The Artist Guide to Dekmantel Festival 2026

Explore this year’s must-sees according to Benny Rodrigues, gyrofield, and Jyoty

Every great selector has spent countless hours digging through record shops, falling down internet rabbit holes, or standing in front of the booth studying the DJs that came before them. Who better to ask for recommendations on what not to miss at this year’s Dekmantel Festival?

So, just like last year, we checked in with a handful of artists from this year’s line up to hear which DJs and live acts they’re most excited to catch themselves. Benny Rodrigues, gyrofield, and Jyoty shared their picks. Dive in and start mapping out your own route through five days of Dekmantel Festival 2026, from concerts in the city centre to the boldest closings in Amsterdamse Bos.

Words by Jasmín Hoek

A music nerd to his core, Benny Rodrigues (also known as ROD) plans his festival day according to which artists he must see; “I only go to a festival for the music. Socializing, drinking, or any other reasons people like to go out for, don’t interest me. There’s a whole schedule I planned in advance based on the timetable and who I have to see. I have to stick with it. Even if I go with others, I tell them ‘we have to eat between this and this artist’. Quite often, they end up going with other people or doing something else. Especially since I just want to see artists from the start to get the full story. It’s quite strict (laughs).” Before closing The Loop on Sunday, these are the artists on his carefully curated Dekmantel Festival must-see list.

Do you remember your first Dekmantel?

My first edition was also the very first Dekmantel Festival in 2013. I had already played Dekmantel club nights a couple of times as ROD. Then I heard that they were doing a festival, and the line up came out; it felt like the whole Netherlands was talking about it. The anticipation was super high, since everybody knew their parties. I was playing as ROD again, and I had the second slot in the UFO I before Voices From The Lake. It was Friday afternoon and it was busy from the start, since everybody was so curious and wanted to be a part of it. I remember feeling honoured to be part of that line up. Afterwards I stayed around and saw so many good sets.

The next day, I had to fill in last minute for another artist that couldn’t make it for a Boiler Room set. It was back in the early days of Boiler Room, when it was still a relatively new concept. Luckily, I did find out the day before, so I was able to prepare. Before me Traxx played a super freaky set, with lots of Chicago house records, then Makam killed it as well. It was exactly around sunset when I was playing, it went from light into dark throughout my set. I started playing some lighter Detroit tracks, then the darker it got, the deeper and harder I started playing. It felt like a pressure cooker, and then it just exploded when I played this Floorplan track. Every time I see the video of that Boiler Room, it just brings back such good memories, and I still feel exactly how I felt back then. Such a highlight!

Which artist on this year’s line up have you seen before and are excited to see again?

That’s PLO Man for me, he is my favourite DJ of the past ten years. I have become an absolute PLO Man groupie. He plays exactly what I want to hear as a listener on the dancefloor, and what I want to dance to. He only thinks about what he wants to play rather than what works for the audience or how it comes across, no compromise. Yet his signature sound and taste is so sophisticated, and people come to see him when he plays somewhere. I feel the same excitement about him as when I first heard Villalobos in 2002, or Donato Dozzy in 2005, or Ben UFO in 2008 or 2009. Someone who simply plays the records he wants to play, without overthinking what the crowd likes. Every time he plays in the Netherlands I try to go see him. I can’t get enough!

What about artists you haven’t seen before, or maybe haven’t seen in real life for a while, that you’re curious about?

Mike Parker on Friday, I’m very curious about his live set. I’ve seen him play once before, I was playing after him in Berghain, but I was too nervous for my own set to properly enjoy what he was doing. This is one of those sets I have to see from start to finish. I love that his sound is totally his own, and it’s never made to please. There are no unnecessary effects, breaks, or drum rolls, it’s pure and aimed for hypnosis. I’m looking forward to seeing him in UFO II, where it’s usually quite dark. His trippy polyrhythmic sequences will be an otherworldly experience there.

Tikiman and Scion will be nice to start the day with: dubby, dreamy, and the vocals of Tikiman. I’ve never seen them live before.

