Amsterdam clubs are always changing, the signs of a healthy night life. Old clubs get a make-over to make them look ehm…old. New Amsterdam clubs are on its way. And the mayor of Amsterdam has licensed 3 Amsterdam clubs to party day and night.
24-hour party-ing in Amsterdam
Every year, the Amsterdam mayor gives out special 24-hour licenses. The permit allows the club to stay open much longer than the normal closing times for Amsterdam clubs: after 5 am in the weekend and after 3 am on weekdays.
New Amsterdam club: ‘A’DAM’
Toren Overhoeks, in 2015 location of Twenty4Amsterdam.
Former ‘Shell tower’ Overhoeks across the IJ water has unfolded ambitious plans to develop some serious Amsterdam clubbing on the premises.
In 2016 the tower, named A’DAM was opened after extensive renovations. It is now home to a mix of offices, cafés, restaurants, a hotel, an observation point and a revolving restaurant.
Madam is the name of the panorama bar and restaurant located on the 20th Floor. At night, Madam transformes into Amsterdam’s highest nightclub. Behind A’DAM are the well known party planners of ID&T and Club Air.
‘Club Home’ is now ‘Barkode’
Club Home has closed. The inside has been completely stripped of its fancy glamorous interior, to make room for a new image. The new club, named Barkode, will be ‘industrial and raw’. According to the new owners, Club Home had been programming a bit too eclectic; the R&B nights were scaring off the techno-fans.
The dj’s of Barkode will be programmed by Click. The focus will be purely on techno. Thursdays will be for the students. Fridays young organisations get a chance to show off new talent. On Saturdays, bigger names will be behind the decks of this Amsterdam club.
Club Barkode is located near Rembrandplein at Wagenstraat 3.
‘Club Amsterdam’
The mega dance club ‘Club Amsterdam’ is located on the 4th floor of the AJAX football stadium Amsterdam Arena. That floor has room for 1500 visitors.
Amsterdam club ‘Hotel Arena’ now ‘Kerk’
Club ‘Hotel Arena’ in Amsterdam East has undergone some changes. Now named ‘Kerk’, the club is turning its focus on techno and tech-house on Friday and tech-house on Saturday. Club ‘Hotel Arena’ is housed in an old church (Kerk means ‘church’ in Dutch). Hotel Arena has had multiple extensive renovations in the past and matching image make-overs, but none of them ever really got the place packing like it used to.
This time improvements impact programming and acoustics.
Chicago-house in Amsterdam Club Arena
On Fridays, organiser Lazy Sundays will entertain the crowd in a ‘raw, industrial’ décor, obviously a trend in Amsterdam night life.
Saturday night, party organisers Lupe and Non Records host house music like Chicago-house and deep-house. Booked names include Aeroplane, Cinnaman and William Kouam Djoko.
Microclubbing in Amsterdam
In line with a new fashion in the international clubscene, Kerk/Arena organises microclubbing evenings on Fridays. In microclubbing, the party starts and ends early.
The new phenomenon apparently blew over from across the North Sea, where the pubs close early and people head for the clubs long before midnight.
Nice add of course is the fact that, with the ridiculous Amsterdam closing time for the clubs an early start gives you a longer party and hangovers are easier to avoid. At least that’s the idea. At ‘De Avondclub’, doors open at 6 pm. Check agenda for dates.
Bare foot dancing @ ‘Club Lite’
The English who came up with the ‘new’ idea of early clubbing, have probably never set foot in Club Lite. This spiritual minded Amsterdam night club started off with evening clubbing way back in 2002. Twice a month, a happy crowd joins in for a friendly night of dancing on an eclectic mix of music on bare feet. Yes, that’s right. The shoes go off at Nataraj. The 25+ crowd comes in from around 20.00 to dance to music varying from groovy world music to techno and everything in between.
More Amsterdam clubbing with a twist? How about a chocolate party, where chocolate replaces drugs.
Amsterdam club Pand 14, former Chinese restaurant. Photo taken from Skount.
Pand 14, squat
Going deeper underground Amsterdam, we find Pand 14 in Amsterdam Southeast.
Once a squatted Chinese restaurant along Ring road A9 (neighbouring MacDonalds Drive-in and Ikea…), Pand 14 is now an exciting underground club.
There is a small stage and a kitchen for the unavoidable squatter’s biobite on the ground floor but the real treat is upstairs, as the upper floor actually revolves around its axis. While you sit, the world turns around you in a panorama. Pand 14 holds max 400 people. Programming includes club nights, concerts and exhibitions.
The club is allowed to stay open until March 2014. Then the revolving Chinese palace must make way for an extension of the A9 road.
1 comment
Sounds like some exciting new Clubbing for Amsterdam in 2013, If the Warehouse Project (Manchester) is an example of UK Micro-clubbing, wtf is Macro-Clubbing?!? Only joking, see if I can get over in the Summer, Peace!