Ruimte Festival @ ADM Amsterdam

I wanted to get the history of ADM, the squat I visited, which is to date the greatest squat I have ever seen, but it gets confusing. Or at least it did for me.

On Saturday I spoke with three people associated with ADM. One I met next to a massive pile of rubbish full of things any one could take. It was full of various bicycles in various states, including a rusted up stationary bicycle.

What I learned by the junk pile was that the owner of the property being squatted by ADM was assassinated. Though after talking to the one person who I knew through a friend, they're not sure this juicy tidbit is actually true. Other things I learned by the junk pile but failed to confirm when I talked to the guy who was working security at the front gate is that ADM has been around for 12 years (not 20) and that while they may not accept new squatters, if you have a history with the residents, it's still possible to live there.

(I suppose I should mention now that the guy working security was also tripping on 6 tabs of LSD.)

Now how I got to the Ruimte Festival was interesting (and frustrating). I originally booked a boat through an evironmental agency that squats their boat at the ADM "terrein" (terrain), but although I searched the back of Centraal Station for about 45 minutes I couldn't find it, so I decided to take the other option which was to take the train from Centraal to Sloterdijk and then take the "pendelbus" (shuttlebus) the ADM people had organised for 2,00 euros.

I walked all the way back through Centraal Station to the information center, but the guy didn't seem to understand me. Thankfully the guy right behind me was going to the festival too. Not only did he help me buy my ticket, he also let me use his Dutch discount card to buy it, and hung out with me for a few hours at the festival while he filmed his friends, a boy/girl rapping duo called Fuego, but he also swiped me some apple juice and a stroopwafel from the treats table in the backstage area of the musicians.

I also met some cool 20-somethings from Ghent, Belgium who had come up in one of the guy's grandmother's Volvo. They had to have the car back to grandma by 6 pm on Sunday, but I gave them my mobile number in case they came back. Pieter et Wallit (the name of two of the guys in the band) rocked the house.

Now I cannot possibly explain the ADM terrein to you properly. But here are the highlights in text and pictures:

As if this car wasn't great enough here's the side and the bit inside that first attracted me.

Under the big top.

Pablo & Amelia of Fuego

Pieter et Wallit

Other pictures

All I can say about the ADM Ruimte festival is well, I left at a wimpy hour. It was raining off and on all day and I was ill equipped for the wet and cold. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I didn't have the stamina, so around 12h30, I was back at Centraal Station. Still, despite my inability to party until 5 am I'm pretty proud of myself. I'm not the type to go to parties alone not because I'm rather shy, but I talked to complete strangers.

But that was the vibe. Acceptance, non-conformity, having a good time, and art.

I left wishing the residents of ADM the best. I sincerely hope they're able to keep the place alive, but the only concensus amongst the various people I talked to is that now that squatting has been made illegal in Holland  the future may be bleak for this unique space where there is so much beauty to see that it really took me around 3 hours to notice there was a spaceship right in front of where I'd been standing for 2 of those 3 hours.

It being ADM and being Amsterdam, I admit I inhaled inside the spaceship. If Obama can fess up, I suppose I can too. Did I mention the spaceship had banquet seats inside of (David) Lynch worthy blue velvet?

Dank u wel, ADM! It was lekker!