Amsterdam Alternative on the Ring - Program overview

On Saturday 21st of June 2025 the big Ring party will take place in Amsterdam. The event is part of the Amsterdam 750 celebration and Amsterdam Alternative has a spot where we program a wide variety of music, performances, art, dance, spoken word, workshops and more. On this page you find all the information about Amsterdam Alternative at the Ring.

We will be programming from 11:00 till 22:00 hrs, with a break between 13:45 and 15:00 hrs.
The exact location of our spot is at entrance/exit Jan van Galenstraat in Amsterdam West, in the area called ‘Buiten de lijntjes’. We will be there together with Ruigoord, Urban Resort, Lola, Meurkens & Meurkens and other organisations from the vrijplaatsen and broedplaatsen scene of Amsterdam.
Entrance is free, but tickets need to be reserved (if still possible).

In this same year that Amsterdam celebrates it’s 750th anniversary we (Amsterdam Alternative) celebrate our 10th anniversary. To celebrate this we are organising the Vrije Ruimte Festival 2025. A festival that is spread over 10 locations (OT301, Bajesdorp, Ru Paré, Cinetol, De Appel, Cavia, OCCII, Treehouse NDSM, Plantage Dok and Het Groene Veld) between March and September 2025. All these events have a different programming varying from live bands to workshops, exhibitions, electronic music, performance, talks and documentary screenings. We consider our programming on the Ring as an extra event of the Vrije Ruimte Festival. The one event where all veneus come together to do a collective programming. All participating participating artists, musicians etc. are connected to the network of Amsterdam Alternative and the venues participting in AA.

On the Ring party we have several stages. One main stage with DJ’s and bands, two incredible stages from Moving Arts (named KARLOS and KARLIE) and several other nice spots, installations and parformers going through the AA area.

Below a list of participating artists (in alphabethical order)

Afrogrooves 
Afrogrooves is een hechte familie van muzikanten van over de hele wereld, met een gedeelde liefde voor Afrobeat en met Amsterdam als thuisbasis. Het collectief is een smeltkroes van verschillende soorten mensen, met een gemeenschappelijke passie voor het combineren van West-Afrikaanse muziek met funk, jazz en hiphop.
Insta // Linktree

Bea Lamadrid Bayón is a Spanish artist based between Seville and Amsterdam, who graduated in Moving Image and Visual Arts from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam (2024). Her work focuses on performance and choreography, video art, and video dance.
Bea develops her artistic practice by exploring realities, characters, social taboos, and diverse perceptions, constructing narratives that play with the audience’s position, sound, and space. Her background in dance and visual arts is reflected in performances where audiovisual elements converge with strong bodily and performative expression. She creates immersive environments that provoke active reflection from the audience. Through the personalities of the performers and characters, she focuses on observing and highlighting human behaviors and emotions, simplifying them to explore and shape them through the body, movement, and audiovisual resources. She aims to distill universal emotions or sensations, allowing narratives to emerge from encounters between characters, elements, and feelings, placing them at the core of the piece and playing with reality to offer new perspectives.
Website // Insta

Bellamy Grove is a five-piece band consisting of two guitarists, a bassist, a singer and a drummer. The band plays punchy surf rock, varying from loud and energetic
to quiet and atmospheric passages. Please contact Joris in advance for general matters and Ruben (sound engineer) to further coordinate the technical aspects of the venue and the technical requirements of the band.
Insta // Website

Binarytrees is a two-piece experimental electronic act based in Amsterdam that represents one thing that is in everything - transformation. Each thing in nature has its own DNA for how it climbs down the evolutionary tree - a piece of its biological code, fragments of self-replication. Driven by this highest objective, binarytrees create space to be transformed by ethereal spheres, driven rhythms, and ideas that usher in dystopian visions of an imminent future. Rooted in post-dubstep, 90's french house, art pop and field noise, binarytrees juxtapose the listener into the limbo in between contemplation and movement. Their music synthesizes alt-pop traits with an affinity for experimentation to produce forward-thinking electronic pop music.
Linktree

