Dekmantel 2026: the clash guide

Dekmantel returns to the Amsterdamse Bos on 29 July – 2 August 2026 — two Into the City days in Amsterdam's concert halls, then three festival days in the forest with 8 stages running from 11:00 to 23:00. The timetable is out, and it's classic Dekmantel: 165 sets, almost no filler, and clashes that hurt more than at any mainstream festival because everything on the bill is somebody's must-see.

This guide covers the hardest choices of the three Bos days, based on the published timetable.

FestWave is an independent tool — not affiliated with Dekmantel. Set times are provisional; always confirm in the official app.

Dekmantel clashes are different

At a mainstage festival, the clash question is usually "headliner A or headliner B". Dekmantel doesn't really do headliners — it does curation, which means the pain is distributed across the whole day. Three things to know:

• Doors matter here. Some of the best-billed sets of the weekend happen at 11:00, not 23:00. If you treat Dekmantel like a festival where nothing happens before 16:00, you will sleep through legends.
• Long sets change the math. Three-hour Selectors sets overlap everything. You can dip out of a long set and come back — that's the intended use.
• The small rooms fill up. UFO II and The Nest hit capacity for hyped sets. If your pick is in a small room, be early or be outside.

Friday 31 July

The 11:00 dilemma. Doors open on a genuine clash: DJ Sprinkles' Deeperama (Selectors, three hours of deep house scholarship) against James Holden & Surgeon live (Greenhouse, 11:00–13:00) — probably the strangest and loveliest way to start a festival weekend anywhere this summer. Sprinkles runs an hour longer, so the split play is Holden & Surgeon first, Sprinkles' last hour after.

The evening pile-up (17:00–20:00). Actress & Carl Craig share the Greenhouse from 17:00 to 19:30, and the second half of that set collides with Dr. Rubinstein & Ellen Allien (UFO I, 18:00–20:00). At 19:30 it gets properly cruel: Underground Resistance featuring Saul Williams play the Greenhouse for one hour only — against Cari Lekebusch's Vector show (UFO II), SHERELLE (The Loop) and the tail of Juan Atkins on Radar (19:00–20:00). Detroit history or Detroit history: good luck.

21:00, the closing riddle — yes, that Skrillex. Skrillex plays Radar at 21:00 (after already popping up at 18:00 on The Loop with RHR), directly against Speedy J (UFO I), Skin On Skin (The Loop) and Efdemin & Polygonia (UFO II). Then Objekt closes Radar at 22:00. If you only learned one thing from this paragraph: Friday ends hard, pace yourself.

Saturday 1 August

*Ben UFO at 14:00.* The most reliably great club DJ in Europe plays a one-hour Radar set at two in the afternoon, opposite the start of PLO Man & Skee Mask's three-hour Selectors run. This is the "doors matter" rule in action — half the site will still be at the lockers.

17:00–19:30, pick your church. Nicolas Lutz holds Selectors for three hours from 17:00, Eris Drew & Octo Octa take The Loop 17:30–19:30, Steffi and JASSS & Vlada run UFO I and UFO II from 18:00. All four are correct answers, which is the problem.

The 20:00 wall. Saturday's hardest single hour: LSD — Luke Slater, Function & Steve Bicknell — on UFO I, Aurora Halal on Selectors, aya on UFO II, Wata Igarashi on Radar, and SASS (Moxie, Peach, Saoirse & Shanti Celeste) still going on The Loop until 21:00. Five stages, one you. After that, Dasha Rush & Oscar Mulero (21:00, UFO I) against upsammy and Rene Wise, and The Bug ft. Warrior Queen detonating the Greenhouse at 22:00 while Sandrien closes Radar.

Sunday 2 August

11:00: Jeff Mills vs Jane Fitz. Sunday opens with Jeff Mills presenting STARGATE for three hours on Selectors while Jane Fitz's Morning Colours does the same in the Greenhouse. A techno pioneer or the gentlest possible landing after two festival days. There is no wrong answer, only a tired one.

The 17:00–20:00 endgame. Ricardo Villalobos plays Selectors for three hours from 17:00 — and everything else happens during it: the four-way b2b of Ben UFO, Call Super, Objekt & Pariah in the Greenhouse (18:00–19:30), Kode9's Hyperdub showcase (The Nest, 18:30), Job Jobse & Palms Trax going three hours on The Loop, Shed's Rave Echoes live (17:00, UFO II) and DVS1 opening a two-hour UFO I set at 19:00. This stretch is the whole festival's clash problem in miniature.

Closing sets (21:00–23:00). DJ Nobu & Wata Igarashi (UFO I) against Helena Hauff & L.F.T. (UFO II) against Benny Rodrigues (The Loop) and Verraco (Radar) — then Octo Octa closes Radar with a drum'n'bass set and Mala & Sir Spyro see out The Nest. Hauff vs Nobu is the weekend's last great argument.

Also note: the At Night club program (Friday–Sunday) and the Wednesday/Thursday Into the City shows — DARKSIDE, Juan Atkins presents INFINITI, the STOOR live session — mostly run without published set times yet, so check closer to the date.

Solving clashes for your taste — automatically

Everything above is one person's read of the billing. Across 165 sets, the real question isn't "Villalobos or the Greenhouse b2b" — it's which 25 of these sets match the music you actually listen to.

That's what FestWave does: export your Spotify liked songs (two minutes, no login), upload the file, and the whole Dekmantel timetable is colour-coded — green for artists already in your library, amber for acts that match your sound. The 20:00 Saturday wall resolves itself when you can see that one of the five is a 95-point match and two are names you've never played. Your library is read entirely in your browser and never uploaded.

Want to try it first? Every past festival on FestWave is free — build a grid for one and see how it works before you're standing in the forest at 19:55 with a decision to make.