Creative Ecology · Indicator 4
Diversity of scenes & experimental programming
What this indicator asks
How diverse and varied are Amsterdam's scenes, including experimental and interdisciplinary ones, and what new formats and models are found?
59.8/ 100 · Amsterdam
A total of 49% of survey respondents in Amsterdam state that new and experimental events happen often, alongside the usual proven formats.
A participant said crowds now attach to a party rather than to a venue. Parties are leaning towards becoming businesses that want to keep the same sound and keep their crowd.
De Fik Garden is a community-built space in Amsterdam Nieuw-West that hosts raves under the highway. A participant said organisers can only grow so far there:
“You can’t go any further… because there is either no money or there is no consent for certain locations… you should also have a space where you can practice, make mistakes and just do it.”
An expert from the City of Amsterdam said the city’s Nachtcultuur or ‘night culture’ funding was often given once and then stopped. The expert said this is “just letting them die afterwards”. Since May 2024, the city has given its ‘night culture’ budget to the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK), which decides who gets it. The expert said AFK has “experience in continuity” and decides on artistic quality, not on a politician’s opinion of nightlife.