Bom! is a project that originated in 2022 in the Netherlands, dedicated to celebrating and promoting the rich tradition of "Música Popular Brasileira" (Brazilian Popular Music).
The emotional depth of Brazilian Popular Music is one of its defining features. It reflects the melancholic and introspective side of the Brazilian spirit with "tristeza" (sadness), captures the joy and celebratory nature of the people with "felicidade" (happiness), expresses a deep, poignant longing with "saudade" (nostalgia), and embodies the emotional and often sentimental aspects of life with "choro" (tears).
The music of "Bom!" is not only engaging but also deeply narrative. It tells the stories of the Brazilian people, passed down through generations. The use of poetic language, often infused with irony and humor, makes the songs both entertaining and thought-provoking. One of the strengths of the duo project is the ability of both members to play multiple instruments, creating a sound that is complete and gives the impression of a full band, despite being only two members.
The project is formed by singer Martina Effy Bergonzoni and guitarist Joy Goh, both of whom have a jazz background. Martina’s voice brings the stories and emotions of the songs to life, while Joy’s skillful guitar playing underpins the melodic and harmonic structure, and their combined talents enhance the overall sound and richness of the performances. Both she and Joy, as multi-instrumentalists, add layers and depth to the music.
Website // Insta

Burchhhha is dj/experimental musician/performance artist based between Amsterdam and Den Haag. She likes bouncy, fun, and eternal sounds. If her sets had a colour, it would be pink. Come dance with her!
Insta // Soundcloud

Cardigan Inn, a dynamic new wave group, masterfully blends 80s synthpop nostalgia with a modern, edgy twist. Their songs are about love, longing and the mystique of digital life. Led by an enigmatic singer, their lyrics explore introspection and urban disillusionment.
Insta

Danny Keen
From the hazy depths of Liverpool’s psychedelic scene to Amsterdam and beyond, Danny Keen conjures up celestial worlds with his guitar and guitar synthesizer. His unique style of playing can be heard across numerous film scores and genre bending collaborations far and wide. Fusing 70s prog, ambient, minimalism, electronic textures, and fusion, each live show is an unrepeatable journey guaranteed to take you to a happier place.
Insta // Soundcloud

DJ Sjaak (Layla Gijsen)
Amsterdam based DJ Sjaak has been actively spinning records for the past 7 years. Playing in underground venues, but she is also a regular at places like Paradiso, Skate Cafe, de Nieuwe Anita and Garage Noord. Her sets, always danceable and energetic, range from post/egg punk and rock ‘n roll to the most danceable habibi/disco funk and multiple new wave genres. If you hear a scratch in one of the records, then at least you know that music is tangible;)
Insta

Dolle Mina is een feministische beweging, ontstaan in de winter van 1969-1970, uit onvrede met de traditionele rolpatronen tussen man en vrouw. Met ludieke acties verkreeg Dolle Mina landelijk media-aandacht. De belangrijkste eisen waren: kansengelijkheid tussen man en vrouw, doorbreken van de traditionele rolverdeling en legalisering van abortus. Met spraakmakende acties wist Dolle Mina een breed publiek te bereiken. Nu Dolle Mina weer actief is, willen we deze Amsterdamse geschiedenis met een knipoog vieren en tegelijkertijd oproepen tot actie.
Insta // Website

Dolly
Dolly Qianyu Wu is an artist, designer, and writer whose creative practice spans food design, performance, installation, filmmaking, and storytelling. Her work is driven by a deep curiosity about the self, the balance between stillness and movement in the body, and the intricate connections between humans, society, and nature.
Originally studied graphic design, Dolly gradually stepped away from the screen to explore the tangible, sensorial, and interactive dimensions of experience. Her projects invite audiences to reflect on their inner worlds and their relationships with others and the environment. Through her work, she raises questions such as: What truly matters in this era? What lies beyond social media? How can we protect vulnerability and build closer connection?

