With its six events over the ADE weekend, DGTL brought its biggest event schedule to date at the NDSM Warehouse. From ARTBAT to Worakls, we had the chance to attend the exclusive DGTL presents Ben Böhmer live on Friday; with a mix of romantic harmonies and deep lines that sizzle with emotional, synth-and-vocal-fuelled energy Ben Böhmer’s performance has been a journey through his soul as a musician.
DGTL Festival: top-notch names, up-and-coming artists, astonishing locations and visual effects, everything built around sustainability.
But, let’s start from the beginning. DGTL is a festival company founded in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, that now runs parties all over the world including Brazil, India, Israel, and more. The core concept of DGTL is to bring well-known names paired with up-and-coming artists in a way to have a balance in every lineup. From the artists to the locations, DGTL carefully designs its stages that are always built around raw and industrial settings.
Not only music as DGTL has sustainability built in its core. DGTL is very conscious of its influence on the environment, strives to be the most sustainable festival on the planet, and makes significant investments in lowering its carbon footprint. The festival is well renowned for its plant-based food court and lack of single-use plastics, but in 2022, DGTL also achieved full sustainability and 100% circularity.
DGTL ADE 2022 presents Ben Böhmer Live
With its spirit in mind, DGTL returned to the annual Amsterdam Dance Event with six incredible events. We had the chance to attend DGTL on Friday evening; two names were on the lineup: Rezident and Ben Böhmer.
The event’s area was in Amsterdam North. The NDSM Warehouse is located on the waterfront of the river Dam and it is a complex of industrial buildings offering a unique setting when it comes to stage design. For this year’s ADE, DGTL has decided to go with a bold stage design. A long parallelepiped covered by LED walls on all its surfaces has been put on top of the crowd. Beam lights all over the ceiling enriched the design, which is completed by a U-shaped led wall behind the stage. This mix of led walls and lights that surround the crowd gives a sense of enclosure delivering the feeling to be one with the show.
The night started with Rezident behind the decks; honestly, I didn’t know him and it was actually the first time I was enjoying his show. And yes, I enjoyed it very much. Rezident has been the perfect opening for Ben. Spacing between progressive, house, techno, and electro, the 22-years old brought the crowd into a sonic journey, bridging a most unique gap between celebration and therapy. Moving between the Pioneer CDJs and his gear, Rezident delivered a live DJ set, creating at the moment new sound elements and harmonies.
After less than half an hour of stage preparation, it was the time of the master, Ben Böhmer. His performance has been a collection of energetic and unabashedly club-ready songs. Utilizing pounding drums, layered melodies, heavy sub-frequencies, and breath-taking vocals, Böhmer brought the dancefloor into another dimension; romantic harmonies and intimate arpeggios perfectly balance the heavy beats and raw bassline creating a sense of dying and yang during the whole performance.
Not only did DGTL ADE 2022 set up an incredible stage, delivering a top-notch service for its fans but the incredible lineup and the legendary artists invited made tho’s year’s edition of DGTL for Amsterdam Dance Event one for the books.
