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ADE LAB ON TRACK: FULL LINE-UP

Daria Kolosova, Djrum, John Talabot and BAMBII headline three days of DJing, production and artist development.

ADE Lab has finalized its three-day On Track programme for 2026, adding Daria Kolosova, Djrum, John Talabot, BAMBII and more to a schedule spanning DJ craft, music production and artist careers.

Illustrative photograph — not ADE Lab 2026 or a featured artist. Photo: Leif Bergerson / Pexels; used under the Pexels licence.

Amsterdam Dance Event has published the full speaker lineup for ADE Lab On Track, its three-day academy for emerging electronic-music producers and performing artists. The final announcement, posted on 12 October, adds Daria Kolosova, Djrum, John Talabot, BAMBII, TraTraTrax co-founder Nyksan and others to a programme built around practical sessions as well as conversations.

Running from Wednesday 21 to Friday 23 October, On Track is based at ADE Lab Village in Westerpark, with WestWeelde as its main hub and selected sessions at Het Ketelhuis and Radio Radio. The programme is for accepted participants; applications for 2026 are closed. ADE Lab Discovery is the separate free, public programme at Westerpark.

Daria Kolosova and Djrum take different routes into DJ craft

Daria Kolosova’s “Beyond Genre” masterclass focuses on connecting records across styles and BPMs, reading the room and shaping a set into a story. ADE says the session uses live CDJ examples, bringing the decisions behind a set into the room rather than treating genre boundaries as fixed rules.

Illustrative photograph — not ADE Lab 2026 or a featured artist. Photo: NEOSiAM / Pexels; used under the Pexels licence.

Djrum’s special edition of DJ Mag’s “How I DJ” takes a different route into the same craft. The British producer and DJ will cover vinyl fundamentals, improvisation and mixing techniques, showing how preparation can leave room for unexpected turns in a live performance. Together, the sessions frame DJing as both technical work and real-time response: transitions matter, but so does knowing when to take the set somewhere less predictable.

Grace Dahl’s “The Vinyl Mindset” also looks at how record culture can inform selection and mixing, including for DJs who work digitally. Listening, sequencing and adapting to the room remain central, whatever the format.

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Illustrative photograph — not ADE Lab 2026 or a featured artist. Photo: Brett Sayles / Pexels; used under the Pexels licence.

From the first idea to a finished track

BAMBII will lead “From Playing to Producing,” a hands-on introduction to the tools and process behind making a track, from exploring a digital audio workstation to turning a musical idea into music. ADE says no previous production experience is needed and particularly encourages FLINTA+ artists to join.

The lineup also includes a track breakdown with Sammy Virji, who will open up the sounds and production choices behind one of his records. Rather than presenting production as a mysterious studio process, these sessions make its component decisions visible: what gets selected, changed and arranged until separate ideas become a finished track.

John Talabot joins Resident Advisor’s Chloe Lula for a conversation about his creative approach and his first full-length album in 14 years, released under the alias OR as Music for Empty Stadiums. ADE describes the 17-track release as an almost entirely beatless exploration of ambient music, placing a long-running club artist’s work in a wider context of experimentation and reinvention.

Creative careers are part of the curriculum

On Track’s professional sessions look beyond the booth and studio. The published programme includes a session on building a career without losing control, a workshop about protecting rights, money and credits, and a practical discussion of creative autonomy and AI. Musical development and the business decisions around a career increasingly happen at the same time, particularly for emerging artists.

The full On Track schedule is designed for accepted participants, and applications for the 2026 edition are closed. ADE Lab Discovery, by contrast, is free and open to the public throughout ADE at Westerpark. The programmes share a neighbourhood but serve different purposes: Discovery is a public entry point into electronic music, while On Track is a structured academy for selected emerging artists.

Sessions generally run between 10:30 and 18:00, with exact timings varying by day and venue. On Track participants also receive access to the ADE Culture Hub at Felix Meritis on Saturday 24 October. ADE’s published schedule remains the place to check individual session times and any last-minute updates.

The final lineup puts craft, experimentation and career knowledge in the same conversation. Its strongest idea is also its simplest: a DJ set, a record or an artist career is not one skill in isolation, but a chain of choices that can be studied, tested and reshaped.