Every festival begins with the best of intentions.

You’ll arrive early. Pace yourself. Drink enough water. Finally make it to that artist you’ve been saying you’ll see for forever. Two hours later you’ve lost half your friends, somehow adopted 7 new ones, spent 20 minutes in a toilet queue discussing life with a complete stranger, and are halfway across the festival for reasons nobody can quite explain.

Festivals have their own ecosystem. No matter how individual we’d all like to believe we are, the same characters emerge every single summer. The Canny Celebrator arrives with a meticulously colour coded game plan and enough supplements to outlive us all. The Amsterdam Attaché somehow knows everyone despite having moved here three years ago. The Paddodruppels Princess disappears into the forest only to return spiritually transformed. The Feral Fashionista treats the lineup as a minor detail, while Your Ex has an almost supernatural ability to appear exactly where you are, exactly when you least need them.

We know these people. More importantly, we’ve all been one of them.

To celebrate this weekend’s Dekmantel weekend, we’ve partnered with our friends at Questable to turn the festival itself into one giant side quest. After all, the best festival stories rarely exclusively happen during the headline set. They happen somewhere between stages, in unexpected encounters, spontaneous detours, and the moments you never planned for.

Complete our Questable challenges throughout the weekend for the chance to win a little pocket money to keep the drink tab flowing.

Head to the link in bio and see you in the field.

Never misses an opportunity to wear the full Dammie drip and will happily tell anyone who’ll listen about the city’s newest opening, its village-like charm, and why nowhere else quite compares. Somehow knows, has worked with, or has a mutual friend in common with almost everyone on the festival grounds. Not actually from Amsterdam.

• Pop Trading Company striped logo shirt 
• Stacks hat – residency pending
• Plasticana gardening clogs 
• Lack of Guidance x Sebonsa cider 
• Europizza tent – stick to the Margarita 
• Le Labo Mousse de Chêne perfume – gotta smell like your city 
• La Fam Ring 
• Bonne Suit classic pants 

Committed to harm reduction with the intensity of someone trying to outsmart biology itself. They’re chewing gum like a prize-winning cow at an agricultural fair. Their bag is essentially a mobile pharmacy. No gua sha in the world could produce results like these.

• True gum – jaw workout 
• Pocari Sweat
• Balenciaga Sunglasses – eyes shielded from all angles 
• L’Occitane lip balm
• Biotene dry mouth spray
• Rohto max strength eye drops – innocence restored 
• “I’m actually completely sober” with pupils the size of dinner plates
• 8am meeting the next day

Has been exploring Amsterdam’s dance scene for the past decade or two and has proudly earned the pro pass of ADE: becoming an Amsterdam Dance Expert. The club is their conference room. They’ll probably dap up everyone backstage, know the lighting technician by first name, and casually grabbing espressos with Jeff the next morning.

• Yohji yamamoto black drop crotch trousers – for optimum movement 
• Comme des Garçons Black perfume
• “The crowd was so much better before Tiktok”
• Vintage Prada sunglasses – to shield themselves from the youngsters
• Mano Lapponia Shuttle ring – first acquired during Omen’s closing
• Never queues because “I know someone.”
• Homme Plissé double-breasted jacket – can be worn from stu to stage ALTERNATIVE: “It’s a conference after all”
• ADE Pro Pass Badge – CEO & Promoter as job description 

Treats a 3 day festival like a military operation. Prepared from head to toe, every “supplement” has been timed, every route considered, and every contingency accounted for. While everyone else is surviving the weekend, they’re executing a carefully orchestrated plan. To them, a festival is simply a field trip.

• Happy Tuesdays post-rave supplements
• Muji pill organizer
• Topologie bottle sacoche – holding absolutely everything 
• Colour coded lineup – physically printed, highlighted, and laminated
• Anker Portable charger (20,000mAh) – somehow leaving the festival with more battery than they arrived with
• Earproof custom earplugs 
• Skinome SPF spray 
• Find my for everyone

Hasn’t checked the lineup once. They’re here for the three Ps: party, photos and perception. The festival is merely the backdrop, the outfit was the main event, and if the photo dump performs well enough, that’s basically the headline set.

• VanMoof S6 –  the lioness does not concern herself with a bike ride home 
• North Face x Cecilie Bansen bag
• Ridente toothpicks 
• Alo Yoga eye patches – waiting for her at home
• Hourglass blush 
• Samsøe Samsøe Sabrandon sunglasses 
• Birkenstock Repetto clogs – for the ride home
• Sandy Liang trinkets skirt – to hold various miscellaneous items 

Treats Eurosummer like a competitive sport. Their life unfolds in a never ending carousel of boarding passes, beach clubs and blurry sunsets, making everyone else question whether they’re living life correctly or simply don’t have rich enough parents.

• Male DJ duos/trios 
• 3MMC 
• Pucci silk scarf – beach club formal
• Grether’s Throat gummies – after all the Achilalela Achilalas
• Cartier Sunglasses 
• Parfum de Marly Delina perfume 
• Rhode phonecase 
• Iphone 17 pro max in Orange – inspired by the Hermès orang
• Pacha ibiza cherry fan 

Shops at Ekoplaza during the week and loves nothing more than a forest festival. Music isn’t something she listens to, it’s something she enters. Will emerge from the woods with a flower in her hair and a new perspective on life. 

• Hunter boots in military red – to jump in every puddle 
• Rains jacket in Cinder Glaze
• Carhartt Baby Tee
• Paper Republic pocket notebook – filled with illegible thoughts
• MaisxFrida charm necklace
• Tarot deck
• A stick they found that’s somehow become part of the outfit
• Damson Madder caspia skirt  

The festival wasn’t big enough. Lingers around every corner like an unpaid actor in your personal horror film. Has perfected the art of making you feel their gaze before you’ve even clocked they’re there, turning the festival grounds into an obstacle avoidance course.

• Eye contact that should qualify as psychological warfare
• Hard launches your lookalike
• Arcteryx buckethat
• Suddenly loves the music you introduced them to
• Standing in your direct line of sight at every single stage
• Axel Arigato Slow Runner 
• Mmoire Ether woods perfume – that olfactory reminder 
• Maison Rapito t-shirt – he did neither