Date: March 5, 2025
Time: 19.30 – 21.00 (Walk-in: 18.30)
Location: Erasmus Pavilion
Admission: Free, reservations strongly recommended
sign up: click here
Is there hope again for Rotterdam nightlife? We look back on 30 years of Rotterdam Rave Culture and look ahead with a brand new documentary and the creators.
Sound designer, filmmaker and hardcore raver Dennis van Rijswijk, together with music journalist Holly Dicker, brings an ode to the gabber scene in Rotterdam from the 1990s to the present. With nostalgic archive material and intimate interviews with DJs, party organizers and ravers, the film shows what made the Rotterdam scene so unique. This inspired film celebrates the highlights of hardcore’s infamous history, but also explores how the scene has evolved and reshaped itself in the post-pandemic cultural landscape.
Before and after the film we talk with Holly Dicker, Dennis van Rijswijk and N8W8T.
Moderator: Julian Schaap
Languages spoken: English and Dutch (with English subtitles)
Holly Dicker
Holly Dicker is a club culture journalist, independent radio host and author of Dance or Die: A History of Hardcore (2025) for Velocity Press. She has contributed to The Wire, The
Guardian, Mixmag, Electronic Beats, DJ Mag and Resident Advisor, where she was a staff writer from 2015 to 2019. Holly has presented several conference panels and documentaries – including Amsterdam Dance Event in 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024. She has written articles on historic techno and rave institutions such as Tresor and Thunderdome, and is an authority on Dutch gabber subculture as curator of the multimedia exhibition “A Brief History of Gabber” for Google Arts & Culture. Holly studied Interactive Art in Manchester, went on to work in the music industry in Berlin for Boiler Room, Stattbad nightclub, Tresor Records and Electric Deluxe with Speedy J. Since 2015, she has lived in Rotterdam.
Dennis van Rijswijk
Sound designer, filmmaker and hardcore raver Dennis van Rijswijk was born and raised in
Rotterdam during the 90s gabber boom. He has been making music since he was 12 years old, a few years later sneaking off to his first PRSPCT parties in the Maassilo. He is addicted to the Rotterdam rave culture. He performed and produced early hardcore music as Reeza, part of the ’90s-inspired rave collective Madness-Industry. In 2022, the multimedia project Holy Ravers was born as a platform for rave heritage – past and present – facilitated through unique design, dance, film and music commissions, coming together as Rotterdam event series Turbulence. After studying sound design at the Grafisch Lyceum
Rotterdam, Dennis has worked as a professional sound engineer in a wide range of commercial and artistic projects with his company PhaseFactory, including sound design for feature films such as “Witte Wieven” (2024) and documentaries such as “The New Gabber” (2022) by VICE. Rotterdam Rave Culture “30 Years of Heritage” (2025) is his directorial debut.
This program is a collaboration of Rotterdam Popular Music Studies (ESHCC), Studium Generale and ESN-Rotterdam.
