All About DGTL Festival

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Open air, Indoor & Outdoor

XL – 20-50k

Electronic

$$

International, Live Music, Alternative

2 Days

Electronic music festival DGTL will take you on a journey of discovery, inspiration, jaw-dropping art installations, and lighting production.

Here’s everything you need to know about DGTL Festival.

DGTL Festival has come a long way since its inception

The first edition, held as a one-day event in 2013, hit a home run by selling out the tickets – a challenge that is mostly never conquered by rookie festivals.

This gigantic debut encouraged DGTL to further deliver its ethos, characterized by three pillars – music, art, and revolution. The festival quickly flourished, as it sold out the tickets on its second and third editions as well.

Not long after, the one-day festival morphed into a two-day renowned event that cherished the lusted-after international character.

In 2020, COVID-19 did not defeat DGTL Festival. The electronic titan took over the digital universe and allowed festival-goers to participate with just one click. Fast forward to 2022, DGTL re-energized the festival season for Dutch ravers with a triumphant return.

DGTL has enjoyed a spectacular journey and rapid rise in a very short period of time. Thanks to its off-the-wall blend of underground dance music, conceptual art, and forward-thinking ethos, it has become an international force.

Amsterdam’s famed DGTL is the world’s first circular electronic music festival. Its sustainability and circularity goals pave the path for electronic music festivals to have a greener future.

A different approach from other festivals

DGTL Festival supports the underground and emphasizes creativity and exploration. It doesn’t boast lineups of blue-blooded music heroes only – instead, DGTL chooses to highlight the future’s top influencers.

By incorporating major names from the electronic realm with up-and-coming talent through back-to-back sets, DGTL balances its musical lineup.

This all-inclusive strategy is coupled with excellent audio setups and creative set designs. DGTL’s crew pushes artistic limits with out-of-this-world visual art pieces while techno artists perform their heart-racing music sets.

Home to all things electronic, DGTL covers soundscapes ranging from upbeat disco, house, and funk to jungle and UKG.

It features modern trance for the rave-hungry crowd and minimal techno for the electronic aficionados.

With a lineup of over 80 artists, including the likes of Monolink, Adriatique, Nicola Cruz, and Jon Hopkins, DGTL attracts more than 40,000 visitors every year.

DGTL Festival takes place in a former shipyard

The festival’s location and scenic views are worth the visit. Amsterdam’s NDSM Hall used to house a former ship repair company – known as NDSM – that became defunct in 1979.

Twenty years later, the area received restorations and became the cultural hub it is today.

Every year, NDSM completely transforms during the DGTL weekend, as electronic beats monopolize shipbuilding warehouses and dry docks.

The area is converted into an underground space with multiple stages, numerous art exhibits, and jaw-dropping light projections.

There are seven stages at DGTL Festival

Some of the best electronic music artists have performed every year since the inaugural DGTL Amsterdam. The festival is on track to provide a magnificent mix of musicians, from beloved underground icons to explosive rookies from Amsterdam’s deep-sea of electronic talent.

The festival’s 2022 edition featured seven stages and 80 acts over three days. These stages were designed to house a plethora of sounds and themes delivered through electronic music.

The Modular Stage is where techno and house collide, while the Generator Stage is home to dark and bullet-hard techno. At the same time, the AMP Stage showcases a state-of-the-art LED system used for hypnotic visual effects and video projections.

Gain Stage creates a space where artists are encouraged to play a music genre different from their go-to one.

The Frequency stage features eclectic electronic genres, including progressive techno and house, in an outdoor setting. Filter offers an intimate club-like environment with a limited capacity and great interaction between the audience and the artist.

Last but not least, Live Stage hosts live performances combined with an exceptional plant-filled setup and lightings.

DGTL offers something for everyone

DGTL Festival features its own official campsite located in north Amsterdam, just a short bus ride from the event’s grounds. In connection with the campsite, there is a restaurant, a laundromat, and modern bathrooms with facilities for disabled individuals.

The campsite presents different options to respond to everyone’s needs and pockets. Festival-goers will be able to rent a tent spot, tent, or cabin.

Not a fan of camping? Luckily, DGTL is located in an area brimming with hotels and Airbnb apartments.

