Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 20/06/2026 18:27:00

With a main hall designed to hold up to 6,000 people, AFAS Live is one of the largest purpose-built concert venues in the Netherlands, standing in the Amsterdam-Zuidoost district beside the Johan Cruijff ArenA. The hall, known as the Black Box, was built specifically for amplified music and is widely praised by touring acts for its acoustics. The venue opened in 2001 as the Heineken Music Hall, constructed to a design by the architect Frits van Dongen at a cost of around 30 million euros. After nearly sixteen years under the Heineken name, it was rebranded AFAS Live on 1 January 2017, when the software company AFAS took over the naming rights; the name is spelled out across the aluminium facade in tens of thousands of blue bottle caps. Operated by Live Nation, the building draws around 650,000 visitors a year and has been nominated several times for international concert-venue awards. The Black Box can be configured from a few hundred up to its 6,000 capacity, with a retractable bleacher and balcony seating, while smaller spaces such as the Talent Stage, foyer and restaurants host events of their own. Its programme spans international pop, rock, hip-hop and dance, including the hardstyle events for which it became well known, and it doubles as a business-event and conference location. It has also hosted the C2C country-music festival and a wide range of one-off productions. Set in the Amsterdam ArenA entertainment complex, it is easily reached by Metro and rail and surrounded by cinemas, shops and the football stadium, making it a hub of large-scale events on the southern edge of the city. For touring artists it remains one of Europe's key mid-to-large concert stops. Inside, the venue is known for a steep, partly retractable seating bowl that can be folded away to create a flat standing floor, a flexibility that lets promoters scale the room to the size of the show. Over the years its stage has hosted a long roll-call of major international touring artists across genres, cementing its status as one of Amsterdam's busiest concert addresses.