It’s Pentecost weekend! The average person doesn’t have a clue why we’re free on Monday, but it’s welcome: a long weekend close to summer. And the weather forecast looks almost offensively good. Like the world has decided to forgive us for everything we did to ourselves in dark clubs over the past months.

I’m not a religious person, so I’m in no position to lecture you on biblical history, but Pentecost commemorates the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus’ apostles after Jesus’ ascent to heaven. The apostles are literally inspired and start spreading their message into the world.

Now, I’m not saying your 5AM toilet queue revelations at BRET are exactly the same as apostolic prophecy. But maybe there is something there. Inspiration, after all, is a strange thing. Sometimes it comes from an epiphany of some sort, sometimes from a stranger smiling at you from the other side of the DJ booth, sometimes from a bassline rearranging your guts for a few minutes, sometimes from finally drinking water and realizing you still have a body.

But Pentecost is not just about being inspired. It is about what happens after. The apostles don’t just sit there glowing with divine atmosphere, scratching vague statements about energy and alignment into wax tablets like first-century wellness influencers. They went out into the world. Annoyingly motivated, moved by something.

What happens after, is the more interesting question for us too, I think. Not just what gives you that moment of warmth on the dance floor, that sudden little opening in your chest, that sense that people might be less awful than the internet suggests. But what you do with it afterwards.

Because softness is beautiful, but it can also become just comfortable. A mood. An aesthetic. A nice thing to believe about yourself while changing very little. And to be fair, most nights out do not magically transform anyone. You dance, you flirt badly, you lose someone’s jacket, you promise to stay in touch with three strangers and never do. The world remains stubbornly itself by Monday morning.

But every now and then, something small carries over. A little more openness. A little less cynicism. A reminder that care between strangers is still possible. If a night out gives us anything worth keeping, maybe it should make us a bit harder to numb. A bit quicker to notice when someone needs help. A bit less willing to accept cruelty as background noise. A bit braver, in small and practical ways.

That doesn’t mean everyone has to leave the club and immediately become a full-time activist or chain themselves to the nearest highway or power plant before breakfast. Please hydrate first. But it does mean that community cannot only be something we consume on weekends. It has to show up somewhere else too. In how we speak up. In how we hold space for people. In what we support, what we refuse, what we stop laughing off.

So, if you’re open to this, Pentecost might be a good moment to reflect: what inspires you? What kind of goodness do you want to spread? What do you carry into the room, and what do you leave behind?

This weekend we are given an extra night and day. Use them well. To dance. To reconnect. To become brave again in small ways. Or just to recover. Both rest and resistance are holy in their own way.

Friday

RÆZA invites Beatrice at RAUM (RA). RAUM resident RÆZA invites Berlin-based Tresor resident Beatrice. These resident-invites nights have been a lot of fun lately: a bit more personal, often with a nice sense of trust behind the booth. Feels like a solid Friday RAUM option.

KODE EP Release at Time is the New Space (Rotterdam, 22.00-3.00h) with Faustin B2B OG Karin, Ferre B2B Infinite Pleasure, Kessler B2B AFO, Prince Pasensi B2B Soft Break (RA). Ferré is releasing his first studio EP and celebrates with four very nice b2bs with local artists moving through bass, afro, breaks and club music.

Fugazii x Export with DJ Swisha, Nala Brown, Franky Sticks & Delfshaven Players Ball (Sunnysoposted, ltz3bby, Lxual, Kroomy) (RA). Ghetto house, Jersey/Baltimore club, jungle at Export, 2 rooms. All that fast, sweaty, rhythmically rude stuff that makes standing still feel like a personal failure.

Doudou MD and livwutang at Radio Radio (RA). Warm, groovy, hopefully not too polished: livwutang has that kind of genre-fluid, dubby, percussive, approach.

Khadija Al Hannafi, Meel B, Rozaly + bar40 hosted by UNOBSTRUCTED at Garage Noord (RA). Garage doing Garage things: a strong club line-up downstairs, with bar40 adding its own parallel universe upstairs.

Saturday

Hitam, LNR, Sybil at RAUM (RA). Deep, bass-heavy techno, but not in the “please admire my darkness” way. RAUM describes this one as narrative-driven sonic journeys drawing from underground and experimental references, which is club speak, yes, but in this case it does seem to fit.

The Planet at TILLATEC with LSDXOXO, Manuka Honey, Reenie, Slimfit, Sarkawt Hamad,Jewel (RA). Latin American, Caribbean, rhythmic, sweaty. Prepare your booty to be shaken, but spiritually. LSDXOXO in the wash room sounds like a very direct threat to the plumbing.

