Over the past few months, festival organization ID&T has worked on a one-hour interactive audiovisual trip in great secrecy, together with various creatives and showmakers. Today, AMAZE opens its doors at the Elementenstraat in Amsterdam. Visitors can experience a ‘journey from head to heart’, which takes them across seven different environments with a total floor space of 3,000 square meters and filled with state-of-the-art audiovisual technology. AMAZE combines 30 years of experience in a brand-new and exciting way of going out.
The experience varies from intense, interactive, and relaxing as the visitors make their way through AMAZE. The labyrinth is designed to reach visitors on an emotional level. “Bringing people into ecstasy and letting them experience the purest emotions is in our DNA. For 30 years already, to escape from reality has been the essence of what we offer. At our parties we do this over the course of a whole day, night or long weekend. Together with our creatives and showmakers from all over the world, we have worked hard in the past months to ensure that visitors experience this feeling in just one hour at AMAZE,” says Irfan van Ewijk, managing director of AMAZE.
While visitors of festivals and dance events are often presented with a pre-programmed final show, the AMAZE visitor has influence on the show themselves. With the slogan: ‘The only way out is in’, the organization hints at the possibility of escaping the rumbling thoughts in our heads by shifting focus to the inner self. Sensors and cameras register the behavior of the visitors and respond to the various senses with light, sound, video, and other special effects, ensuring an eye-pleasing effect and many surprises.
New way of experiencing
Wouter Tavecchio, one of the founders of ID&T: “Immersive experiences are the next phase in the evolution of entertainment. For us, AMAZE is the long-dreamed step towards this new way of experiencing. In terms of quality, visitors know what to expect from us; top notch and groundbreaking. It feels very special to put thirty years of show experience and development into just over an hour of entertainment, and I am convinced that our creative team has succeeded. We can’t wait to see the reaction of the visitors.”
Home of the dance pioneers
The Elementenstraat, where AMAZE is located, is an industrial nightclub in Amsterdam’s Westhaven, 10 minutes from the center of Amsterdam. In the 1990s, the location hosted illegal house parties and a lot of experimentation was already taking place at the Elementenstraat. Today, it is a creative breeding ground and home to the organizations behind Mysteryland, Sensation, Thunderdome, Defqon.1, Decibel Outdoor, Amsterdam Open Air, Awakenings, Multigroove, Dominator and Vunzige Deuntjes. The Elementenstraat has a 24-hour permit, which means that parties will be organized within AMAZE as soon as the guidelines allow this. The sky is the limit.
AMAZE is suitable for children from 10 years old. A ticket costs €26.95 for 18+ and €13.50 for 18-. A reduced rate applies during off-peak hours for holders of CJP, student and city passcards.
AMAZE conforms to the guidelines of the RIVM. Visitors can book a time slot up to 1 hour before their visit.
