Official ADE Lab Hackathon
Dates: 21–23 October 2026
Location: Amsterdam — Venue announced soon
€50 ticket fee. Full refund if you cancel at least 7 days before the event.
Music Hackspace is proud to host the official hackathon for ADE Lab 2026, the education and innovation programme running alongside the world-famous Amsterdam Dance Event.
Over two days, you'll join a creative community, take on a music industry challenge and turn your ideas into working prototypes for music creation, listening or performance. All the while, you'll enjoy the energy of ADE in the heart of the city.
The best projects will win fantastic prizes, including a presentation at the ADE Labs Showcase.
You can arrive with a project idea or form a team on site. We'll help match participants into small groups (typically 3–6 people) so teams have a blend of skills across coding, music, and product design.
Throughout the weekend, mentors from Music Hackspace and industry partners will be available to support you in developing your prototypes closer to real-world products.
ADE Lab is the place where the global dance and tech community comes together to shape the future of music. Join the movement at our hackathon.
This Hackathon needs you
The hackathon is open to anyone in the European and international music and technology community. You don't need prior hackathon experience, only curiosity and a willingness to collaborate.
We welcome:
- Producers, performers, and composers looking to prototype new tools and workflows
- Electronic musicians, artists and DJs excited by the intersection of tech and culture
- Audio and music technologists and developers
- Students and researchers in music, CS, and related fields
- Designers, product managers, and UX researchers
- Anyone excited about building tools for music
You don't need to code to be central to a team. We're looking for musicians and artists to act as creative leads; defining problems, curating sounds and workflows, and guiding the product vision.
We'll help you find a team that matches your interests and skills so you can focus on building something meaningful over the weekend.
Participation is open to adults aged 18+ only.
Capacity is limited to 100 participants, around 30 teams, so don't miss out.
Themes & Example Projects
Sponsor challenges and additional tracks will be announced very soon. What follows are some example themes to explore.
Electronic Music & Club Culture
- Tools for DJs, producers, and live electronic performers
- New approaches to generative and modular composition
- Interfaces for immersive audio-visual performances
Creative Tools for Musicians
- Performance tools that extend instruments on stage
- Composition assistants and idea-generation workflows
- Experimental interfaces for live, collaborative improvisation
New Listening Experiences
- Adaptive and interactive listening formats
- Spatial and immersive audio experiments
- Playful tools for discovering music in new ways
Accessibility & Inclusion
- Interfaces for disabled musicians and new audiences
- Tools that lower the barrier to music making
- Collaborative environments for remote or hybrid teams
Prizes & Opportunities
More prizes to be announced very soon.
ADE Lab Showcase
The winning team will be invited to present their work as part of the official ADE Lab programme on Friday 23 October — sharing their creation with an international audience of artists, technologists, and music industry professionals during one of the world's leading electronic music and digital creativity events.
Recognition & Opportunities
A jury of music technology practitioners and industry experts will select standout projects to highlight. Selected teams may be invited to share their work in follow-up showcases, talks, or features across ADE and Music Hackspace channels.
Pathways Beyond the Weekend
The goal is not just a weekend demo, but to help promising ideas move toward real-world impact — whether as research tools, open-source projects, or commercial products. We'll share opportunities for continuing your work with the broader Music Hackspace and ADE Lab community.
Mentoring
Teams can receive mentoring support throughout the weekend and beyond to help refine their project and plan next steps after the hackathon.
Jury
We're excited to welcome JB Thiebaut and Jesper Skibsby to the jury panel, where they'll evaluate projects across creativity, technical execution, and real-world product potential. More jurors to follow.
JB Thiebaut
Jean-Baptiste “JB” Thiebaut is CEO of Music Hackspace and Chordline Ventures. He holds a PhD in computer music from Queen Mary University of London and built a career bridging R&D, product, and community in music technology.
He has led programmes and teams focused on creative coding and music technology education, supporting thousands of artists and developers to ship new tools, prototypes, and products. His work sits at the intersection of research, hands-on making, and ecosystem building across the global music tech community.
Jesper Skibsby
Jesper Skibsby is a music tech entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of WARM, a global radio airplay analytics platform headquartered in Copenhagen. Since founding the company in 2017, Jesper has built WARM into a leading data infrastructure provider for the global music industry, tracking airplay across more than 21,000 stations in 150 countries, with strong reach into the dance music sector.
He is also Co-founder and head of vision of Lisbon Dance Summit (LDS), an international electronic music conference and city-wide festival held in Lisbon, connecting artists, labels, and industry professionals within the global dance music scene.
A hands-on tech builder and strategic advisor across music and tech, Jesper brings an entrepreneur’s eye for product and data to the live music and radio space. A frequent speaker at international conferences, he combines an operator’s perspective with a genuine passion for dance music.
Jesper leads operations across multiple entities spanning Denmark and Portugal, and is based in Lisbon.
Schedule at a Glance
Tuesday 20 October — Welcome Party (optional)
- Evening welcome party — venue and time to be confirmed
Day 1 – Wednesday 21 October
- ~10:00 — Welcome, introductions and overview of the hackathon
- Team formation and idea pitches
- Hacking sessions with mentor support
- Evening check-in and informal demos
Day 2 – Thursday 22 October
- Final hacking sprint and polishing
- ~16:00 — Team presentations to the jury
- Feedback and results
Friday 23 October — ADE Lab Session
- Curated session with the jury and winning teams as part of ADE Lab
Exact times and venue details will be announced closer to the event and shared with all registered participants. All times will be in Central European Time (CET).
Code of Conduct
We are committed to a welcoming, inclusive, and harassment-free environment for everyone taking part in the hackathon.
Please read and follow our Hackathon Code of Conduct.
Intellectual Property (IP)
Who owns what you build
We want teams to build boldly, and we want this to be clear from day one:
- Your team keeps 100% ownership of what you create during the hackathon.
- Music Hackspace, ADE, and sponsors do not take ownership of your project IP.
- You're free to continue developing your project after the event (open-source it, commercialise it, publish it, etc.).
Using sponsor APIs, SDKs, or tools
Many teams will use sponsor-provided APIs or developer platforms. That's welcome — just keep in mind:
- You still own your project code, design, content, and ideas.
- Your use of a sponsor's API or SDK is subject to that sponsor's licence and terms of use.
- If you want to ship your project beyond the hackathon, check the relevant sponsor terms first.
Team contributions
- By joining a team, participants agree that team members can use and present the shared hackathon project or demo.
- If your team plans to continue after the event, we strongly recommend agreeing in writing on ownership splits, licensing, and future use.
Organiser
Partners
The Official ADE Lab Hackathon is an official element of the ADE Lab programme at Amsterdam Dance Event — the world's leading electronic music conference and festival. Music Hackspace owns and runs the hackathon; ADE embraces and programmes it as part of the ADE Lab.
Sponsors
Platinum Sponsor
Special thanks to our sponsors for making this hackathon possible. Further sponsors and their challenge tracks will be announced closer to the event.
See a Previous Edition
Recap from a previous Music Hackspace hackathon edition.