Its not that abnormal for slightly older people to go clubbing/partying on their own in London, due to the solitary and transient nature of much of the population, though I’ve noticed that a lot of folk stop in their mid 20s rather than their 30s even in the capital. in the provinces a 30-40 year old at some events is judged as as being a bit sad but at others (even in the same venue!) wouldn’t be thought of as odd.
It depends a lot on the maturity of the genre being played (for instance house dates back from the 1980s). If you like trance and house a lot of folk into the music are going to be your age or above anyway.
The ADE event is really interesting on many levels but you will never get something like that in England because NL has two decades of tolerating and co-opting the dance music industry into the mainstream music industry (whilst at the same time cleaning it up) whereas UK still views it as a bit scummy and sketchy and tainted with drugs money. The attitude of AVB and others to encouraging new talent and the more positive reception EDM gets across Holland and North Europe is really refreshing whereas in Britain its a lot more aggressive and competitive. TBH this affects every public entertainment from nightclubs and DJ sets to cat shows – I only realised this when I was comparing the production values of a NL cat show to a UK one for amusement and realised the Dutch even organised these better (a similar UK one I saw was dark, crowded and the cats were clearly more stressed out).
Was impressed that the ID&T boss (who is probably older than both of us) turned down $100 000 000 investment/buyout from the USA (which would have set him and his family up for life converted into Euros and invested in sensible less risky stuff) even though ID&T posted lower revenues this year. That shows the chap is genuinely into it for the music/enjoyment as much as running a business…
