Dekmantel Festival’s 2026 programme is the kind of lineup that rewards slow reading. The official site lists the Amsterdam edition for July 29th to August 2nd, with a bill that moves from canonical electronic history to newer club languages without flattening either side.
A Guy Called Gerald presents Black Secret Technology live, Juan Atkins appears under his Infiniti project, and Jeff Mills is listed alongside artists who have pushed the edges of bass, techno, house, experimental sound and club performance.
The programme also includes Kode9 presenting Hyperdub, James Holden & Surgeon live for the opening ceremony, Actress & Carl Craig, Ben UFO with Call Super, Objekt and Pariah, Eris Drew’s Mystery of the Motherbeat, and a long run of selectors whose value is not reducible to headline size.
Dekmantel’s real signature is curation as argument: the lineup does not just collect names, it proposes a way of hearing electronic music history in the present tense.AT@DJ / EDITORIAL NOTE
Why the depth matters
In a festival market crowded by bigger logos and faster reveals, Dekmantel keeps leaning on trust. Its audience expects unfamiliar names to matter, older names to be placed carefully, and genre borders to bend without becoming vague.
That makes the 2026 edition feel less like a poster drop than a map of relationships: Detroit, UK bass, leftfield house, live electronics, sound-system culture and avant-club pressure sharing the same Amsterdam frame.