Rad-Ish #014 – Kickstarting AADE: on ADEV as a movement with Layla Gijsen
In this episode, we dive into the intersection of art and organizing with Layla Gijsen. Layla, aka dj Sjaak, is an Amsterdam based graphic designer, illustrator, dj, and programmer. We walk through what we can expect from ADEV as an alternative to the commercialization of ADE, explore how as an artist Layla navigates the balance of being situated within commercialized and non commodified spaces, and how her art reflects on social structures and struggles.
Listen on:
AA website // Soundcloud // Spotify // Youtube
On Friday 23rd of October we released ‘Drift, a new track by Amsterdam based BlackBeach.
BlackBeach is a live electronic 3-piece from Amsterdam. Their sound ranges from space to rave, organic to energetic. Expect rapid beats, melodic synth riffs and extreme modulations, all generated live.
Read more
Listen on Soundcloud // Spotify // Beatport
Now online: Fragmenta #003 - Tatiana Spiewak & Sarah Zechut
Interview with choreographic duo Tatiana Śpiewak & Sarah Zechut about their new performance ‘The upgraded woman’ (March 2026) and their first piece, which they performed in the boiling heat and chaos of the Amsterdam Alternative part of the Ring party on the 21st of June 2025.
Amsterdam Alternative just launched a new video department called Fragmenta.
Check out the Fragmenta page for more info about this project and how to join as a video maker.
Amsterdam Alternative publishes articles about free spaces, gentrification, politics, climate, music, art, housing and other urgent topics. We publish in our bi-monthly free newspaper as well as online.
See all articlesNamenmonument voor gedode kinderen in Gaza voor het eerst in Amsterdam op buitenmuur van Plein Theater. De Wall of Tears van de Amerikaanse kunstenaar Phil Buehler is een gedenkteken voor 18.457 kinderen die in Gaza zijn gedood. De installatie toont de namen van de kinderen in de volgorde waarin zij tussen 7 oktober 2023 en 19 juli 2025 om het leven kwamen. De eerste is Wesam Iyad Mohammed Abu Fsaife, een jongen van veertien. De laatste is Sabah Omar Saad al-Masri, een meisje van acht. Vanaf
Every two months we publish a music tip top 6 in our newspaper and on our website. All the releases have been picked with care but we won’t rate the releases. You can do the judging yourself.
Tips and links to releases are always welcome (music(at)amsterdamalternative.nl).
Arca
XXXXX
Label: Arca under exclusive license to XL Recordings Ltd
Release date: 07-2026
Genre: Electronica, Experimental pop
Format: Digital
Amsterdam, 4 augustus 2026 – Wat begon als een kraakactie tegen leegstand, speculatie en dreigende sloop is uitgegroeid tot een van de grootste en meest bijzondere woonwerkgemeenschappen van Nederland. Op 16 en 17 oktober viert Woonwerkpand Tetterode zijn 45-jarig jubileum met het feestelijke programma ‘Wervelwind’ vol open ateliers, tentoonstellingen, performances, concerten, films, workshops, Tet Talks, een symposium en een groot jubileumfeest. Al 45 jaar laat Woonwe
Lokale gemeenschappen die hun buurtruimte willen behouden of overnemen, lijken vaker aan het kortste eind te trekken. Sinds 2021 zien gemeenten zich gehouden aan ‘het Didam-arrest’. Maar is dat zo onontkoombaar als het lijkt?
Het Didam-arrest: belemmering of kans?
Toen Stichting Hotel Buiten bij de gemeente Amsterdam aanklopte voor verlenging van hun grondhuurovereenkomst aan de Sloterplas, leek dat een logische stap. Het strandpaviljoen van de stichting was de afgelopen ja
Amsterdam Alternative has initiated a wide variety of projects since 2015. Some were temporary but most are still running. Check some of the most current projects below or visit the projects page to see a full overview.
