Talk+Film: Rotterdam Rave Culture

Is there still hope for Rotterdam nightlife? We look back at 30 years of Rotterdam Rave Culture and look ahead with a brand-new documentary and its makers.

Sound designer, filmmaker and hardcore raver Dennis van Rijswijk and music journalist Holly Dicker, bring a documentary homage to the dance scene in Rotterdam during and since the 90s gabber boom. Filled with nostalgia-inducing archival materials and intimate interviews with DJs, party organisers and ravers alike, the film takes a deep dive in what made the Rotterdam scene so unique. While celebrating the highlights of hardcore’s infamous history, this passionate film also explores how the scene has progressed and reshaped itself in a post-pandemic cultural landscape.

Before and after the film we will talk with Holly Dicker, Dennis van Rijswijk and N8W8T.
Moderator: Julian Schaap
Spoken Languages: English and Dutch (with English Subtitles)

Holly Dicker
Holly Dicker is a club culture journalist, independent radio broadcaster and author of Dance or Die: A History of Hardcore (2025) for Velocity Press. She has bylines in 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 various conference panels and documentaries – including Amsterdam Dance Event in 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024. She has written long form pieces 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 Arts in Manchester, joined the music industry in Berlin working for Boiler Room, Stattbad nightclub, Tresor Records and Electric Deluxe with Speedy J. She has lived in Rotterdam since 2015.

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 the age of 12, sneaking into his first PRSPCT parties at the Maassilo a few years later. He's been hooked on Rotterdam rave culture ever since, performing and producing early hardcore music as Reeza as part of 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 a Rotterdam event series, Turbulence. After completing studies in sound design at the Grafisch Lyceum Rotterdam, Dennis has worked as a professional sound engineer across a broad range of commercial and artistic projects with his company, PhaseFactory, including sound design for feature films like "Witte Wieven" (2024) and documentaries like "De Nieuwe Gabber" (2022) by VICE. Rotterdam Rave Culture "30 Years of Heritage" (2025) is his directorial debut.