PACHA - the Ibiza party legend at a festival in Amsterdam. I was in straight away. The line-up…read moreincluded The Magician, Martin Solveig, Franky Rizardo, Claptone, Sander Kleinenberg, Todd Terry and Pep&Rash to name a few. The festival ran 12:00-23:00 so you could really make a day of it. There were hammocks where you could lay back and ease yourself into the day or do the opposite and party until your feet hurt and you had to have a lie down. There was a market selling hippy/festival, clothing including furry bodywarmers which I very almost bought as it was on sale but I decided to dance more to warm up instead. No hammock for me, I was here to dance! The four stages meant that there was enough variety that you could dip in and out if you weren't feeling the tunes on the main stage or just wanted to mix it up a bit. This was a well organised festival with tokens on sale for transactions to speed up payment and have queues shorter and make it easier for bar staff and influenced party goers. They had a good range of spirits and mixers on sale, beer, water and a very impressive Toro wine stall. This had a proper selection of wine including a fantastic celeste red which one of my friends and I were super impressed with. The pizza was good and they had a range of organic and other food options including the surinamese food which smelt great but had a longer line. Being a seasoned festival goer, I was impressed with the atmosphere at this festival. There wasn't any trouble that I saw but security and staff weren't heavy-handed either. After being to many festivals across Europe, Australia and NZ I was impressed with this particularly at an outdoor dance event. Not overcrowded, friendly and well done. It was also at a great location as next to Bijmer Arena so easy to get to and from after the event. Martin Solveig was the highlight of my night this time but there were some great dance moments at the other stages. I'll be back of more next year.

Ahhhhhhhhh I'm so in love with this festival!!!!Everything was Amaaaaaaazzzzzzzzing! From the music…read moreto the ambiance. It was well organized and greatly executed. I love to go to festivals, and living in Amsterdam makes it easier for me to do so, since all the awesome ones always happen around it. It was my first time at Loveland and i must say it was love at first sight! An amazing festival if you are a lover of EDM and is always fun in big groups. Also it didn't hurt to hear Carl Cox play his most amazing set yet! It was definitely a Saturday well spent!

This festival takes place during the winter holiday season. I had really high expectations as it…read morehas been quite popular for a few years. I was told that there is a free boat tour where people line up in cues to get a ride, you can walk it along the canal edge, or you can do what we did and purchase a ticket online from "Those Dam Boat Guys". Personally, the later is great and well worth it. Our boat was small and gave us an intimate experience because the boat captain told us a little about the artistic lights and were could ask questions or slow down to take pictures. The lights are illuminated after dark which during the winter is quite early in the evening. Some of the lights were small displays and some were pretty magnificent. The whole festival takes less that 2 hours to view and it really is something to see both as a tourist or a local resident. I do suggest that the best viewing is when it is not a rainy evening so that you don't have an obstructed view from the boat.

Float thru an Amsterdam canal at night, drinking a beer and looking at light art?…read more Duh. FIVE STARS!

Wat een teleurstelling dat Milkshake festival!!! Bijna 90 euro voor een kaart en wat krijg je?…read moreSuper slechte muziek een handje vol entertainers en weinig bezoekers. Oh ja en drank en eten zijn ook mega duur. Vroeger klaar te het festival uit elkaar van entertainment en energie. Er is echt hé-le-maal niets van over..

It was a huge disappointment. The vibe seems to be…read moredeclining every year, with this year hitting the bottom. The quality of the programming has never been high, but it just seems to be getting worse. I don't even want to mention the terrible f.. up with Banks Sorry, dear Milkshake, but you won't be seeing me again.

3 stars for the sheer scale of this event. It is massive - probably unprecedented. And hilarious…read more The whole city lights up for a week with dance music of every ear-crushing variety, hosted in any venue that can put up speakers and free up a dance floor. Meanwhile, employers, policemen, and bouncers around the city turn a blind eye to the buffet of substances being carted around and consumed by the entire city. It's cool in concept - but huge minus points for the execution. For one thing it's almost impossible to pick an event if you're not familiar with the DJs, since you're essentially simply given a gigantic list of names and venues and left to flail around on your own. But my biggest problem with it is that (at least at the events I went to), they charged something like 2eur per glass of water!!! While also strictly policing bathrooms lest someone dare take a water-holding container near the sink. This is not only a rip-off, it's downright dangerous and flagrantly stupid. For this reason I won't be repeating the experience next year. If you're looking for a good dancing time - go to Awakenings or wait until festival season kicks off in early spring.

What an awesome experience. We went this past May and there was a line to get in before it opened…read more They were about 30 minutes late opening the event because of technical issues with the ticket scanning machines which was annoying but it was all worth it once we were in. It was huge! Food trucks everywhere, cooking classes, bean bags to relax on, music, etc. we tried a lot of food and drinks from delicious in and tonics, Asian style hot dog, salmon, mini burgers, their famous poffertjes, and fruity popsicles.

I will definitely be back again next year. What a fantastic event! Plenty of samples. Manageable…read moresize. The queues can be long for some of the restaurants but all the food was worth the wait! Standouts: A. The fruit! I'm not one to RAVE about fruit but holy cow. Brought home some mangos, the sweetest cherry tomatoes I've EVER tasted and pineapples. The lone disappointment was that the pineapple that I took home was nowhere near the sweetness of the numerous samples that I had at the festival. B. Makro. They were the big sponsor of the event and had a section displaying some of the various food and drink items that they sell. Truly effective marketing because I've never shopped at Makro but am planning my next trip already. Well done, Makro. Well done. Will happily add one more star if the variety of the restaurants that were there was greater. I'm sure this festival will only improve in 2014.

I honestly cannot NOT- recommend this festival enough! I travelled from Germany to Amsterdam for…read morethe festival. I arranged for a group of friends to go. I stayed in accommodation for the weekend. I paid for a ticket 3 months in advance. When I got to the door - I was rudely and aggressively told by the bouncer that I wasnt allowed in. Because he "Didn't have a ticket scanner" 20 emails later and 6 months later. Appelsap havent explained themselves, they still haven't apologised and they havent given me a refund for the ticket let alone compensation. Seriously, what a shambles. There are so many other great festivals forget these guys! Go to one of the others and have a nice time. And be allowed in.