Beyond the Stage: An opportunity for Amsterdam to lead the music industry toward sustainability

For years, I had been looking in from the outside, waiting to get a taste of the world-renowned Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE). 2025 was my year; I attended 7 events over 4 days, kicking it off with one of ADE’s most sustainable events — no, sadly, that's not me tooting Bye Bye Plastic Foundation's horn. A quick google search lists the Droppie x Bye Bye Plastic rave at the top. This was a low-budget, high-vibe event, and proof that right choices don’t compromise the party's quality; it enhances it. Is the Bye Bye Plastic team (myself included) proud of our accomplishments? Heck yeah!! 

Droppie x Bye Bye Plastic rave. Photo taken by Toni Villen for Bye Bye Plastic

ADE highlights the broken sustainability landscape across music events & venues

I remember getting frustrated, dancing on the crowd's trash—plastic bottles, aluminum cans everywhere. That's both inconvenient and costly (to more than my joy)… This story is all too familiar—a real-life nod to Bye Bye Plastic’s origin story as told by Camille Guitteau.

ADE has grown into a global stage for the music industry — a place where big ideas and big players come to shape the future of the scene. Conferences like ADE Green hand the mic to sustainability leaders who speak truth, vision, and urgency for the scene. Yet, attendance reveals sustainability at events during ADE is fragmented, highlighting a clear opportunity for event organizers to get on the same track

ADE Green. Image source: ADE

The reality is, this gap isn’t new… Research on the environmental sustainability of Dutch music festivals by Fabi van Berkel notes that “overall, festivals in the Netherlands are considered to be behind on addressing environmental sustainability” (2014, p. 30). Although almost a decade later, this case highlights ongoing issues in music festivals and events, noting that audience waste is one of the hardest challenges to control, especially when cheap, low-quality bottles and containers are left behind without thought (van Berkel 2014, p. 41). If this information isn’t new, why hasn’t more action been taken?

As one interviewee states, “We have the information, so I think it is some kind of moral duty to act on it” (van Berkel 2014, p. 31). Below are two personal thoughts and one praise of ADE from a first-timer (but long-time raver) who cares about sustainability:

Thought 1: Recycling Standards Lost in Translation

People come to Amsterdam from every corner of the globe to take part in ADE, but not everyone arrives familiar with local sustainability culture. Case-in-point: Statiegeld, the Dutch national deposit-return system for bottles and cans, is a brilliant system... if you know it exists. Without proper communication and access? It’s invisible, and after being crushed, or contaminated on the floor, the acceptance rates of recyclables plummet.

Events succeed when their audiences are informed and able to participate, and effective sustainability largely relies on how practices are communicated to the audience before and during the event (van Berkel, 2014). ADE could greatly increase event sustainability with clearer, more accessible waste collection and sorting points, especially if incentivized like the deposit-return systems. 

Thought 2: The Missing Reuse-Refill Culture

The Dutch are excellent at bringing and refilling their own bottles, rarely purchasing single-use plastic beverages. If you’ve been on a visit, even for a weekend, your eyes must have crossed the unmistakable - and frankly, well designed - Dopper bottle. Inside ADE’s events however, that culture seems to evaporate.

Hydration? Mostly sold, not offered. No universal bottle-friendly entry, no refill stations, no clear re-usable cup culture in sight. Some larger, established event organizers such as DGTL implemented a deposit-return system for reusable cups at their events, but this was not the norm. I encountered venues going as far as creating (plastic!) tokens for you to exchange as currency when purchasing drinks. However, said tokens offered no incentive to return the reusable cup, instead cups were seen getting kicked (and crushed!) across the floor, or tucked into corners. 

Built-in deposit fees incentivize return by refunding a fixed amount of money when the cup is brought back. In a fragmented landscape it’s even more important to communicate how patrons are expected to flow through their venue. With little intentionality on sustainability communications, critical information gets lost in the crowd. 

Another critical point to stress: Access to water is not only a sustainability must — it's a safety requirement. Festivals like Into The Great Wide Open, Dekmantel and Mysteryland earned high sustainability marks by offering free tap water and supporting reusable drinking containers (van Berkel, 2014). Event organizers can’t expect visitors to dance for hours, sometimes all night long, without offering an accessible source of drinking water. Moreover, drinking from the tap isn’t equally safe across the globe, emphasizing the importance of communicating Dutch tap’s safety and offering hydration stations for international crowds. 

Special shoutout to Bye Bye Plastic for collaborating with Dopper to stress the message in this home turf! If you're visiting Amsterdam, check out the city's free Water Taps via Google Maps, thanks to Dopper. 

Appraisal: Amsterdam’s Built-In Sustainability Wins

One thing ADE nails in terms of sustainability? Leveraging the city’s green infrastructure itself.

Events pop up inside existing clubs, warehouses, cultural halls, and hybrid-use spaces — which means no massive temporary build-outs, fewer trucks, less power rigging, and slightly less waste generated at setup and teardown; maximizing what’s already there and minimizing what doesn’t need to. Research echoes this: locations with existing infrastructure massively reduce environmental impact, especially when power, water, and waste systems are already in place (van Berkel, 2014).

The cherry on top? Amsterdam’s public transport network.

Trains, trams, ferries, bikes — an integrated system that ADE attendees benefit from automatically. In fact, more than 70% of Dutch festivals actively promote public transport, and many provide shuttles from train stations (van Berkel, 2014). And, after spending some time in the Netherlands, I’ve witnessed the country's pre and post-party transport of choice in action: The bike! 

What I’d Love to See: Cohesive Party Planning 

As one festival organizer in the case honestly points out: “It is very easy to say that you're sustainable and only take a few measurements” (2014, p. 51). Similarly, it seems ADE events are long overdue for a shift from symbolic to systemic.

With attendance in my foreseeable future, I’m envisioning what this legendary week could look like in the years to come: First, a consistent refillable-container policy for clubs would be transformative. Research reinforces this: successful sustainability in events requires clear policies, stakeholder cooperation, and consistent practices across venues (van Berkel, 2014). With the Zero Plastic Club growing internationally, this isn’t new to Bye Bye Plastic; it’s understood sustainability success across venues relies on cohesive frameworks with clear policies. 

"Le Mazette, a signatory of the Bye Bye Plastic Foundation charter since 2022, reminds you that you can always come with your (empty) water bottle on board."

Second, I’d love to see ADE (and all major urban festivals) implement mobile Statiegeld-style sorting and collection bins, especially since waste management and recycling are repeatedly cited as high-impact improvement areas for Dutch festivals. 

Third, and arguably the easiest, I want better communication about tap water safety at venues across the city. Access to water is a safety issue, and withholding it or monetizing it disproportionately creates unnecessary risk for attendees. Clear messaging in the city that Dutch tap water is safe, drinkable, and free will help establish a BYOB culture at the club and beyond. 

Sustainability (and weather-yikes!) aside, the music quality and sheer quantity offered at ADE swept me off my feet. Creativity, connection and music were flowing through Amsterdam; from the train station to the grocery store, and the recycling center you could feel the pulse of the city beating loud…As a first timer, that was music to my ears. 

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