Esther Dune
Esther Dune’s sound is characterized by the legacy of techno and (acid) house music. Growing up in The Netherlands shaped Esther’s music as she absorbed the rich Dutch
scene of the time. Being praised for her excellent high-end precision mixing skills Esther blends styles together flawlessly, bringing quality & content to any dancefloor. From raw electro to minimal, Detroit techno, hard techno & proper acid techno. She creates a natural flow traveling effortlessly through all the decades of electronic music like time doesn’t exist. She also enjoys playing deeper styles like (Italo) disco to acid / Chicago house, deep techno, obscure acid & (downtempo) EBM and feels right at home starting her DJ’s sets from scratch setting the mood and building to where the dancefloor needs to be.
Insta // Soundcloud

Ferengi - A mobile performance you take part in yourself
People think they're amazing! But what happens when we encounter strange beings who are far more amazing than we are? What will we do with those strangers? Vaccinate them? Isolate them? Imprison them? And what if they’re so much better at everything that they see right through us in a split second? Is that actually a bad thing?
Put on your safety suit and let yourself be drawn into this initiation ritual of the Ferengi.
Made by Dienke Groenhout and the MakeFactory:
Creator/Director: Dienke Groenhout
Dancers: Alegría van Poppel Lubeigt, Anand Dhanakoti, Fiammetta Ruggiero & Maria Sava
Sound design: Remco de Kluizenaar // Technical support: Oscar Meijer
Insta // Website
This performance is programmed and made possible by Plein Theater, a venue with an intimate and adventurous program in Amsterdam East. 
Insta // Website

Gaba Ssantó (Brazil, 1984) ~ multimedia actress and performer since 2014. With a graduation in Visual Communication and a postgraduate in Theatre, I have worked in the visual arts field since 2008, and for dance and theatre companies and films since 2015. I have been working with different professionals in Brazil, Portugal, and the Netherlands, developing and participating in performances for urban and theater spaces, and acting for independent filmmakers. My research is based on affect/affectivity and discrepancy, which the book Poetics of Relation, by Édouard Glissant, motivates. My last creations were developed during the master's program at the Dutch Art Institute, where I presented a series of writings in a performance and an installation. 

Gabriel de Oliveira works as an improviser-songwriter juggling guitar, singing, choreography and cultural organizing practices. Throughout the last years, they’ve been seen in transit between the Netherlands and Brazil: simultaneously leading KB_, a collective-label nourishing new globalized scenes, and projects including Saturno Santos’ Something, qbae, and BRIGADERA. Their vision of globality is informed by urbanized life, “folk” mystery, and performing with the likes of Maracatu Leão Misterioso, Wendy Eisenberg, and Oscar Jan Hoogland.

Harper Love is a British and Australian drag artist (based in Amsterdam) that seeks to express an inner desire for love in a dull and dishonest world. 
Classically trained in musical theatre and design, Harper Love sits at the crossroads between the cutthroat world of drag culture and the ever unserious and impossible viel of the digital realm. Inspired by nerd and queer online culture, their performances observe the frailty of love in the most unorthodox and unreal of places. 
The Harper Love experience will more than likely contain; theatrical costuming, dancing, occasional singing, and lots of drama. Harper Love utilizes a base in drag culture and clashes it with the fictional dreams of a chronically online upbringing, all the while pouring forth the heart of a lonely child as they attempt to make sense in a dimorphic world. 
Insta

Hunk
In the spirit of bold acts like Blondshell, No Doubt and the angry side of Olivia Rodrigo, Joan de Bruyn Kops fronts diet grunge-pop band HUNK, escaping the perfectionistic demands of her brain. With a total absence of pretense, Hunk tackles skin-deep agony, blending '90s grunge with infectious synth-pop. They prove that getting frustrated can be a blast, if you play your cards right… After a strong first year with main stage performances at Bevrijdingspop and Vicefest, a successful Popronde tour, and the launch of their own game ‘Hunk vs Paul’ the band is set to release their debut EP in the fall of 2025. 
Insta // Soundcloud

Kiss My Knoblauch
Slugs, cockroaches, kliko’s, fritessaus and toxic armpits brought to you by Fishra (she/her) and B.Ruiz (they/them) in a stew of gothic utopias and stinky critique. Expect rapid words over DIY beats and catchy synth tunes with trumpet doodles. An alarm to shake us out of our paradigm and a lullaby to soothe us into a new one.
Insta

