Q’s With: Mariana Sanchotene On Running ADE, The World’s Biggest Dance Music Gathering

Amsterdam is one of the world’s most bustling cities on a quiet day. During Amsterdam Dance Event, things get turned up a notch. 

The 2019 edition welcomed more than 400,000 visitors from 146 countries. That’s almost half the city’s entire population. They had to choose from an extensive day- and night-time program consisting of some 1,000 events spread across 200 locations, Oct. 21-25. 

The ADE conference welcomed a record number of 9,150 delegates, with 600 industry professionals taking part in keynotes, workshops and masterclasses on a variety of topics.

Pollstar spoke with Mariana Sanchotene, who successfully directed her first ADE, after taking over the reigns from Richard Zijlma last year.

I’m very happy about how it went. It’s my first year, so it was special. It’s overwhelming to see how electronic music is so strongly rooted in the culture of a country. 

We’re a non-profit foundation. We work very closely with the city of Amsterdam, who supports us with all the logistics, the security, communication and the signage. We work with all the clubs, discussing and brainstorming what program we could come up with each year. We have a team that looks after the day-time cultural program, [which includes] film documentaries, fashion, art, photography, and more.

The biggest team is working on the conference. Around [9,000] professionals attend the conference. I’d say around 80 percent of the upcoming festival season gets booked during ADE, where all the agents are around, but also the labels, who launch new music. These networking opportunities make ADE a must-go in the calendar of the electronic music community.

ADE Live is a program we do with Paradiso and Melkweg, two of our very first venues, very iconic venues in Amsterdam. The aim is to show the craft of artists who combine live with electronic music. Rock and pop integrating with electronic music is something that has been going on for a while. 

One of the biggest advantages of electronic music is that it’s free of language barriers. It makes it easier for an electronic music artists to have an international career. 

Electronic music lovers, for the most part, are also very technologically savvy, which influences music distribution, as well as the equipment [the sector produces].

It is a different community, but what you see more and more is rock and pop festivals programming some electronic music acts. The audience has become very open minded when it comes to the range of music styles it consumes.

We see a growth of the technology industry coming to the event, from music distribution platforms, but also gaming and AR/VR. 

We have a conference called ADE Green on sustainability, which has also been expanding. A lot of festivals are very concerned about the impact events have no the environment, and how to minimize their footprint. Debates at ADE Green enjoy very high engagement from the event producers but also the artists and legislators.

Several labels also organize writers camps in the city during ADE. For us, it’s important to keep giving the podium to the bedroom producers and DIY artists, who are aiming to go pro, but aren’t quite there yet. We also have a University program for students, who want to enter this industry.

The U.S. is second, followed by Germany, France, the U.K., although we had less people from the U.K. this year, definitely when looking at the public visitors. We blame it on Brexit.

It think so. Ticket prices have been growing for years. But it happens for a reason. Promoters are struggling with the increase in artist fees and the security demands. It has become highly regulated to organize an event. 

It was one of our conference topics this year, as well. We organized what we called ADE Health to discuss how to live a balanced life. Compared to DJs, rock and pop shows end at a pretty reasonable time. For many DJs, the night has become the day, and then sleeping becomes an issue, flying everywhere becomes an issue.

A rock and pop band would take a logical route, because they’re travelling with all their gear. A DJ can just fly in and out with a suitcase, so the travelling takes a heavier toll on them, and they work much longer.

The passing of The Prodigy’s Keith Flint this year, and Avicii last year, shocked the industry, and there have been a lot of discussion around the topic since. Everybody’s becoming more aware not just of the mental health of artists, but any professional working long hours, who love their job, but may have let it take over their lives.

Four to five hours a night. Plenty.

It depends on the concept of the festival. Is it about music discovery or presenting already well-known artist? In electronic music as well you have the kind of festivals that are headliner driven, and where the promoters are waiting for the latest DJ Mag rankings to know who they want to book in the following year.

But there’s a growth in he sector of boutique festivals, too, where it’s all about the experience and community you bring together. They enjoy discovering new music together. It’s a different mindset.

Live Nation has made a few acquisitions in the electronic music field. It remains to be seen if they invest more in artists. Charlotte de Witte is an artists signed by them, for example, and [her career] shows the power they have. They can be a positive addition to what the electronic music promoters are already doing. Sometimes they invest in festivals, sometimes they support promoters in their work. So, I don’t see a monopoly issue.

What you see happening more are investment companies really believing in electronic music, providing funds and acquiring promoters, which I think started at the time of SFX. That didn’t go very well, but you still see acquisitions happening. The thinking behind that is, ‘I’d rather acquire a successful promoter rather than do it myself.’

I think it is a smart move, because promoting, booking and scouting talent requires a different mindset.

No, we’re just recovering. There are plenty of ideas, and we’re very exited to bring them together for the 25th edition, but will be announcing them in due time. 

We try and differentiate. We break out main conference ADE Pro down into smaller conferences for specific topics. We have ADE Green on sustainability, ADE Tech around technology, ADE Sound Lab aimed at the development of artists, ADE University is aimed at the professionals working behind the scenes. ADE Beats is about hip hop and urban music. 

So, we try and cater to different segments of the industry. We think a lot about relevant topics and a good choice of speakers, that’s why ADE is a must-visit for most of the electronic music industry.