Armin van Buuren will open Amsterdam Dance Event 2026 and the Dutch trance icon and Armada Music co-founder headlines the ADE opening night on Wednesday 21st October at Gashouder. Dutch hard house revivalist Benwal will be joining Armin at this gig. The announcement lands on the same day van Buuren dropped ‘U Got 2 Know’. A reimagining of Capella’s 1993 dance anthem of the same name, made in collaboration with Hannah Laing and Wippenburg.
Gashouder Returns
The Gashouder booking carries a significance. The iconic Amsterdam warehouse venue, originally built in the late 19th century as a massive gas storage tank for the Westergasfabriek industrial complex. The renovation work which began in January 2025 includes a new basement beneath the venue to house all event facilities — entrance areas, cloakrooms, dressing rooms, and production space. This frees up the surrounding park and improving sound insulation and crowd flow significantly.
The renovated Gashouder reopens as a new independent cultural venue with a capacity of over 3,500 visitors. It goes back to being a multidisciplinary stage where live music, dance, performance and art come together. Its circular design creates an almost physical connection between performer and audience that few venues in the Netherlands can match.
The rise of techno in Amsterdam in the 1990s, coupled with the newly renovated space at the time, created the perfect storm for Gashouder to become globally synonymous with techno and house. In 1997, Awakenings held its first techno night there.
ADE 2026: The 30th Edition
Amsterdam Dance Event 2026 will run from October 21st to 25th. This also the 30th edition of the gathering. French electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre has been confirmed as guest of honour, performing at AFAS Live on opening night as part of ADE’s Opening Concert series — commemorating the 50th anniversary of his seminal album Oxygène. Van Buuren at Gashouder and Jarre at AFAS Live on the same evening makes October 21st one of the most loaded opening nights at ADE 2026.
Last year’s edition brought together more than 3,300 artists across almost 250 venues. The full bill for 2026 will be announced in the coming months.
The New Single
‘U Got 2 Know‘ arrives as van Buuren’s latest studio release. This is a trance-forward reimagining of Capella’s 1993 club anthem, built with Hannah Laing and Wippenburg. It lands at a moment when van Buuren’s creative output shows no sign of slowing. His collaboration with ARGY on ‘Like A Child‘ earlier this year demonstrated an appetite for stepping outside his comfort zone. His latest track ‘U Got 2 Know’ leans back into the trance heritage that made him one of the genre’s defining figures.
Pre-sale tickets for Armin van Buuren at Gashouder are available from 1PM on Monday 25th May. Register here.