MadamBruno hails from one of the most historic, cultured, creative and most beautiful regions on the planet, Napoli in Italy. Coming from a region so diverse and rich in culture, since a child, MadamBruno took full advantage of her surroundings. Quenching her own curiosities and desires by focusing on sound and vision, she studied all aspects of theatre and music. Now she uses these skills with her magnificent voice and creative acting abilities to really command shows.
Her pallet of taste and inspirations is vast and matches her experience within theatrical and musical productions. Not only on stage but backstage and technical.
MadamBruno is a marvelous force of nature and a show within herself, bringing all emotions to anyone lucky enough to be watching or listening!
Insta

Mala Burlesque is a contemporary burlesque show born in Mexico in 2018. Fusing sensuality, theatricality, and social commentary, Mala explores the complexities of femininity and identity through bold, visual storytelling. During the pandemic, the project shifted to an online format, experimenting with streaming as a new way to connect and express expanding its reach and creative language.
For Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary, Mala presents a duet inspired by the idea of walking in someone else’s shoes. Through a subtle play of contrast and connection, the piece invites the audience into a journey of mutual reflection where identities overlap, and nothing is quite as it first appears. A quiet metamorphosis unfolds on stage, offering a visual metaphor for empathy, liberation, and the power of seeing oneself in the other.
Insta

Malvae (aka Jim van der Breggen) is an Amsterdam-based producer and performing artist who blends organic soundscapes with electronic textures, crafting music that feels both intimate and expansive. Born in the Netherlands and raised in New Zealand, his work draws from field recordings, manipulated vocals, and analog synthesis.
His 2017 breakout single Haunts Me (feat. Esther Veen) climbed to #17 on Spotify’s Viral 50 (USA), and his 2020 debut album Amazonas, built from sounds recorded during a 2000 km solo journey through the Amazon rainforest has surpassed a million streams.
In 2024, Malvae released Chrysalis, a bold sonic evolution praised by outlets like Cultr, 3voor12, Run The Trap, and Dancing Astronaut. The EP blends intricate digital detail with analog warmth, featuring haunting collaborations like Tell Me (feat. MAY BBY) and the hypnotic Pursue. That same year, he collaborated with poet Julia-Beth Harris on the Like Bees To A Hive EP, which began as a soundscape score for Lobomar's fashion show at the Amsterdam World Museum, spotlighted in an in-depth 3voor12 feature.
With his latest release Division (2025), a collaborative EP with Jaro on Tabula Rasa Records (USA), Malvae continues to explore the tension between contrast and cohesion, blending club-rooted energy with cinematic storytelling. His live shows, performed at venues like Melkweg, A'DAM Tower, and OT301, combine raw electronics with detailed sound design, unfolding as immersive, narrative-driven experiences.
Insta // Website

Mobile Meteorite Museum Amsterdam [MMMA]
On June 21st the Meteorite Museum Amsterdam [MMA] will present for the first time the Mobile Meteorite Museum. Everyone is invited to watch a selection of rocks and imagine where they came from! Besides the stones we have a mobile photo exhibition, called ‘Friends of the meteorite museum’. Eva Schippers, concerned citizen and volunteer at the MMA, will be present as your guide and there is a Photo Booth to have your picture taken and become part of the project.
Website // Insta

Nonsense 
Although the name might fool you, Nonsense still has a lot to say! The group was born from a shared annoyance with the rigid expectations that art academies and institutions put on their students, and a desire to create freely without worrying about the outcome. Our main goal is to have fun, by experimenting playfully and intuitively. We invite our audience to have fun with us and not worry too much about what it all means. In the end everything’s Nonsense!

