It’s a train without a destination, where you leave behind all of your luggage – because the point is the trip.

At precisely 12.30pm on Friday, the first of eight special dance trains left Amsterdam Centraal station, full of 300 clubbers, young and old, beers in hand and dressed to dance.

The bars were stocked with everything from €19.50 earplugs to midday liquor, two carriages were stripped of seats and refitted as long, thin dance floors, and even above the trundle of the train, dance music surged through the metal. “Enjoy your trip, live the journey” said the signs above the bar – and Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) clubbers were happy to oblige.

“It’s fab!” said Rens van Nellestijn, owner of 50:HERTZ, the company behind the club trains. “This hasn’t happened in Holland and not in ADE, so why not? I think some people will want to be on here for the whole 48 hours!”

Bastin, 30, the first DJ to kick off the Magnifik music showcase on October 18, was planning a medley of house and afro beats. “I want to make music people like, and this is what people want – it can’t go wrong,” he shouted over a train coffee bar, repurposed as a DJ booth.

Prince Ayinde and Natalie Killian, 31 and 28, had flown in from New York. “This is super cool,” said Killian. “In New York this kind of thing is more of a pop up.” Ayinde added: “It’s something we would come back home to talk about: this is different.”

Cyrille Gavory, 37 and from Paris, had come dressed in a red military jacket, ready for the trip. “I wanted to discover a new ambiance, and I like the DJs,” he said. “It’s about the excitement of doing something original.”

Amsterdam Dance Event

The club trains are part of the Amsterdam Dance Event, an annual festival of dance, conference and the arts, running this year from October 16 to 20.

The programme of more than 1,000 events includes sets by world-famous DJs plus music industry meet-ups from networking with lawyers to discussing whether clubbing can continue in war zones.

The Netherlands has some of the world’s best-known DJs, with names like Martin Garrix – performing at ADE 2024 – Afrojack and Tiësto. In 2023, the value of music exports grew by 15% year-on-year to €198 million, according to industry organisation Buma Cultuur.

But from a fan perspective, ADE has got both bigger and pricier. Leonor Falcon, 52, said that €50 for the train club was a relatively keen price compared to some events. “I love the fact that this train is during the day,” she added. “We thought: why not? Your body needs to dance!”

As the train started its four-hour ride, the bars were rammed and a man calling himself the candyman wandered up and down the aisles offering free sweeties to the pioneer voyagers. In “backstage”, the front carriage, Belgian DJs Samm & Ajna (in a suitably festive golden tracksuit) were prefuelling with apples, bananas and sugar-free energy drinks.

Van Nellestijn vowed that – with the help of Dutch train firm NS and network manager ProRail – the club train would ride on time, and cause not a single delay for normal rail travellers. And the neighbours won’t mind about the loud music either. “By the time they start moaning,” he said, “we will be gone.”