A stadium, the main conference hall and two Amsterdam churches: where Ukrainian names stand in the anniversary ADE programme

Amsterdam Dance Event turns thirty this year. From 21 to 25 October Amsterdam again hands the whole city over to electronic music: the organisers promise more than three thousand three hundred artists, over twelve hundred events and more than two hundred venues across five days and nights.

As of the start of September about forty-five per cent of the programme has been announced — fifteen hundred names out of the three thousand-plus billed. We went through that announced part and counted how many Ukrainian names are in it, and where exactly they stand. Twelve, as it turns out — and by no means all of them in clubs. It is the same route we followed when we looked at how Ukrainian electronic music got from squats to Coachella in thirty-five years.

Eight names at the stadium

AMF closes the anniversary at the Johan Cruijff ArenA — a football stadium and the biggest venue in the whole programme. Saturday 24 October, from nine in the evening until five in the morning. The bill runs to exactly eight names: Afrojack, Amelie Lens, Armin van Buuren, ARTBAT, D-Block & S-te-Fan, David Guetta, Korolova and Marlon Hoffstadt.

Two of those eight are Ukrainian. ARTBAT's biography on the ADE site puts it plainly: the duo was formed by two experienced DJs and producers from Kyiv. Korolova is listed on the same site as a DJ and producer from Kyiv, and she made the very first wave of announcements — the one in which ADE named the first two hundred and fifty artists of the whole programme. Last year Hï Ibiza named that same country among the cultures it used to describe its season.

The Ukrainian who arrives as a host

Miss Monique is the only one of the twelve who comes to ADE not as a guest at someone else's night. On Thursday 22 October, from five in the evening until half past ten, Het Sieraad hosts a showcase by her own label, Siona Records. Ten names are on the bill and only one of them is Ukrainian; the rest are Italian, British, French, Israeli and German. Which means the line-up of an international night is hers.

“Founded in 2019, Siona has grown from a platform for newcomers into one of the leading progressive house and melodic techno labels,” says the showcase description on the ADE site.

The following evening she plays again — on the DGTL night programme at NDSM Warehouse, from half past eleven until half past six in the morning, alongside Joris Voorn, Kevin de Vries and NTO. Two appearances in one week — as many as Nastia, and more than anyone else in the Ukrainian twelve. For context: in a season whose economics we examined separately, two slots during ADE week is already a different weight class from a one-off trip.

Not only the dancefloor: Ukrainians at the conference

The conference half of the festival, ADE Pro, is based at Felix Meritis — the half where the decisions are made and the industry's agenda is set. Nastia appears there on Friday: the panel is called “Nastia meets Thys (Noisia): Underground Forever”, so her name sits in the title of the conversation itself. She is in conversation with Thijs de Vlieger of Noisia. ADE has not announced the exact time yet.

A day earlier a different panel brings on Garik Pledov — not a musician but the founder of the Brudnyi Pes festival and the Polygon Records label. The talk is called “Funding under fire: how scenes survive when systems fail”. Alongside him is Tala Mortada from Lebanon, with Tom Frost of Crack Magazine moderating. We have written before about how Ukrainian festivals keep going without any systemic funding, taking the example of Brave! Factory, now in its seventh year running.

“Speakers draw on examples from Kyiv, where festival teams rally artists around large fundraising campaigns while building trust through niche community curators,” says the panel description on the ADE site. Ramallah and Beirut come next in the same list.

The church where you are not allowed to talk

From 23 to 25 October the church of de Thomaskerk becomes, for three days, the home of the ambient ritual ZERØBPM. Thirty-three hours of sound, thirty-two artists, one hall and three “meditation masters” who hold the silence for sixteen and a half hours at a stretch. The organisers set out the rules for visitors in three lines: no talking, no phones, no drinking. Nastia closes the Friday — from half past ten in the evening until midnight.