Juan Atkins presents Infiniti on the Thursday. I've heard him DJ so many times, and have seen him perform other projects live. A couple of tracks under his Infiniti alias on his album called Skynet, from 1989, are extremely special to me. Skynet is so intimate and personal, that I’ve hardly ever had the guts to play these tracks out to the dancefloor. To hear Infiniti live from the master itself rather than through headphones, it’s like the ultimate ‘nerd’ feeling.

PLO Man and DJ Spence live as SNPLO. As I said, I’m a big fan of PLO Man as a DJ, but I’ve never heard him play live. Can’t go wrong!

Dopplereffekt, although they’re playing right before my own slot. I think I’ll be listening to them right up to the last 15 minutes before I have to play. I have seen them once before back in 2006 in Melkweg. It’s weird in the best way; they stand across from each other, it looks very abstract. It really stuck with me. I’m a huge fan of Gerald Donald, and everything he’s done [Arpanet and ½ of Drexciya]. One of Dopplereffekt’s albums Linear Accelerator released on DJ Hell’s Gigolo Records in 2003, is one of my favourite albums ever. Their music feels very personal and intimate as well. They’re not considering the world around them, they’re building their own world. This is one you must see!

Mia Koden, I’ve mostly listened to her sets online, also from when she was still part of Sicaria Sound, I was instantly struck by this original dubstep sound, and everything rooted in UK dub. As she went solo, she released a sick EP on ILIAN TAPE, and she truly represents the sound of dub in its full glory. It’s very purist, not in the sense that she sticks to one genre, but she sticks with what represents soundsystem culture. Her set at The Nest B2B with Identified Patient during Dekmantel Festival 2025, was so sick. They were both amazing, but her track selection especially struck my reggae heart. I’m excited I finally get to see her play solo.

The Black Dog is a live set I’m very curious about as well. I have so much respect for acts like these. I admire how they build off Detroit-rooted electronic music, where my heart is, but then add their own input and innovate it. They created their own legacy and influence.

Dave Huismans is another one I’d love to see. I’ve been following his music since the early 2000s, as A Made Up Sound and 2562. Together with another Dutch artist, Martyn, he’s been part of the big bang that happened in the electronic music spectrum in the UK, when dubstep evolved into bass music. Of course the UK scene is the main thing, but they’ve been such huge influences to the genre! His tracks are so diverse and yet so distinctive. He’s again someone who builds his own world. Just like me, I’m sure a lot of people are happy to see him come back after not doing anything music related for many years, and I think Dekmantel is the perfect spot for him. He deserves all the recognition, and I’m happy for him.

PLO Man and Skee Mask B2B should be sick. Skee Mask is a very skilled, diverse, dynamic and eclectic DJ. Then PLO Man on the other side, plays more linearly. I’m very curious where these two will meet. They both have extremely good taste.

As a “Rotterdamer” (someone from Rotterdam), and a bunch of Rotterdamers playing, who’s a local that you feel connected to?

Suze Ijó is an artist from the city that I’m very fond of. I don’t think she necessarily represents the sound of Rotterdam, since she plays a lot more soulful than a big part of our music scene here , which can be a bit more raw. She plays what she wants to play, she picked her niche, and stuck with it. I'm so happy to see her doing her own thing all around the world. Plus, she’s playing with the master of her kind of soulful and spiritual sound, François K. She’s definitely a local I have in my heart.

Another one is Nala Brown, she plays from UK to jungle, to footwork, everything. Back in the day when I used to play in Rotterdam, in Tofler for example, I always saw her standing in the front. She was always listening curiously: ‘What is happening? How does it work?’ The funny thing is that when she started playing, her selections were so broad and eclectic and upbeat, quite far from what I was doing back then actually. She really found her own thing, like a wild cocktail of everything. It’s really cool, and it even includes Cape Verdean music. Both her and I have our roots in Cape Verde. I think this eclecticism represents a side of Rotterdam very well. We have such an interesting melting pot of cultures in Rotterdam, seeing Suze Ijó and Nala Brown represent their roots in their music while playing at Dekmantel also means a lot to me personally.

Which stage would you start your day at?

