Featured festival

Awakenings Festival2026

JUL 10–12, 2026Beekse Bergen, HilvarenbeekStream on youtube 28 days out
Reported attendance: 80,000 · 3 days · 8 stages · Founded 1997 · 50 artists indexed · techno, industrial techno, minimal, Detroit techno · Part of Monumental Productions (LiveStyle)

Awakenings began on 30 March 1997 inside the Gashouder, a domed former gas tank in Amsterdam's Westerpark that would earn the nickname Temple of Techno. Rocco Veenboer of Monumental Productions founded it as a techno-only brand at a time when most Dutch clubs mixed genres freely. In 2001 it staged the Netherlands' first exclusively-techno outdoor festival, at Spaarnwoude. Since 2022 the summer edition runs three days at Beekse Bergen in Hilvarenbeek. The 2026 festival (July 10 to 12) sold out at a record 119,000 visitors across 151 artists, including Adam Beyer, Charlotte de Witte, Amelie Lens, Nina Kraviz, Carl Cox, and Richie Hawtin. The programming stays narrow on purpose: industrial, minimal, Detroit, and Drumcode techno, nothing else. The festival's relationship with streaming goes back to 2020, when a free online edition broadcast from the Gashouder during COVID reached 10 million viewers across 70 countries. The sold-out 2021 ADE edition also streamed free, and the 2023 summer festival had a live YouTube broadcast. Full sets go up free to YouTube and SoundCloud every year. What you are watching here is that same unbroken lineage, now live.

Source: Wikipedia ↗

Country Netherlands
VenueBeekse Bergen, Hilvarenbeek
Founded1997
Capacity~80k
ParentMonumental Productions (LiveStyle)
Genrestechno, industrial techno, minimal, Detroit techno
Platformyoutube
OfficialVisit ↗
WikipediaArticle ↗

Livestream history

Awakenings has a strong record of making set content freely available on its official YouTube channel. The most prominent live broadcast was the 2020 COVID-era free online event in April, which reached 10 million viewers in 70 countries and was explicitly a live stream. The sold-out 2021 ADE edition was also livestreamed free on YouTube, and the 2023 Summer Festival had a confirmed live YouTube broadcast plus Twitch and Facebook. For 2024 and 2025, full set recordings were uploaded after the event to YouTube and SoundCloud for free on-demand viewing, though evidence of a real-time broadcast in those years is less definitive. No livestream has been announced for the 2026 edition as of June 2026. All YouTube content is publicly embeddable.

  1. 2025
    YouTube · SoundCloud
    Free stream
    Notable: Charlotte de Witte, Adam Beyer, Carl Cox, Nina Kraviz
    Full sets uploaded to YouTube and SoundCloud after the event.
  2. 2024
    YouTube
    Notable: Enrico Sangiuliano, Chlar, Alan Fitzpatrick x Ilario Alicante
    Full sets uploaded to YouTube after the event; no confirmed real-time broadcast found.
  3. 2023
    YouTube · Twitch · Facebook
    Free stream
    Notable: Adam Beyer, Len Faki, Ilario Alicante, Joris Voorn
    Confirmed live YouTube broadcast of the summer festival; RELIVE recap and full sets archived on YouTube and SoundCloud.
  4. 2021
    YouTube
    Free stream
    Notable: Adam Beyer (Drumcode), Tale of Us (Afterlife), Joris Voorn (Spectrum)
    Sold-out Awakenings ADE at the Gashouder livestreamed free; three nights, nine hours per night.
  5. 2020
    YouTube · Facebook · awakenings.com
    Free stream · 10 million viewers across 70 countries
    Notable: Adam Beyer, Amelie Lens, Charlotte de Witte, Carl Cox
    Two free online weekends in April replacing the cancelled Easter festival; weekend two broadcast live from the Gashouder.
  6. 2019
    YouTube
    Free stream
    Notable: Charlotte de Witte (Area V), Nina Kraviz, Maceo Plex
    Saturday and Sunday streamed live on the official Awakenings channel; full sets archived afterward.
How to watch
PlatformYouTube / live.awakenings.com
AccessFree stream
Embeddableyes

What sets it apart

01

One of the oldest continuous techno-only festival brands in the world, running exclusively techno lineups since its first outdoor edition in 2001, long before techno became a mainstream festival draw.

02

The Gashouder, a domed former gas tank in Amsterdam's Westerpark, is the brand's iconic indoor home and is widely called the Temple of Techno. It gave Awakenings its identity before the outdoor festival existed.

03

The name is tied to Easter: founder Rocco Veenboer named the first 1997 party Awakenings after learning Easter commemorates resurrection, and the brand still runs Easter-weekend Gashouder editions alongside the summer festival.

Hear the lineup
Charlotte de Witte · Spotify
Amelie Lens · Spotify
Joseph Capriati · Spotify
Novah · Spotify

Venue

The festival takes place at Beekse Bergen, Hilvarenbeek in Netherlands. It typically hosts crowds in the 80,000+ range across 3 days.

NameBeekse Bergen, Hilvarenbeek
Country Netherlands

History

Awakenings Festival was founded in 1997, making this its 29th year.

The festival is part of Monumental Productions (LiveStyle)'s portfolio of electronic music events.

Founded1997
Years running29
ParentMonumental Productions (LiveStyle)

Signature moments

  1. 2026The 2026 edition sold out at a record 119,000 visitors, the largest in the festival's history.
  2. 2022The festival relocated to Beekse Bergen and became a three-day event, the only three-day techno festival in the Netherlands, coinciding with its 25th anniversary.
  3. 2020With physical events cancelled by COVID, Awakenings produced a free two-weekend online stream from the Gashouder that reached 10 million viewers across 70 countries.
  4. 2001The first outdoor Awakenings Festival at Spaarnwoude was the first outdoor festival in the Netherlands with an exclusively techno lineup.
  5. 1997The first Awakenings party, on 30 March 1997 at the Gashouder in Amsterdam, featured Derrick May, Billy Nasty, and Angelo. It sold out immediately and established the brand.