https://www.residentadvisor.net/events/1121065
Location:
Awakenings is located inside the Westergasfabrik also known as Gashouder. Quoting the Resident Advisor venue page:
It’s a large, pillar-less chamber with an iron roof and a maximum capacity of 3,500, meaning it can play host to large-scale club nights as well as slightly more intimate events (with a seated capacity of 2,500).
The area is easy to reach. 15min by foot and 5min by bike coming from Amsterdam CS. Some bars and coffee shops are on the way. Also Westerpark, where it is located, is quite interesting. There are some bars and restaurants in the park. Also the Westergastheater and a Sunday Market are located there. Right across Gashouder is WesterUnie. Another huge and famous Nightclub having room for up to 1200 people. During ADE Watergate hosted a night there. If you, for whatever reason, have a bad night at Gashouder WesterUnie is there as an alternative. Only the entrance prices of both venues are huge and it will be an expensive night.
There are some after-the-party places next to Gashouder. If you party on Saturday you could go to the Sunday Market in the morning. Also some cafes are located next to it for a breakfast and some coffee after an exhausting night. Some are inside the Westerpark e.g. Espressofabriek (opens at 10am) and De Bakkerswinkel (opens at 8:30am) and multiple others right across the street e.g. Koffie ende Koeck or Café Restaurant Piet de Gruyter. For after hour clubs it is easy to grab a bike and go to the next venue. DeSchool is only 10min away. Plenty of options!
Sound-system:
With those events it is always difficult to go into details with the sound-system. It is dark and to spot logos and model numbers from hanging line-arrays is very difficult.
I think that either DB Audio was used, since the stage monitoring was from DB Audio (most likely) or L acoustics since their line-arrays are also very popular for big events and Awakening has worked with them in the past.
There have been delay towers but I can’t recall the exact amount. That’s why I will only write about my own feeling regarding the sound system.
We spend some time next to the sitting platform which was as far away as possible from the stage and it still sounded very good. It was loud, the bass was strong but it still didn’t hurt your ears (however please use ear protection). The rest of the time we’ve been in the middle of the room. So we have been quite far away from the main system on the stage. Still, I never had the feeling of bad sound or that we should move forward towards better sound. It sounded pretty even across the whole room. There haven’t been any noticeable dead spots. Even the bass was always well represented. Sure if you move forward it will get even louder, but I never had the feeling of necessity to do so. High, mid and low frequency's also sounded very balanced and even. I was skeptical about the sound in such a big hall and scared of potential reverb but it was handled perfectly.
A small detail I absolutely enjoyed was that it got louder during the night. I can’t say it started quiet, but compared to the volume of the end of Maceos set… I love that they thought about the visitors and the depreciation of hearing.
Lights and atmosphere:
The light-show is probably one of the main points while discussing if you go to Awakenings or not. Everybody knows the YouTube Videos where strobes are flashing and fireworks are flying through the westergas fabrik. But we also all know that videos can be staged an pictures can be made under perfect conditions. And sure that was also the case on the Awakenings YouTube and Instagram page, but in real life it still was very impressive.
Coming from the lockers you entered the front part of the room. The stage with the DJs and Artists was located there. Behind them there have been a couple of containers hanging from the ceiling. They had LED bars and stripes hanging on them but also projections have been made onto them. Either a live feed of the DJ or the name of the person operating the turntables. It was a very stage focused show and I was a bit disappointed at first, since it appeared nothing like what I was used to from youtube.
But like the sound the lights also evolved. The more time passed the more effects joined the initial lighting of the main stage. First some strobes, then some new moving heads which brought some dimension into the big venue and after that the technicians got the big boys out: The light stripes hanging from the ceiling moving up and down and also being used as strobes. I really liked those! I haven’t seen anything like this before and was really surprised that the promoters made the effort to think of a new way of lighting. Also it shifted the focus away from the center which resulted in people dancing in different directions and loosing themselves. During the last tracks from Maceo fireworks have been flying through Gashouder, and while it was comparably small, it still was a nice detail everybody was waiting and turning their heads around for.
Looking at the overall feeling of the venue I rate it as very positive. It was warm but not hot. I could dance comfortable without a shirt and the humidity was never an issue. People smoked inside but due to the high ceilings I never had the feeling of a lack of oxygen.
Comparing the lighting from this night to other events have seen online I don’t think it was the best setup. For example a few days later Ben Klocks Photon came to Gashouder with an increased amount of moving heads and a focus shifting away from the stage into the crowd. I also always liked the use of the disco-ball in combination with lasers (it wasn’t used during this event). But that is nothing negative, it is just my personal taste and I definitely find it honorable that they change there setup from time to time, giving regulars a diverse scenery. For such big events that's not common and definitely deserves credit!