Attendees can book their place, choosing from eco-friendly hotels to budget-friendly hostels that can accommodate an entire group of friends.

At DGTL, you can pamper yourself

Is your adventurous mood on? DGTL has expanded its flagship version with the help of its Sexyland pals, a conceptual club on the NDSM Wharf, by including a hidden spa.

But to be granted entrance, people must climb the crane and win a bingo competition. By partnering up with Faralda Crane – a mind-blowing hotel that offers a once-in-a-lifetime experience – festival-goers are spoilt for spa choices inside Sexyland’s concept.

From bubbly jacuzzis to relaxing massages, this tranquil environment is a breath of fresh air from DGTL’s hustle and bustle.

At DGTL, art and music go hand in hand

Cultural and creative activities are significant components of DGTL’s identity.

Since DGTL prides itself as a creative space, it holds remarkable art pieces, ranging from industrial and modular installations to environmentally-friendly projects to keep festival-goers engaged. This translates into cutting-edge visual art and technology that maintains its zero-waste strategy.

Every year, DGTL collaborates with local artists to provide conceptual art performances. The festival scatters its grounds with art projects created by local artists and designers participating in the competition.

The music festival holds a yearly competition to choose an art installation winner. Whoever is talented and creative enough to sweep DGTL’s organizers off their feet can add “a music festival featured my project on its grounds” to their CV.

One of the noteworthy art installations that are both jaw-dropping and eye-catching is Skyline.

The project features mind-blowing 4D sound combined with a dynamic lighting scheme to provide a completely new, distinctive, and compelling experience.

DGTL never runs out of surprises

In 2015, every festival-goer who decided to camp on-site was automatically granted entrance to the festival’s nocturnal after-party festivities. The relatively intimate scale of DGTL and the Scheepsbouwloods after-party venue meant that activities could go on until the early hours.

Fast-forward to 2017, electronic legend Maceo Plex deserved to have his own room at DGTL, where the techno master delivered an iconic performance. He played the finest underground sound, breathing Ibiza’s hot air into European dance floors.

And that’s not all – during 2020’s hard time, many music festivals were canceled in an ongoing fight against COVID-19.

But the unstoppable DGTL refused to reschedule and organized Digital DGTL, the world’s largest online festival, ensuring every festival lover got an electronic-fuelled weekend.

Anyone who virtually attended the renowned music festival transformed their living room into a festival area.

Meticulously working on the details, the organizers approached DGTL’s virtual space just like they would have done with the real festival edition, streaming different stages simultaneously.

Say goodbye to the performers and enjoy the foods and goods

One of the main contributors to environmental issues is meat production and consumption.

DGTL’s vegetarian food-only initiative helps reduce CO2 production, conserve water, and reduce the extinction of species. By partnering with Beyond Meat, DGTL has switched to a plant-based diet, receiving positive feedback about the food.

Even meat fans praised the plant-based burgers, despite not knowing about the food’s environmental advantage.

DGTL works with sustainable clothing brand Unrobe to produce clothing using recycled polyester and organic cotton, which means no chemicals and pesticides are used.

DGTL Festival is fully circular

Since its launch, DGTL Festival has worked toward its circular festival goal by recycling plastic, opting for meatless catering, and using collected urine as garden fertilizer.

In addition to placing recycling stations all over the festival grounds, it also collects plastic cups to recycle trash for various things, including brand-new art installations and skateboards. Highly aware of the environmental impacts, the fest launched a zero-emission tool to determine the means of transportation attendees use.

In 2019, DGTL Festival won the International Greener Festival Award for its sustainability efforts, thus becoming the world’s most sustainable music festival among 40 festivals.

DGTL has an international character

DGTL is an Amsterdam-based festival with a global presence.

Regardless of being a relatively rookie festival, DGTL doesn’t fall short in attracting significant numbers of music devotees. It made a big splash with the first edition, therefore becoming a strong festival brand both in the Netherlands and worldwide.

In addition to its Amsterdam home base and ADE series, DGTL has editions in Madrid, Santiago, São Paulo, Bangalore, and Tel Aviv.

With the same music DNA and principles as the mothership event, DGTL is primed to take music fans everywhere into the same dizzying sense of musical pleasure and global community under the heart-racing bass.