Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) is basically the EDM Olympics in terms of week-long dance music events, and Martin Garrix’s RAI show is one of the gold medal events. For the first time since 2019, the 27 year old returned to Amsterdam’s RAI venue for two sold-out nights. As a die-hard Garrix fan since Animals, I have been waiting to attend this show from the minute I turned 18. Experiencing this show was everything I could have imagined and more- making it the ‘perfect’ Martin Garrix show.
Venue
In terms of the venue itself, RAI Amsterdam, I really have no complaints. The auditorium where Garrix’s event took place can hold nearly 13,000 people. While it was crowded the closer you moved to the stage, there was always room in the back and on the sides to move around and dance. RAI also had lockers for rent to store your belongings in, as well as a sizable selection of food vendors, a pop-up merch shop, and a couple bathroom locations. The queues to get in were particularly long at times, given the in-depth security operations, but did move at a decent pace. On the evening of his second show, Garrix even delayed his performance by 45 minutes to accommodate fans stuck in the queue.
Artists, Sets, and Production
Aside from Martin Garrix himself, the Dutch DJ was accompanied by a number of artists opening and closing for him, including Julian Jordan, Blinders, and Nuzb, to name a few. While I did not catch all of the opening sets, the ones I did see were great.
In terms of Garrix’s set himself, this is where I get a bit more critical. This was probably somewhere close to my 20th Garrix set in the past year. That being said, I was still impressed. He played a classic set, featuring all of the crowd-pleasers like Tremor, High on Life, and Animals. While I was hoping for a few more IDs or possibly a special guest or two on stage (like Alesso), I still loved it.
From night one to night two of the show, the sets were pretty similar. However, for most fans, this was not a problem at all. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the experience. It was phenomenal to see the closing of Garrix’s IDEM project after years of work. Aside from the music itself, the visuals and production is what made it truly unbelievable. There were 58 lasers too- enough said.
Vibes
The vibes, overall, were pretty much the same as any Martin Garrix show I’ve attended. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary from my experience. While some fans did complain of limited space for dancing or some pushing and shoving in the crowd itself, this was to be expected.
Conclusion
If you ever have the opportunity to attend his RAI show, the answer is simple. GO. Everything considered, it was truly two unforgettable nights and two unique experiences that I have not been able to feel with other artists. 11/10 recommend.