Amsterdam's Dekmantel lands where the stage stands over the ocean
One of Europe's leading electronic festivals is bringing its name to Southeast Asia for the first time — to a Balinese resort with a pool above the beach.
Potato Head in Bali (left) and Dekmantel Soundsystem
Dekmantel is staging an event in Southeast Asia for the first time. On 26 September the Amsterdam festival touches down in Bali — at Desa Potato Head in Seminyak.
The details were announced by the venue itself on its own page.
Potato Head is not a club in the usual sense but a whole seafront complex: an open-air amphitheatre above the Indian Ocean and an enclosed disco, Klymax, inside. The event runs for a single day, but across two stages and almost until dawn.
What will happen there
The format is twofold. By day it is not music but conversation: a listening session, a live Q&A and a discussion about ideas and culture. Towards the evening the space switches to DJ sets and live shows that carry on until four in the morning.
American Avalon Emerson headlines the night — her debut in Southeast Asia. Alongside her on the lineup are Dekmantel Soundsystem, Japan's Soichi Terada with a live set and a dozen artists from Bali, Jakarta and Bandung.
“This is Dekmantel's first appearance in Southeast Asia,” the event description says.
Here it is worth being precise. Dekmantel has ventured beyond Europe before — in 2017 and 2018 the festival ran in São Paulo, and showcases travelled to Tokyo. But this is the first time the brand has set foot in this part of the world.
Tickets for the event start at 350,000 Indonesian rupiah — about 20 dollars, markedly cheaper than Dekmantel's European prices.
Why this is more than a single party
Dekmantel is an Amsterdam festival and label, one of the main points of reference in European electronic music. Its annual gathering in the Dutch capital has long been a place people go to for the sound of the season to come.
The Potato Head team, by its own account, made the trip to Dekmantel in Amsterdam themselves — so this event is more a meeting of two scenes than a touring stop. For the Balinese venue it is a way to write itself onto the European map; for Dekmantel, a step onto a new continent.
Earlier we wrote about how many Ukrainians made it into the programme of Amsterdam's ADE — the leading Dutch electronic music forum.
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