The second church is the Westerkerk, and that is where the only Ukrainian name of the opening day stands, at five in the evening on 21 October. ADE has tagged Charmeine with a Turkish flag, but the biography on that very same page says something else: “Istanbul-based, Ukrainian DJ Charmeine”. She plays in the SONA programme alongside Dutch artists and a Dane.

Warehouses, clubs and thirty hours straight

The densest day is Friday. Daria Kolosova, whom ADE describes as a native of Lutuhyne in the Luhansk region, curates the night at Thuishaven — a venue set among industrial estates, oil tankers and scrapyards — from eleven in the evening until six in the morning. The same evening E.Lina plays at Lofi until eight in the morning, and the next day Daisy Weweh steps onto the RAWFACTORY day programme alongside Gerd Janson, Tiga and WhoMadeWho.

Lola Palmer, whom ADE lists as a DJ, producer and vocalist from Ukraine, plays on Saturday at Yellow House together with Cinthie, Steve Bug and Mathias Kaden. Two names close the festival: Kirilski at the free closing ceremony at Panama, six hours and two stages of disco, house, UK garage and techno; and Noizar in the thirty-hour marathon at Garage Noord. Thirty hours for a thirtieth anniversary is a deliberate choice: the organisers write that they have been part of this story for half of its life.

Who is missing from the programme

More artists carry a Ukrainian flag on the ADE site than are actually playing this year. Etapp Kyle, Woo York and Stanislav Tolkachev all have pages marked with Ukraine — and not a single event in 2026. Two things from last year are missing as well: the Captive Soul concept Korolova played at Panama during ADE 2025, and the Upperground label night from ARTBAT. Then again, more than half the programme is still unannounced, so the list may yet grow. Autumn is thick with anniversaries in general: Resident Advisor is marking twenty-five years with a ten-city tour.

What sets this edition apart

ADE has given the anniversary a setting of its own. Jean-Michel Jarre opens it with an immersive concert marking fifty years of the album Oxygène, and appears separately at the conference in a talk with Lady Starlight. A new thread called Icon Series runs through the whole programme — selected events that show the legacy of the scene. And together with the research bureau VibeLab the festival is launching the Nighttime Culture Index, a measure of the “cultural vitality of the night” taken at the same time in Amsterdam, Lagos, New York, São Paulo, Seoul and Sydney. Measurements like these have already changed the conversation about the scene: a Berlin study showed that the bar no longer keeps the club afloat.

Another strand of the anniversary is the move beyond the club. Het Nationale Ballet, together with ISH, presents “Swan Lake” rewritten for ADE; Boris Acket installs EINDER; dome concerts run at the ARTIS planetarium and at Fabrique des Lumières, and the 4DSOUND spatial system plays in the new ARTIS aquarium.

What is ADE?

The week when Amsterdam hands the whole city over to electronic music: an industry conference by day, concerts and parties at hundreds of venues in the evening and through the night. The first edition took place in 1996.

Why is this edition special?

It is the thirtieth. The festival has marked the anniversary with a running thread of events of its own, Icon Series, an opening by Jean-Michel Jarre and its own study of the state of night-time culture in six cities around the world.

How do you get into the conference?

Only with an ADE Pro pass covering all the days: the organisers sell no single-day or conference-only tickets. Tickets for festival events are sold separately by the organisers of each event.

How did we count the Ukrainians?

We took the country tag on the ADE site and then confirmed the origin with a second source — the artist's own biography, an agency page or an official profile. Names carrying the tag but lacking confirmation did not make the list.

Is the list final?

No. As of the start of September about forty-five per cent of the programme has been announced, and the next waves may add more Ukrainian names.

In thirty years ADE has grown from an industry gathering into the week when a whole city takes the measure of electronic music. Twelve Ukrainian names in that measurement are no longer a guest quota: one of them builds the bill for an international night, two step into the room where the industry's agenda is set, and another closes a day in a church where talking is forbidden. The rest of the programme will be announced by October — and this list will most likely grow further.