Perhaps the most eagerly awaited event on the electronic music calendar, Dekmantel has become something of a standard by which other festivals are measured. An appearance at the festival can literally kick-start a career while getting the invite to play the closing set at Amsterdamse Bos on Sunday is regarded as one of the highest accolades a DJ can get. Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, Dekmantel’s influence on the scene is as strong as ever.
A Decade of Evolution
Since its early days in the late noughties, Dekmantel has grown from a small, underground gathering into one of the best electronic music festivals in the world. Founded by Dutch DJs Thomas Martojo and Casper Tielrooij, Dekmantel didn’t actually start as a festival, but as a small club night in intimate spaces. The foundations for a label were laid in 2009 with releases from Amsterdam-based duo Juju & Jordash and in 2013, Dekmantel made the leap into the competitive festival scene with a three-day affair nestled in the Amsterdamse Bos – a verdant park to the west of Amsterdam that has since become something of a metonym for the festival.
Dekmantel Festival has only grown bigger in the ten years since its successful first edition, welcoming some of the biggest names in electronic music to its stages, from techno titans like Jeff Mills and Nina Kraviz to visionaries like Floating Points and Four Tet. They have also branched out with smaller events like Lente Kabinet, which offers a more intimate vibe than the main show in Amsterdamse Bos, and the festival Dekmantel Selectors taking place in Tisno, Croatia, which leans more towards the experimantel, off-kilter side of electronic music. An appearance at any one of these events has become a rite of passage for many DJs, akin to a Boiler Room debut or a headline show in a hometown club.
Ten Days of Music
For its milestone tenth edition, Dekmantel is pulling out all the stops and promises to be larger in scale and more ambitious than ever before. The festival will feature more than 200 artists this year and run for ten days for the first time to mark the occasion of its anniversary. The festivities kick off at Het HEM, a former ammunition factory in Zaandam, north of Amsterdam, and the days leading up to the usual weekender at Amsterdamse Bos will see Dekmantel hosting live concerts in Oude Kerk, Amsterdam’s oldest building, and other venues situated along the IJ waterfront.
Who To See
As always, the lineup for Dekmantel Festival is a carefully curated showcase of electronic music's best and brightest. At Het HEM, catch sets by heavies like Bicep and Avalon Emerson alongside Dekmantel favourites Young Marco, Hunee and Orpheu the Wizard. The Oude Kerk show will be headlined by Kali Malone, whose organ-focused take on ambient music finds an appropriate setting in Amsterdam’s ancient church dating back to the 13th century. The two days on the IJ waterfront, running from July 31 to August 1, are packed with special AV shows by some of dance music’s hottest acts, including a live show by Miami import Nick León, who will be accompanied by Ezra Miller’s generative visuals. Also worth noting is Ableton co-founder Robert Henke’s live show, where he will perform using ancient technology in the form of restored Commodores Business Machines. The final three days are as outrageously packed as ever, featuring evergreen favourites Jeff Mills, Kode9, Marcel Dettmann, Octo Octa, Eris Drew, Ben UFO, Joy Orbison and many more.