Amsterdam Dance Event 2006

Amsterdam Dance Event — "an exhibition of the achievements of the European club economy", carrying a noble mission: to make the world community understand that Holland is not only mega-raves for 70,000 people, not only euro-trance and mainstream hardcore. Holland is a tolerant and open-minded country, in musical terms too, and so all styles of dance music — from neo-disco to progressive, from alternative hip-hop to laid-back dub-techno — are represented here in all their diversity. Professionals of club culture will gather for a conference, where there will be presentations of the latest technical innovations from Native Instruments, Allen & Heath and others, seminars on the themes of "how to open a record shop" and "does size matter" (in this case referring to a club), and lectures on the history of dance music.

19, 20, 21 October 2006

More than 40 clubs, bars and simply premises of unknown purpose will open their doors to guests from all over the world. Those who don't get stuck in the coffee shops or spend three days gazing at the most beautiful canals will find a huge variety of venues awaiting them — from small cafés with lounge and downtempo to enormous hangar-clubs with top DJs as headliners.

The artists performing over these three days are capable of satisfying the most refined — or even, I won't be afraid of the word — perverted taste. Once again there was no doing without the heavy artillery: the ubiquitous Tiesto, the radio-format Paul van Dyke and other heroes of the Dutch scene will perform in specially designated places. Lovers of sunny but commercial house will be sheltered by parties from the labels Milk'n'Sugar, Hed Kandi and Defected. Can't live without beautiful yet energetic progressive music? Sander Kleinenberg, Nick Warren and Danny Howells will play their mixes. Love techno? Here you go — Dave Clark and Miss Kittin. If you follow fashion, or you like techno "deeper" and "cleverer" — you're awaited at the parties of the labels Pokerflat, Get Physical and Ovum. For those wishing to relax a little there are specialised chill-out corners, where representatives of the labels Dessous, Naked Music and Soma rule the roost. If even in Holland you're looking for English features, then it's a straight road for you to the party with Mighty Dub Katz (aka Norman Cook), Touche and Ashley Beedle. Those tired of the straight beat are recommended the performances of Pendulum and Black Sun Empire in the harshest drum'n'bass mode, or breaks from Krafty Katz, School of Thought, Soul of Man and Drummatic Twins.

Tickets for each event at each venue are sold separately. For the major parties tickets can be ordered in advance on the sites http://www.ticketservice.nl/ and http://www.ticketbox.nl/, but most clubs and bars sell them on the door. On average the ticket price varies from 5 to 15 euros.

In Moscow a Dutch visa is issued in 1 day and practically without problems, provided you supply all the documents listed on the embassy's site — http://www.netherlands-embassy.ru

You can get to Amsterdam directly from Moscow by plane (from 350 euros return). You can go to Cologne on the budget carrier Germanwings (around 100 euros), and from there two hours on the express for 40 euros — and you're there. And for the especially thrifty there's the option of getting to Helsinki via Petersburg, and from there trying to reach Amsterdam. They say people have found Helsinki-Amsterdam flights for 10 euros.

You can book places in more than 25 hostels, through the site Hostelbookers (http://www.hostelbookers.com). You can also reserve places in the pleasant mini-hotels of the Stay-Okay Hostels chain (http://www.stayokay.com): Amsterdam Vondelpark and Amsterdam Stadsdoelen. For instance, at the moment there are double rooms at 74 euros a night. But the closer the festival gets, the harder it will be to find somewhere to stay the night.