As I said, it all depends on the line up for me. If there’s an artist I want to go see I’d even go to a landfill where they’re dumping trash in 40 degrees or thunder so to say (laughs). If there's one place on the festival site where I’d start, it would be the food area. Then I can come an hour before the first artist I want to see, have a good meal, have that out of the way, and then we can start with the music. For some artists, I always hope they play the Selectors stage if they’re playing during the day. Open air, shade, a bit secluded within the forest, it has its own vibe. Considering this line up, the opening sets I’d pick would be going back and forth between Tikiman and Scion, and PLO and Skee Mask.

If you could play a track in your set from another artist on the lineup, what track would that be?

There are so many artists that I admire on the line up, and play a lot of tracks from. However, since I’m playing as Benny Rodrigues and not ROD, in The Loop stage, and doing a closing, there are a couple of tracks that I usually play that won’t fit this specific context. In the playlist for this specific set, it would have to be a track by Carl Craig or Underground Resistance. From Carl Craig it would be a remix he did of Cesária Évora’s track Angola. It came out about 20 years ago, and it means a lot to me because Cesária Évora is Cape Verdean as well. She’s from the same island my parents are from, and they’re even related somewhere far away. When the remix came out in 2003, it was a moment where my two worlds came together for the first time; music my mom used to play at home from this Cape Verdean icon, combined with the music of Carl Craig, who I was such a big fan of already back then. I’m not sure if I will play it, because it has to make sense and the moment needs to do the track justice. It would be special if it all comes together though!

From Underground Resistance I can think of many tracks I want to play. Moon Rays by Suburban Knight is one of them, it was part of a compilation that I feel has been quite overlooked compared to some of the rest of their releases. Maybe because it originally only got released on CD and not on vinyl, until quite recently. There’s a very big chance I will play this one. This set for me definitely needs a Detroit sauce, so these artists need to be in there.

After her Lentekabinet debut in 2025, 2026 marks gyrofield's first time at Dekmantel and her first visit to the festival. Having recently relocated from Utrecht to Amsterdam, she mentions she’s looking forward to starting her Dekmantel Festival weekend early. “I’m eyeing the night at Melkweg, there are definitely artists performing there I would love to see.”

Nice! Who would you like to see there?

Piezo and upsammy as Eerie Enterprise, Devon Rexi, and Sepher. They’re all really good!

Are there any artists playing that you feel have been influential to your own sound? What do you appreciate about their approach to music?

Lately, I’ve been very into dubstep. I’m still discovering so much of it. I consider myself to come more from a sound system background, particularly after living in Bristol. I’ve been really enjoying livwutang’s DJ sets, I saw her at Dripping in New Jersey. To me, her sound is the quintessential modern take on dub. It touches on all the different strands of the genre, from steppers, to garage, to dub techno. Dub is such a strong root for so many of the electronic genres, and I take from that in my own work as well.

The Bug and Warrior Queen, to me they take the sound that is the overwhelming force of a sound system's bass, and put a more musical spin on it. The Bug always keeps the MC or vocalist in mind. In a live environment, brutally blasting subs, and the transformation of the sound when pushed like that is really special to me. Before I started going to clubs, I was making bass music already, but I didn’t fully know the actual impact it had. I was always just kind of guessing how it would turn out and whether people would like it. To me dub was ‘listening’ music back then, but then experiencing sound systems and sound system music for the first time in Bristol was definitely a big change for me and evoked a big shift in how I approach things.

Dopplereffekt, their album Cellular Automata has been so transformative. In my own work I take after machine music from electro and techno as well, and this sci-fi approach of human versus machine and this post-human aspect is something I’m very inspired by. Getting to play between them and Shed is so special for me.

Helena Hauff is closing on Sunday, and she did an album with her fellow Hamburg-based producer F#X as Black Sites. To me the album feels like such an accurate depiction of her DJing, because it’s so bold, it’s kind of in your face, but there’s this human, improvisational element to it as well. All the tracks were recorded in one take. I love this ‘machines-breaking-out-the-walls’ spirit.

I know you like to share more about your production process, online for example. So, From all the live sets or live artists, is there anyone you’re particularly excited to be able to see at work?

