19/10/2024

On the 19th of October, 2024, I was involved in ADEV, “Amsterdam Danst Ergens Voor”, a demonstration held in Amsterdam during the same weekend as ADE (Amsterdam Dance Event). Where ADE is mostly built around big names and big stages, ADEV was more or less the opposite, a protest for the right to demonstrate, for freedom, and for a society where nobody gets excluded.

Together with De Fik and a handful of other organizations and soundsystems, we formed a convoy of trucks loaded with sound systems and drove straight through Amsterdam Centrum. Loud, chaotic, and a bit rebellious, but that was exactly the point.

We were, if I remember correctly, the first truck in the convoy, and our sound system basically turned into the inner dance area of the whole thing. Having put a lot of work into it beforehand, it was great to see the amount of people that showed up and just started dancing along with us.

Our own events ranged from small get-togethers to “luistersessies”, where the focus was on ambiance, sitting down and really taking in the music, all the way to big, sold-out events with a wide array of artists on our roster, both national and international.

Next to that, we were always open to different kinds of collaborations. One I personally really enjoyed was working with Mich Mazoo, a Tilburg-based band who wanted to shoot part of their music video in our warehouse, using our sound system as the backdrop. For their album release, they used our system again too, it just looked amazing behind them on stage.

For New Year’s, we hosted once at Hall of Fame, but we also organized our own edition in an incredible old school building. If I remember correctly, we sold out at 500 tickets, though in the end I think a lot more people found their way in through, let’s say, creative means. The space had two stages, a bar, and art pieces hanging throughout, with artists creating live during the event. There were dancers performing behind white tarps, their silhouettes moving in the light, and a visual artist building 3D projections in real time. That event is still a personal highlight for me.

These photos are a collection of our events and collaborations, a small glimpse into the work we did.

Phantasm is a community-based sound collective, active in a few different fields. We built our own custom speakers, which we rented out to other DJ collectives to help make their events happen, and we also organized our own events, hosting a range of DJs while giving space for artists to present their work too. The main idea behind it was to build a community and a space where people could feel free and not judged, while also giving smaller, upcoming artists the chance to play on a proper, professional setup. As we grew, we started reaching out beyond Tilburg too, we’ve been active in Köln, both renting out our system there and joining forces with local collectives to organize events together.

Our events were never tied to one specific genre or sound, we always tried to mix things up and explore different styles, so we could reach a wider audience and make sure everybody felt included and could enjoy the space in their own way. Our New Year’s events especially were always highly visited, we consistently sold out, and a lot of hard work went into making that happen every year.

Next to hosting events, giving back was always a big focus for us. We wanted to facilitate workshops in our space, giving aspiring creators a low-threshold way to learn and explore.

As we kept growing, having motivated volunteers became more and more important, alongside the need for proper structure, finances, and planning. This is where most of my own work went. I put a lot of emphasis on the volunteers themselves, making sure they had a space where they felt free to take the lead when needed, while at the same time building shared schedules, plannings, agendas, and finance sheets for each event, calculating and budgeting expenses, and trying to generate enough financial return to reinvest back into the projects we were running.

I really enjoyed being part of it, and it taught me a considerable amount of skills. It connected me with people and brought me a lot of joy. Eventually though, due to differences in direction, we left the project, leaving only the founder behind. It ended on good terms, and I hope to see his vision for it work out.