Paroah is the moniker of Amsterdam based, Belgian born, sound and visual enthusiast Vicky de Visser.
When selecting tunes, she is known for heating up the dance floor with curveball after curveball, like a top level game of defensive, high rpm table tennis. That is, if the ball was your brain, and the expertly controlled, spin-imparting bats were unrelentingly fresh waves of acid, footwork, gabber, and other friendly yoga terrorism genres.
Aside from dance floor energising she explored more ambient realms with her monthly mixtape series ‘post-:§:-order’ for Root Radio Istanbul. She is co-founder of the sub-label Free Shit of Spooky Shit and is currently active as an experimental electronic music promoter in various venues in Amsterdam.
On the 21st of June Vicky will pull hot records, sultry female voices, spicy stories, and sexy bangers from her music collection. 
Insta // Soundcloud

Sjamsoedin
Sjamsoedins DJ-sets are known to surprise and cut through different genres, ranging from hiphop to jacking techno and from heavy electro to ravey acid. He can be found regularly in clubs like Radio Radio, Pip, Skatecafe and Bret and has played festivals like Wildeburg, ADE, DGTL and Awakenings in recent years. After buying his first sampler in 1999, he soon founded his band Nobody Beats The Drum and became a pivotal part of DJ collective Boemklatsch. He loves to collaborate and participated in a multitude of other projects as a producer, composer or performer since then. His releases, like his sets, cover a wide range of sounds. Recent highlights include the melancholic Intercity 106 album, a project with De Sluwe Vos and the Italo/electro  EP of Lords Of The Future, a duo with longtime friend Coen Berrier.
Insta // Soundcloud

Sonny Schnitzler
Sonny Schnitzler sounds DJ or Houtjetouwtje Soundsystem Amsterdam, organised tropical style, dance music parties in Amsterdam.
Once a member of bands 3-1 and Lucky Goat now playing Moon and Shine. Used to Dj at Patapoe Radio station and presented the program "Scheuren in de Ether"
Mixcloud

Stealth Piano
The Stealth Piano is an open-source mobile music venue. It is equally suitable for a rave, a piano concerto or karaoke, you name it. Plug in and jam, or join the crowd and let the DJ do his thing.
Website 

Tatiana Śpiewak and Sarah Zechut
We have known each other since 2018 when we both took part in a project with choreographer Sara Europaeus. Afterwards, we studied together at the Urban Contemporary (JMD) programme at Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, parting ways for our internships. Tatiana worked at Poetic Disasters Club (Club Guy & Roni) while Sarah danced for Conny Janssen Danst. This season we reconnected as freelance artists to create “a brand new, upgraded woman longing to feel as much as possible and even more, at all times, whatever it takes”
Insta Tatiana // Insta Sarah

The Earwurms is an Amsterdam “conceptual punk” band, created by three accidental women. Eight years ago, they played together for the first time at the talent show of the Montessori Lyceum Amsterdam. Since then, they have grown into a band that plays within the local activist music scene in Amsterdam. Recently, they can also be found on larger stages throughout the country, such as Paradiso and Vera. The Earwurms is an independent band that sees their identity broader than just the musical aspect. They create stage outfits, video clips, posters and visuals in collaboration with other creators. Bit by bit, the universe they create expands. Their music addresses themes such as the pleasure and understanding of the banal. In doing so, they investigate how, as women, their lives are colored and how they can deal with the confusion that comes with it. The band's style is inspired by no wave, riot girrrl, punk, math rock and experimental art rock. Due to the diversity of influences, the music is an assemblage of sounds. With savoury words and a “shebang” of sound they wiggle their way into your ears.
Bandcamp // Spotify // Insta

The M4ximoffs
Als matties in de muziek zoeken Bouke Hooft en Kelly Valentina Caporossi naar uitdagende manieren om House en Pop te combineren. Stil zitten en zijn lukt niet bij het horen van hun tunes.
Insta