See all projectsFrom the 1st of February 2023 Amsterdam Alternative is running the cinema + bar on the second floor of the OT301. The spaces are being used for film & documentary screenings, discussion nights, comedy, music, dance performances, workshops, book launches, podcast recordings and more.
AADE is organised by Amsterdam Alternative since 2018. We started the AADE not as an anti ADE event but to offer an alternative music program that is more affordable, more experimental and far from all the commerce that comes with the big, and most often commercial ADE (Amsterdam Dance Event).
Anderworld is a record label founded in 2026 by Amsterdam Alternative. Not a traditional, hierarchical label, but a cooperative, post-capitalist initiative focused on music, research, and experimentation. Alongside joy and creativity, we stand for collective ownership models, community meaning, hope, and radical imagination.
Sometimes, you sense it. A gesture, a sound, something pulses quietly beneath the surface of the city. A story waiting to be heard. Rad-Ish is a podcast about the silent dreamers, everyday radicals and hidden dissenters who keep the city alive. We seek out the voices of the underground, the pillars of movements that often go unseen yet build the foundation for collective spaces and a desirable future for the many, not the few. On a regular basis we release a short episode where we pull that little red thread that runs through Amsterdam, from the people directly shaping alternative culture to those nurturing it in the background. We're here to pay attention to those who resist the obvious, and talk to those who quietly practice other ways of being.
Thanks to all the talented photographers in the Amsterdam Alternative collective we always have great images in our newspaper and lots of nice photo reports online.
See all photographyThis years ADEV street parade took place in Amsterdam Noord. The parade went from Oostkant Noorderpark (Meeuwenlaan 331) to the IJpromenade (at Eye).
This year, we were reclaiming the streets of Noord, the district where the raw reality of gentrification hits harder than ever. As the historic working-class neighborhood transforms into a playground for expats and real estate investors, true Noorderlings and our cultural safe spaces are being ruthlessly priced out of the city. And our city government? They’d rather cut budgets for the district than invest in its people. While the NDSM wharf turns into an unaffordable and inaccessible amusement park, packed with overpriced ADE parties, unique safe spaces and socio-cultural initiatives like Het Groene Veld, De Modestraat, and Buurthuis de Bol are disappearing. They’re being sacrificed for the profit margins of investors and developers. Together with other action groups and organizations in Noord, we demand that our safe spaces and facilities remain or are given a permanent place in the neighborhood. We won’t let our city be stolen by big money!
Photography: Brian Frank
In summer 2026, Amsterdam held its first WorldPride celebration. As the city filled with massive events, tourists, and corporate branding, Café Saarein - one of the city's oldest feminist and queer bars - decided to host a celebration on its own terms. They closed off the street outside their doors and hosted a free, ticketed party: a safe, intentional haven only for the community.
One of the attendees depicted was Marjan Sax, a groundbreaking Dutch feminist lesbian activist and one of Saarein's original founders - the very woman who fought to open this historic women's and queer café back in 1978. All these years later, we are still here: celebrating, protesting, and carrying the torch for the shared cause.
Photographer: @ljuba._.glitzern
(Big thank you to Talisa for making this reportage possible)
On Friday 19th of June we released ‘Inter // Esse’, a six track EP by Amsterdam based Wilco Prinsen. This EP is not only the debut release by Wilco but also the first release of Anderworld Records, our cooperative, post-capitalistic record label.
The release party was held at the OT301 with live sets by Wilco Prinsen, Mathilde Nobel and Bastian Benjamin and DJ sets by Zohar and oernaut.
Thanks to all the artists for their great sets.
Photography: Hanna Rudner
Amsterdam Alternative started as a network of solidarity and free newspaper but we’ve alwys had the ambition to create inspiring videos as well. In 2024 we created and published about 50 hrs of video about collective ownership, in 2025 we started a new video department called Fragmenta.