160k's CLOSING with Ansjowvis, Franky Sticks, Gisza, iMarly, Kahorsa, Ketia, Leftovers, Leon Andres, Nebula13, Pawel/K, Sunnysoposted, VSCO, Vuur, Youngwoman (RA). This venue already had two closings, but this time it’s closing for real. To be honest, I’m not really sad about this. Since it reopened as 160k, I’ve been there a couple of times, especially at Sunday gatherings, and it always felt like an empty shell: neglected, sad, half-haunted by something that used to matter more. Of course, it’s sad how things got this far: never fully recovering from the pandemic, owners deep in debt, the place never making enough revenue. And it’s also sad that this part of town is being redeveloped and we’re saying goodbye to some of its characteristic rawness. But it also feels like finally turning the page and saying farewell to something that was already buried and decayed. Still, a closing is a closing, and if you have memories there, go give them a proper goodbye. Even mouldy basements deserve one last dance.

Sunday

SLPFNK 15 year anniversary Amsterdam Club Tour weekender at TILLATEC with DJ Senc, Larry De Kat (live), LORI B2B Hannecart, Moopie, Mystery Guest, Sandrien (house set), Willow, XDB (RA). This is the TILLATEC part of their weekender, running from Sunday night into Monday morning, with a line-up that feels very much like their comfort zone: house, groove, old friends, trusted selectors. Not my comfort zone though, but these events have their crowd. If you feel part of that: enjoy.

PSYROM at IFYKYK with WEES, Cobahn, Human Space Machine, Thoms Traxx, JP Enfant (RA). A Sunday daytime-to-nighttime techno option, 13.00-1.00h, no phone policy, pitch dark and sweaty with good sound. A solid gathering for people who want to disappear into serious music. There’s something faintly nostalgic about this party. It feels like a small reminder of an Amsterdam that used to trust the dance floor a little more.

Monday

SLPFNK 15 year anniversary Amsterdam Club Tour weekender at BRET, lineup unannounced (RA). Long hours (in the toilet queues) and familiar faces. Right. That red box has a way of turning a public holiday into one more collective bad decision. Sometimes the best recovery is sleep. Sometimes it’s sitting outside with your friends, pretending you are going home soon, while absolutely no one believes you.

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Dance if you need to dance. Rest if you need to rest. Call a friend you’re out of touch with. Eat well, especially if you’re on a bender. Drink some water before bed for once. Be gentle with strangers, with your loved ones, with club staff (they’re our angels), and maybe even with yourself.

Spread something good.

In the Netherlands there are very few rituals left that are genuinely public and collective and not mediated through tickets, commerce or algorithms. Just people outside in the streets, in parks, on boats, on sidewalks. Kids selling old toys on blankets. Neighbors sharing drinks. Strangers talking to each other. For one day, society almost feels like a real community.

And that is worth something.

Not the monarchy, necessarily. Not the reason behind the ritual. But the ritual itself. The publicness of it. Shared space. Spontaneity. A kind of accidental gathering of people who might otherwise never meet that has become increasingly rare in a world where most forms of belonging are curated, chosen, or commodified.

Maybe that’s also why kingsday unsettles me.

Because despite all that, I feel no affection for the monarchy itself. If anything, the opposite. It represents a version of tradition that feels hard to separate from hierarchy, patriarchy, colonial nostalgia and exclusion. The kind of institutional inheritance that decides who belongs by birthright. Not exactly the values I tend to celebrate.

And yet, these structures create openings.

A day off. A city in flux. Streets filled with people. People looking to have a good time. And of course the clubs and organizers know this. Some create something meaningful. Others just monetize the holiday.

Lure the same orange crowds indoors, put a price tag on the chaos, and sell back a version of the block party with better sound and more expensive drinks. Just cashing in on whatever the monarchy dragged into town.

Maybe that’s where my discomfort sits.

If kingsday is one of the few moments people actually leave their homes and meet their neighbors, why pull them away from that and turn it into another transaction? There are street parties organized by people who actually live there, local rituals, little pockets of accidental community. By that standard, some kingsday street parties are meaningful. Some are hollow. Just as some 24-hour club marathons become moments of genuine connection while others are just drugs, distraction, and avoidance. The structure itself guarantees nothing.

So maybe the question isn’t whether I should be outside meeting my neighbors, or inside hiding in a dark room for 24 hours. Maybe the better question is where I’m most likely to contribute to the kind of togetherness I actually believe in.