Torn
Working through ‘opposite scores,’ Torn centres acts of ‘attempting to arrive at the opposite (but failing)’ and ‘sitting at a perpetual climax but never climaxing.’ Developed in close conversation with the four dancers in the piece, these opposite scores test the relational capacities of the individual body and the group – when is rejection possible? When is it confusion? What does curious integration look or sound like? What would embrace of an opposite even be? In working through this set of questions, the acts performed generate circumstances of binary exorcism, foregrounding (and sometimes backgrounding) the threshold mirages through which personal bias, hierarchies of perception, and critiques of categorisation are unveiled. Torn channels curiosity over fear and enfolding over avoidance. It attempts to find solace in the places of discomfort. Due to its re-scripting nature, Torn is a methodological proposition for healing. To find comfort in discomfort is to find freedom.
Concept & choreography: Thalia Livingstone 
Performance & choreography: Marie Faguet, Lovise Kjopstad Rimmereide, Evelina Roze & Zoé Da Silva
Sound Design: Laura Nygren
Artistic advisors: Megan Hoetger & Jana Jacuka 
Garments: Hayden Bouvet
Styling advisor: Claudia Reiss
Photography: Peter Viksna

 

Trash Skeleton
I work on participatory theater where the idea is that I have a script that is performed by audience members who have never seen the script before. The scripts are comedic, grotesque and surreal with the hope that the readers will break character as they try to say out loud the insane things I wrote for them. I am a character as well who's role is to provide stage directions.
I continue to write these plays to serve the communities I cherish and to decentralize theater. It is a language spoken by all of us and should not be sequestered by "professionals". I also love providing my theater for free or on donation. As it is for the people, by the people!
Insta

Verzet Per Couplet (Resistance By Verse) is a choir, accompanied by an accordionist, performing protest songs, traditional and new ones. The choir originates from Amsterdam East, where it was founded over a decade ago in the (evicted) Op de Valreep squat. It has since moved to the activist center NieuwLand in the Dapperbuurt. Once a fourtnight is an open rehearsal there. Verzet Per Couplet regulary performs at demonstrations and actions, such as concerning the housing crisis, and other political events.

Vleesch doch Visch
Dit muzikale trio bestaande uit Gijs Levelt op trompet, Ellen van Vliet op accordeon en Jasper de Beer op bas en banjo heeft heerlijke diverse smaken op het menu staan.
Zij laten zich inspireren door de meest verfijnde ritmes en melodieën uit diverse windstreken , zoals die van de Balkan dan weer over Kaap de Goede Hoop vervolgens langs de Mississippi Delta om dan weer te landen in het vertrouwde Mokum.

Wave is a writer, performer, activist and tantric-shamanic facilitator whose work explores how creative practice and embodied wisdom can support social transformation.
Wave is founder of Sweet Sundays, a London-based community arts project that bridges social divides through spoken word, games and free food and chai, and Organizing from Elsewhere, which explores how complexity science, somatic practices and indigenous perspectives might support us to create new ways of moving and deciding together for social change.
Wave has completed a Masters in Creative Writing at City University, studied with renowned teachers including Alan Lowen (Art Of Being) and Pema (Wild Tantra), and worked with plant medicines in the Amazon—there interest is in exploring how we might bring together diverse wisdom traditions to challenge dominant systems and reimagine collective organizing.

WE BE explores themes around interconnectedness, perceived differences, and the critical need for communication. 2 women from different backgrounds, language and culture confront each other in what appears to be a disagreement and differences arise. Through dialogue, interaction and movement, their differences evaporate leading them to recognize their oneness. WE BE uses written text, movement, music and improvisation based on what comes up in the moment between the 2 characters.
Creator and Actress: Tamara Richards, professional actress, voice artist, playwright and founder of Now Now Productions is originally from Canada currently based in Amsterdam. She has performed on three continents in notable productions such as Hedda Gabler The Crucible, Motherhood Outloud and Pool No Water. On screen, she has appeared in Torch Song, Venery of Samantha Bird, 19-2 and Fatal Vows. Her writing addresses issues around environmental degradation, natures critical role and human relations. Her plays and monologues have been performed in Munich, Montreal and Amsterdam
Actress: Eugenia Panagiotides holds a Master’s degree in Acting from the School of Drama at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and advanced training from the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York. Her stage work includes performances in The Clean House, Odyssey & Penelopes, and The Oresteia in Greece, as well as ongoing roles with Merlin Entertainments in Amsterdam.
Musician: Sujith Kumar is a percussionist from the US. He has been playing drums for over 30 years in bands and is currently a session drummer, contributing to studio and live projects in Arkansas, Chicago, Washington DC, and Philadelphia