a quarter over €34.50.
| Day | Free |
|---|---|
| Wed | 14.9% |
| Thu | 18.4% |
| Fri | 16.6% |
| Sat | 16.7% |
| Sun | 13.4% |
Source: Evenitto analysis of the ADE 2026 programme (dance events, 21–25 Oct 2026).
| Point in the range | Price |
|---|---|
| Cheapest quarter up to | €18.25 |
| Median | €23 |
| Dearest quarter from | €34.50 |
| Dearest tenth from | €54.06 |
Source: Evenitto analysis of the ticket and venue pages of the one in fourteen ADE 2026 dance events with a published price; free events left out.
10 · ADE and the city
ADE 2026 beyond the dance floor
In 2026 ADE, IDFA and the Holland Festival warned that a higher VAT on overnight stays and a tourist tax rising from 12.5% towards 20% would hurt Amsterdam’s festivals. Visitors told reporters about rooms at €380 a night.
ADE sits in a growing industry: the IMS Business Report valued global electronic music at $15.1 billion in 2025, up 7%.
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Visitors | about 600,000 (= 2025 record) | ADE via NH Nieuws |
| Events in the programme | 1,300+ | ADE, 6 Oct 2026 |
| Artists | about 4,000 | ADE via NH Nieuws |
| Venues | 300+ | ADE, 6 Oct 2026 |
| Music professionals (ADE Pro) | 11,000+ (ADE’s own estimate) | ADE Pro page |
| Taxi checks: official police reports | 351 (25 unlicensed drivers, 16 taxis seized) | Police via NL Times |
| Tourist tax | 12.5%, plans for 16% then 20% | NL Times |
| Global electronic music industry (2025) | $15.1 billion, +7% | IMS Business Report |
| ADE 2027 | Wednesday 20 – Sunday 24 October | ADE via NH Nieuws |
Each figure as published by the source named; not checked by Evenitto.
Method
How we did it
The data
Evenitto reads ADE’s official programme (amsterdam-dance-event.nl) every day, along with the venues’ and ticket sellers’ own listings. This report uses every ADE event that started between Wednesday 21 October 06:00 and Monday 26 October 06:00, Amsterdam time, as Evenitto held it on 6 November 2026: the events Evenitto read in ADE’s programme plus the ADE events that reached Evenitto only through venue and ticket listings and that Evenitto’s ADE guide includes. An event listed by both counts once, and back-to-back slots of one stream count as one event. Cancelled events are left out.
Dance events
Each event was classified by a language model checked against hundreds of hand-labelled ADE events: club nights, parties, DJ sets, boat and day parties, instore DJ sets and live electronic shows are dance events; talks, workshops, exhibitions, sport and wellness are not. The conference and ADE Lab groups follow ADE’s own tags.
Times, places and genres
Start and end times are the listings’; the 1% of dance events listed with a date but no time are left out of the time charts, and the 6% without an end time out of the hour-by-hour count and the lengths. A night counts for the day it began, and a festival day runs from 06:00 to 06:00. Districts come from venue postcodes, distances from venue coordinates to Dam Square in a straight line. Genres and line-ups exist only for the events in ADE’s official programme: genres are ADE’s tags grouped into families, and an event can be in several, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Prices and limits
Prices come from the ticket and venue pages of the dance events that publish one, which leans towards events sold through ticket shops. Free means free entry by Evenitto’s reading of each event. Line-ups are the acts the programme names; surprise guests are missing. Counting events, not visitors, makes a bar’s DJ set weigh as much as a stadium show.
Public sources
- NH Nieuws: “Amsterdam Dance Event evenaart dit jaar record met 600.000 bezoekers” (26 Oct 2026)
- ADE: “Amsterdam Dance Event completes program for landmark 30 YEARS ADE with 3,600+ artists” (6 Oct 2026)
- Gemeente Amsterdam: “ADE: van vakbeurs tot wereldpodium in 30 jaar” (19 Oct 2026; 2016 figures)
- ADE: 2025 closing press release (600,000 visitors, 1,200+ events, 300+ locations)
- ADE Pro (11,000+ professionals, four-day conference)
- NL Times: “Amsterdam Dance Event draws at least 600,000 visitors” (24 Oct 2026)
- NL Times: police taxi checks during ADE (4 Nov 2026)
- NL Times: higher taxes and Amsterdam’s festivals (19 Oct 2026)
- MusicTech: IMS Business Report 2026, $15.1 billion in 2025 (22 Apr 2026)
- ADE: “30 Years ADE Iconic Venues: Gashouder”
- IamExpat: ADE 2025 record of 600,000 visitors (2024: about 500,000)
- Mixmag MENA: ADE 2024, 1,000+ events, about 3,000 artists
- DJ Life: ADE 2023 looks back (500,000 visitors)
- DutchNews: ADE 2022 attracts 450,000 visitors
- NOS: ADE 2021, a daytime edition (13 Oct 2021)
- Festivalinfo: ADE 2019 (400,000 visitors, 200 locations)
- Hart van Nederland: ADE 2018 (more than 400,000 visitors)
- Hart van Nederland: ADE 2017 (395,000 visitors)
- NL Times: record 365,000 at ADE 2015
Questions
ADE 2026 in short
How many people visited ADE 2026?
About 600,000, the organisation said on 26 October 2026: the same as the 2025 record. In 2015 ADE had about 365,000 visitors.
How big is ADE?
ADE calls itself “the world’s largest Festival and business gathering for electronic music” (6 October 2026). In 2026 it had about 600,000 visitors, 1,300+ events, about 4,000 artists and 300+ venues across Amsterdam over five days.
How many events are there during ADE?
ADE’s 2026 programme listed more than 1,300 events. About six in ten were dance events (club nights, parties, DJ sets, live shows); the rest were conference sessions, ADE Lab and art and culture.
When was ADE 2026?
From Wednesday 21 to Sunday 25 October 2026. Its busiest moment was Friday 23 October at 23:00, when 136 dance events were running at once.
What genre dominates ADE?
House: it was on 69% of the ADE 2026 dance events with a genre, against 35% for techno. Electro, hip-hop, techno and bass were the most likely to start at 23:00 or later.
Where in Amsterdam is ADE?
Mostly in the centre: 60% of ADE 2026 dance events were in the Centrum district and 60% within two kilometres of Dam Square. Amsterdam-Noord was second with 14%.
How much did an ADE ticket cost in 2026?
Of the ADE 2026 dance events with a published price, the median lowest price was €23, and half cost between €18.25 and €34.50. One in six dance events was free.
When is ADE 2027?
From Wednesday 20 to Sunday 24 October 2027, the organisation said.