Some years, that might be outside. On a street of my hometown, in the sun, having an unexpected conversation with someone I’d normally walk past. Stepping, for once, outside the bubble I’ve carefully built for myself. Other years, it might be hour seventeen in the RAUM smoking area, having a cigarette-side philosophy talk. Or dancing surrounded by the people I love in a room full of strangers, briefly becoming something softer, warmer, more open.

Neither is morally pure. Both can be meaningful. Both can be empty.

And I guess that’s the answer. The occasion itself means very little. What matters is what we do with it.

Though if you expect me to wear orange, you’re pushing it.

Friday 24 April

Vault Sessions & RADION: Blasha & Allatt All Night Long (RA). Start of a new series all night longs at RADION curated by Vault Sessions. Blasha & Allatt may be a “bread and butter”-booking, but hearing and seeing them play always fills me with joy.

Einhundert 10 YEARS at Garage Noord with Lechuga Zafiro, Animistic Beliefs, Nico Adomako, Mobilegirl, LRRY, Linder (RA). Berlin-based collective Einhundert celebrates its 10th birthday at Garage Noord. A fitting match: their eclectic, slightly chaotic energy should feel right at home in Garage.

Saturday 25 April

Operator 9-Year Anniversary at Export (Rotterdam) with CARISTA, Andy, Nathan Homan, Arrocha, Carlito's, free__k (RA). Operator has been one of the key forces shaping Rotterdam’s electronic music scene over the past decade, consistently making space for community in a city that hasn’t always had it easy nightlife-wise. With Export now open and Shunter on the horizon, things are finally starting to look hopeful again. A very fitting occasion to celebrate.

Mirror Zone at Garage Noord with Spekki Webu, V:SONNTAG, Jorine, HyperLili, Kareem El Morr (RA). Expect trippy, swampy, dark, high-BPM sounds and the kind of slightly disorienting energy that makes time lose meaning. Not for everyone, very much for some.

DINA, Mirella Kroes, Woody92 at RAUM (RA). Even more swampiness at RAUM. Expect an introverted Saturday: deep, murky, heads-down energy before the more extroverted chaos of the 24-hour marathon the day after.

Sunday 26 April

Rage Against the Monarchy at Time Is The New Space (Rotterdam, 22.00-6.00h) with Sarkawt Hamad, YoungWoman, DJ Shahmaran, Sign.nah (RA). Great title, obviously. One of the rare occasions Time Is The New Space stays open all night, and they’re doing it with a very nice lineup. 

Unsilenced at Doka with Richard Akingbehin, Yamour, Malom, Mery (RA). Of course I’m mentioning this one because Richard Akingbehin is on the lineup. One of my personal favourites: always tasteful, deep, understated but still very sexy.

RAUM 24hrs with Byron Yeates, Clarisa Kimskii, Delano Legito, Doudou MD, Karina Schneider, Lola Edo, Mila Haj Kasem, Nick Höppner, Polly F, Spikey Lee, .VRIL. (RA). For everyone wanting to skip the orange mess altogether. I actually like this bold move from RAUM. The past two years they hosted parties in the eve after kingsday. Two years ago this was just a week after their opening weekend, so they were still figuring out a lot of things. Last year with a nice concept, but also with a lot of drunk people stumbling in after their street parties and the energy fading early. This year they’re doing it differently: a full 24 hours for the people actively choosing to be there.

TILLATEC invites Adonis (21.00-5.00h) with Afra, Hannah Holland, Idilay, Kasra V, Makam, Marie Malarie, Shay Malt (RA). London-based queer collective Adonis lands at TillaTec. As you may know, TillaTec’s Instagram account was recently suspended, reportedly due to links with queer censorship. I’m still critical of TillaTec’s plumbing, obviously, but this is a lot worse: overseas bigotry quietly interfering with our spaces. Anyway, support them by showing up. Or, better yet, cancel Instagram.

Monday 27 April

Disturbia - After Kingsday at TILLATEC (21.00-9.00h) with Beste Hira, Dotdat, Laia (house set), Matrixxman, Mystral (house set), Valody, Vinz Sosa b2b Nacho (house set) (RA). Okay, still mentioning a kingsday branded event, but I’ll let it pass since this one is after kingsday. Also, Disturbia doing house sets? I’m intrigued.

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Before the comments roll in: yes, I’m aware there are approximately 847 events this weekend with crowns in the artwork, orange in the dress code, and “King’s Night” or “King’s Day” somewhere in the title.

They are not in this list.

If you’re looking for the full monarchy-industrial-complex agenda, Resident Advisor has you covered. This week’s selection leans toward the spaces that, at least to me, feel like they create something beyond seasonal opportunism.

I know. Maybe I’m overthinking it and should just put on an orange shirt and drink warm beer on a boat.

(Not happening.)