This summer I spent some time in Amsterdam, where I own a small apartment on a canal, which I bought ten years ago when I still worked in investment banking. My friends Francesca and Kimberly came to visit over July 4^th weekend and we had a fun weekend, cycling to Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, boating through the labyrith of canals on our rented electric flat, and exploring the tiny streets on foot.

The last evening when dining in Brasserie George, we noticed groups of people all dressed in white. It didn’t take much to find out that the White Sensation tencho dance party happening in Arena stadium. We quickly decided to try our luck (tickets had been sold out for months) and went to the Arena, Kimberly didn’t join us as she had to take a flight to Mallorca in a few hours.

As we drove up to the stadium, we saw throngs of people approaching on foot, in cars, on bicycles, all dressed in white. There seemed a spirit of fraternity, when we reconginzed each other, all on our way to the White party.

We got in without any problems, even sneaking Francesca in the VIP section. 

As I walked through the masses of people in I was struck by the amazing sensory impact it is to see 50,000 people dressed in white all dancing to techno. The show was also breathtaking, with the laser lights, dancers, fountains, fireworks, and silicon jelly fish hanging above the bouncing crowd. The evening’s theme was water. The giant jelly fish changed color going from green to pink to white and blue. And there was real water too, with fountains on the bridge traversed the dancing mob. The DJs took turns in the middle on a high circular podium.  

It was a true sensation, and actually I felt this could be a modern-day religious experience. All those 50,000 people, moving in unison, dressed in white, all in a good mood, worshipping the DJ.

Sensation was started in Amsterdam by Duncan Stutterheim, in 2000, and has gone global. After his brother, Miles, his co-founder, died in a car accident a year later, Duncan asked the clubbers to come dressed in white. The dress code has remained the same since.  

The world’s most famous DJs have spun at these events, including Armin van Buuren, Tiesto and Sven Vath. Listen here to some of the music 07-track-07

Tags: Amsterdam, Techno Dance Party, White Sensation

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 12:35 PM and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.