I wanted to see A Guy Called Gerald, because the album he’s performing Black Secret Technology has been so influential to all of Europe’s dance music scenes. From UK techno and breakbeat,and everything it later evolved into. It’s truly an essential record, and a super good one. I saw him give a talk at Unsound in Krakow last year, and I’m looking forward to seeing him live.

Another one is The Black Dog, who emerged during the hugely prolific period of UK dance music in the 1980s and 1990s. The Black Dog makes such varied music, it’s always quite ambient and airy, yet quite heavy. I heard this track, Cost II, from their first album, and there’s something about the whimsical feeling of the synths that I really like. I’ve not seen them live before, and their music should be great for the afternoon.

Opposed to the legends, which more upcoming artists are you looking forward to seeing?

Even though I feel like everyone is pretty established. I’d say Nala Brown, I’ve seen her at Outlook, and her set was super good.

Devon Rexi and Sepher I’m really excited about as well. They've both been putting out really good records. Particularly Devon Rexi, they treat dub and rock with this kind of irreverence. They do their thing in their own way. It feels very refreshing. It blows the more traditional aspects of dub out of the water. Besides, I like that it feels kind of like a jam band. I was very excited when they did the album with John T. Gast, there’s like 5 or 6 tracks of that album I have been playing out a lot.

If you could play a track in your set from another artist on the lineup, what track would that be?

I’ve been very into a release by Piezo called Kimchi a lot. It has such a good combination of a more proggy, housey vibe with interesting sampling and strange synthesis stuff. The latter is very much his signature I feel. There’s this track of his called Friends of Fritz that I enjoy playing, it feels very energetic even though it’s actually quite downtempo.

Where would you start or end your day before your set?

It would be so cool to see Jane Fitz, then catch Trickpony and CCL, then head over to The Black Dog or A Guy Called Gerald, and then it’s time for my own set. After I finish, I’d love to see Introspekt, and catch part of the five-hour set from Objekt, Pariah, Call Super, and Ben UFO. On Saturday, I’d love to see Polygonia, CCL, Woody92, and Nørbak and Surgeon live. I’m a big fan of Surgeon, and have never seen him in real life before. I must say, there are so many people on the line up I haven’t had the chance to see live yet, so that’s really exciting for me.

Jyoty is Amsterdam-born and raised, but has been London-based since 2012. Before her Dekmantel Festival debut in 2024, she had never been to the festival. While Jyoty had played other Dutch festivals this also marked her festival debut on home ground, in Amsterdam. “Back when I was still living in Amsterdam, I used to go to Dekmantel parties, I believe it was in Trouw. That’s what I knew them from. By the time I realized the festival existed, it was nearly impossible to get tickets and go together with all of my friends, it was always sold out. It was quite funny: at some point, everybody in London was talking about this festival and I was like “What is this Dekmantel everybody is talking about?”. It turned out this mid-sized party I knew from back then turned into this big and popular electronic music festival.”

What was it like to play here for the first time then?

It was so fun to see both British people and Dutch people welcome me to the festival like they did. I always feel like a lot of people don’t know that I’m from Amsterdam, but still so many of them were like ‘welcome home’. It almost felt like I was being claimed by both sides, and it was so cute. I felt very special!

Are there any artists playing that you feel have been influential to your sound? And what makes their approach so special for you?

There’s actually a bunch for me personally, the first one would be Brodinski, he’s playing B2B with Slickback which should be crazy. 14 years ago, I was working as the door host of a tastemaker club in east London, The Nest, and I was a big Brodinski fan. What I found particularly interesting about him was that his sound was very electronic, yet his influences were coming more from rap. He was headlining his own birthday party, playing from start to finish, and he brought all his friends from Paris. It was completely sold out. So even though I was working, I finished early, and I could stay in the club all night. Then he started only playing Southern rap. Eventually, he even kind of left electronic music, and just started producing for all these Soundcloud rappers from the south of the USA. For me personally, it was very inspiring to see, because like many other Dutch DJs I came from a hip hop background. So for someone like me, who doesn't like to separate those two music worlds, he’s been a huge influence.

