What did Het Parool's investigation find?
Per Het Parool, as reported by De Orkaan on October 17, 2026, twelve of the twenty-three women interviewed for the investigation accused Omid Kahali, co-founder of Amsterdam event company SONA Worldwide, of sexually inappropriate behavior between 2022 and July 2026. The accounts range from unwanted touching and sexual intimidation to suspected drugging, with several incidents described as happening in and around SONA's own events, including No Art and Wavy.
Kahali denies all of it. In a statement relayed by De Orkaan, he said there was no factual basis for what he called serious accusations of sexual offenses. Before Het Parool could publish, he tried to stop it outright: Kahali sought a court injunction to block the story, and a judge rejected his request the Friday before it ran.
Why did SONA cut him loose, and why now?
SONA had already put distance between itself and Kahali months earlier. He stepped back temporarily and by mutual agreement in August, after the company said it had opened an independent integrity screening, per Clubbing TV's reporting at the time. That review never produced a public verdict.
What changed on October 14, 2026 is permanence. SONA announced it was parting ways with Kahali for good, removing him as both director and shareholder.
"Kahali understands there is no way back."
SONA Worldwide now runs on its two remaining founders, Bora Güney and Ruud Boymans, who built the company with Kahali in 2024 around No Art, the self-financed festival brand that made SONA's name without ever taking a sponsor's money.
What does this mean for ADE week, and the industry watching it?
The timing lands in the same city where Het Parool's reporters spent months gathering testimony. SONA's events, branded as SONA Presents, are still on this year's official Amsterdam Dance Event program through October 25. A year earlier, ADE's own editorial team held up No Art as a model for independent, sponsor-free festival-making, a profile of its three founders, Kahali included, that is still live on ADE's site.
SONA's own statement insists that safety and a positive visitor experience come first at all its events. Whether that holds now rests on a leadership of two, not three, in front of an industry that is in town this week watching exactly how fast a company acts once an internal review stops being enough.
