Amsterdam Dance Event, the five-day conference and festival, had a record 450,000 visitors this year, the organisation has announced.

The conference ran for the first time without restrictions since the start of the covornavirus pandemic, and had 1,000 events in more than 200 locations.

A daytime industry event, billed as the world’s largest conference for the business of dance music, included sessions on mental health, social impact and inclusivity, plus the impact of new technologies and outlets such as music streaming.

There were more than 2,500 artists and speakers, including a crossover concert with the Metropole Orkest and synth music artist Suzanne Ciani and audiovisual displays in the Nxt Museum and Within Without II in the Carré theatre. Sold-out events included nine Awakenings shows, AMF featuring Dutch DJ Afrojack, a line-up at the DGTL venue and Loveland events in two locations.

An ADE competition also awarded €100,000 in seed funding to two start up businesses: the data-driven music marketing idea Un:hurd and online music teaching platform SYNKii. Amsterdam Dance Event said that more than 2,000 young artists, producers and wannabe professionals took part in conference sessions.

Journalists at local paper The Parool described it as a kind of dance music ‘Tour de France’, with parent-and-child couples enjoying the fun as well as well-trained party goers. However, there were some reports of possible pickpockets releasing a pepper spray-like substance at weekend event, Elrow.

The next Amsterdam Dance event will take place between October 18 and 22 in 2023.