In a similar way of blending genres, I feel Josey Rebelle does the same in her own way.

She’s like my guiding star. For the past 10 years I’ve always considered her to be my biggest influence in DJing. I used to listen to her play on Rinse FM every Sunday. If you want to understand what true control over the decks is, look at her. There’s no ego involved. It’s only about the message she wants to bring across in that set. If I only had a fraction of her skill, I’d happily retire (laughs). She’s truly one of one. It’s almost scary what she does. Besides, her sets are a continuous education of music, but it’s never forced.

Third, Channel One. If you really want to feel that spiritual connection with music, go to a Channel One Soundsystem set. People like Channel One just embody the spiritual connection with music, and capture that transcendental feeling you can get from a soundsystem. Experiencing Channel One is faith-restoring.

As an Amsterdammer based in London, can you name a local from both cities that represent the sound for you personally?

Ikonika is for me someone that is so well-known in London, but not always that much outside of it. I’m such a huge Ikonika fan. Her productions are truly the sound of London captured in percussion for me. She’s been doing this for so long and is part of labels like Hyperdub, but somehow she always stays a bit under the radar. Same for her DJing; if you ever experience an Ikonika set, you won’t forget it.

For Amsterdam, a percussion-heavy producer as well, but T.NO! In the past two years, I think that there aren’t many DJs in my corner of electronic music that have played a set without any of his tracks. It almost feels like sets without his music just don’t exist for us anymore. He’s the master of secret weapons. If you need a banger, or something for a peak moment, or feel a bit unsure about what to play; you get on that CDJ and start looking for a T.NO track. It doesn’t really matter which track, because they’re all so good. He’s so young, and already has such a distinctive sound. It’s instantly recognizable when you hear it on the dancefloor. It seems like he truly produces with the dance floor in mind.

If you could play a track in your set from another artist on the lineup, what track would that be?

Everything from T.NO or Scratcha DVA. Scratcha DVA is playing B2B as Scratchclart with State OFFF, both of their productions are always in my sets.

How would you go about your days during Dekmantel Festival?

Friday, I’d definitely start at Ron Trent, especially if it’s sunny, yum! Perfect.

Then I’d go see Nala Brown, run to the Greenhouse for Livwutang. In the afternoon I’ll be between Ryan Elliott and T.NO, and then after my own set I’ll finish with Rozaly. I'd love to see SHERELLE in the Loop as well, but we’re overlapping this time.

Saturday, I’m very curious to see what Ben UFO is going to do during his opening set. From there, Cheyanne Hudson and Ikonika in The Nest. Then we go to Brodinski and Slikback, I’m so curious what will happen there. Then, I’d finish somewhere between Aurora Halal and SASS.

Sunday is a tough choice. I’ve seen Sampha DJ many times, and even played alongside him, while I’ve only experienced Jeff Mills once. So for this one, I’d pick Jeff. Then run to Mala, eyes closed, the bass in my belly for lunch! As a true Londoner, I’d head to Kode9, and stay for Introspekt. Then I also really want to see Jasmín. At the end of the night, I’d run between Benny Rodrigues and Verraco.

I’m so happy to see Benny get this slot. People have to know that I’m also a millennial from Amsterdam (laughs), so I grew up listening to him and the Nope Is Dope sound he was a part of. Benny has stuck around all these years, and people have been supporting him since day one. He always just kept on going. He used to play this club, Escape, in Amsterdam almost every Thursday night. I was in high school, and always had the first two hours off on Friday. The third class I had was Geography, which I didn’t care for. So every Thursday night, I was listening to him and other DJs play. I love to see him get his flowers, he deserves it so much.

Lastly, I do want to say going into the festival; be open to discovering new people! Stick around if you like a stage, don’t just go to the five names you know. Be open to being surprised. If you do want to see someone, it’s easy to run around at Dekmantel. Even your favourite DJ would tell you: if you've seen them plenty of times, skip their set and give someone you've never heard of a chance. You'll leave the festival on Sunday night with a whole list of exciting new artists to become obsessed with.