Organization:
The staff was very professional and friendly. I never had the feeling of useless waiting. We arrived at 23/24 o’clock and there was no line at the entrance. The security check was quick and since lockers could be bought online getting the codes to them was easy. There was a bit of a line exchanging money for tokens but that was ok. I don’t like the token system, but it is pretty much the standard nowadays and it was better than the payment system at DGTL. There even was a booth for drug-use education. I don’t know if they also did testing but it was nice to see that they found some space to incorporate it. As far as I noticed there have been two areas for toilets and enough available. To sit down there have been two main opportunities. First: in the main room was a sitting platform (like in a stadium) some meters above the ground (I guess it fitted around 100 people). Second: a separate room where you could also buy food and where the drug education was located. There have been some benches and tables but you could also sit down on the floor since it was well heated. For the super exhausted people there have even been some masseuses. How funny is that!
Overall the organization was excellent except for one thing: There was an MC which felt extremely cheap. I don’t know why someone decided to hire him and I hope he was only there during this evening and not regular. If he would have only announced the next DJ he wouldn’t have bothered me, but he also “motivated” the crowd during the set. Gashouder stayed open till 8 o’clock and I think that's decent. Till 9 or 10 would have been better, but considering they already open at 22 I think it is ok.
Residents:
Well, this section is going to be short. There are no residents. Unlike e.g. Dekmantel Awakenings doesn’t have an own label and thus not that strong of a bonding with artists. Also since Gashouder has only one room it is difficult to book smaller artists and the entry would be harder to justify. Still there are some dutch acts that come regularly. I won’t count it as a flaw since I totally understand there decision and booking criteria.
Pricing:
The entrance tickets have been 50€ each. Adding up service and payment fees it was closer to 55€. For 2 tickets and an E-locker I paid 118.66€ including all fees. That’s a lot of money but pretty much what all partys at Gashouder are priced at. Still there are some exceptions: The first ADE party was priced at 40€ (+fees) and NYE 2018 is priced at 70€ (+fees). Those prices are the reason I decided to write the review because there are a barrier and a lot of visitors will ask the question: Is it worth it? To anticipate the conclusion:
- 40€ if you like the genre and want to check out the venue. I definitely recommend it
- 50€ if you really like the acts or have been waiting a long time to see them play — go for it
- 70€ I am sorry but that is just to much (in my honest opinion)
Awakenings is a really high quality party, but it is also one of the priciest party's in the city. I liked the line-up and I was willing to pay the price, because I think it was ok for Maceo Plex and the line up he pulled together. Overall I was satisfied.
The prices for drinks have been a bit higher than at DGTL but at least high quality Heineken was served. Food on the other hand was a bit cheaper. I rate it upper middle-class. I am sorry I don’t remember the exact prices but if I am not mistaken a 0.25 beer was 1.5 tokens (roughly 3.5€).
Conclusion:
Coming from Germany to Amsterdam for ADE was already a big expense. So paying nearly 120€ for two tickets was a move I have been very uncertain about. In the end I was glad I did it. If you are into electronic music and like the artists that are performing I need to say it is kind of a must see venue. The sound, the lighting and the organization was nearly flawless. But lets rate it rationally:
The max. amount are 10 points. For every negative point I will subtract an appropriate amount of points to calculate the final score:
- -0.5 overall pricing including lineup and drinks (if entrance would have been 45€ including fees that would have been perfect)
- -0.5 for the MC, it seems harsh but it just felt soooo cheap
- -0.25 for the chill-out area since there have been a few to less benches and some pillows would have elevated the spot times 10
- -0.25 missing a second dancefloor. I know due to the venue there isn’t much they can do about it (that's why it only gets -0.25) but a second floor is always a good thing and bringing in some variation
Giving Awakenings at ADE 2018 an overall very positive score of 8.5 out of 10. I can truly recommend it!
My state of mind:
This is a hard one. The day before Awakenings the DGTL event took place which wasn’t very positive. We still have been quite exhausted due to a lack of sleep and I wasn’t very hyped for another big event. After some beers the mood changed and I got immune against minor details which probably would have bothered me. E.g. people bumping into me. But since we have been mostly in the back area of the room there was never an issue with annoying people. Everybody I meet was friendly, but admittedly more in their own headspace. Still the amount of people under the influence of certain “medicine” was in my opinion lower than at DGTL, which was great. Awakenings at Gashouder was a good experience and I really enjoyed it. I hope I will come back soon (please at least keep the prices at the current rate and don’t make it more expensive).