See all videoKnown around the world as the Gangsta Gardener, Ron Finley transforms overlooked spaces in South Los Angeles into gardens, food and community. His garden is living proof that meaningful change can take root right where you live.
Gangsta Gardener explores resilience, revolutionary thinking and the power of community-driven change.
Directed by Miranda Winters and Rocky Romano
Kun je als groep stadsbewoners, zonder veel verstand van landbouw, samen je eigen voedsel verbouwen? In Amersfoort gingen een paar honderd mensen die uitdaging aan. Ze richtten een coöperatie op, gingen op zoek naar grond, geen vanzelfsprekendheid in een regio waar bijna alles al vergeven is, en begonnen letterlijk vanaf niets aan hun eigen boerderij.
'Grond om te delen' volgt Herenboeren Amersfoort tijdens de opstartfase van januari tot mei 2026. Van de moeizame zoektocht naar een geschikt stuk land, via de regenachtige openingsdag, tot de eerste tassen vol groente. Het is een verhaal over doorzettingsvermogen en twijfel, over hard werken in weer en wind, en over biologisch boeren in samenwerking met de bodem in plaats van met bestrijdingsmiddelen.
Een productie van GGTV Videoproducties.
Meer over Herenboeren Amersfoort.
Camera: Pablo van Wetten
Audio/music: Peter Rutten
Edit/animation: Ivo Schmetz
Met dank aan/Thanks to:
People: Ad Vlems, Diny
Funding: AFK, Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie
In the Amsterdam Alternative agenda you’ll find the public programming from our participating venues.
See the complete agendaDe Workship is de werkruimte van podiumdichter Mark Opfer en contrabassist William Barrett. Hier bieden we programma’s op het gebied van muziek, theater, film en lezingen. Door middel van kleinschalige culturele programmering verbinden we een duurzame innovatieve community met (podium)k
The Vondelbunker is a 100% volunteer run space, using DIY politics to create a place for counterculture in the hypercapitalist city centre. The Vondelbunker is located in an old bombshelter located in the Vondelpark in Amsterdam. Under the bridge bands and DJ’s play, performances shown, m
De Ruimte is a cultural space in Amsterdam-Noord. De Ruimte offers its stage to many art forms, ranging from (but not limited to) jazz/improvisationisation, storytelling, scientific lectures, short film and poetry. At the moment we are located at Sexyland World, Noordwal 1, Amsterdam.
De Nieuwe Meent is a housing cooperative in Amsterdam East structured around the core values of commoning, care, diversity, and sustainability. The development of De Nieuwe Meent began in 2018 as part of the housing cooperative pilot in Amsterdam with the aim to shape 'a post-capitalist urban co
De Omleiding is een pleisterplaats voor de ziel. Je komt binnen via de kiosk op de dijk, “De Bermtoerist" reeds een begrip bij dorstige fietsers en andere toevallig voorbijgangers. Elk weekend in de zomer geopend van 11 tot 17. Je kunt hier heerlijk vertoeven, zwemmen, waterfiets
De Groene Gemeenschap is sinds 2011 een wooncooperatie van huurders. Samen met hun buren organiseren de bewoners een buurtwoonkamer op het Steigereiland van IJburg. Dat is ook een thuisbasis voor allerlei projecteb voor het vergroenen van de buurt en het versterken van de solidariteit in de wijk.
[ woonruimte coöperatief ] is a nonprofit cooperative supporting the development of affordable housing. As an integral part of Wooncoöperatie de Nieuwe Meent in Amsterdam Oost, we run a space where people can meet, work, make and gather. Woonruimte is home to a co-working space, an event
Ruigoord is a green village in which the artists in studios and workshops can work for themselves but will also participate in the community. There is a strong tradition of cooperation, strengthened by the wide circle of related creative spirits both in the Netherlands and abroad. Because of this, R
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If interested in an interview or presentation about Amsterdam Alternative, Vrij Beton, Collective Ownership or another AA project please contact info(at)amsterdamalternative.nl.