Ultra Music Festival
Ultra Music Festival is an annual outdoor electronic music festival that takes place in March in Miami, Florida. The festival was founded in 1999 by Russell Faibisch and Alex Omes.
It was first held on Miami Beach, but besides a tenure at Bicentennial Park, and briefly being held at Virginia Key in 2019, it has primarily been held at Bayfront Park in downtown Miami. It was a two-day festival from 1998 to 2010.
Since 2011, Ultra has taken place across three days during the month of March. In 2012, it had a record attendance, of 155,000 people at the Ultra Main Stage. In 2013, the festival took place across two consecutive weekends to celebrate its 15th anniversary, with a combined attendance of 330,000 people. In 2014, the festival returned to its original single-weekend format, selling out pre-sale tickets in under five minutes. The city of Miami has estimated that since 2012, Ultra has "generated approximately $995 million of economic impact", with $168 million in 2018 alone. The festival was suspended in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but resumed in 2022.
The festival is held alongside the Winter Music Conference—an event focusing on the electronic music industry, and Miami Music Week—a larger program of electronic music concerts and parties held across the region, with both events usually leading into Ultra.
Although they share names, Ultra Music Festival was not directly tied to Ultra Records, an electronic music record label. In fact, the companies were courtroom adversaries in litigation resulting in a two week jury trial in 2012 in federal court in the Southern District of New York. The parties disputed whether Ultra Music Festival could use "UMF" outside of Florida and whether Ultra Records had improperly started using the name "Ultra Music" and a confusingly similar logo. However, the dispute was resolved via an out of court settlement, and the two entities announced a "global alliance" in August 2012, which would allow them to collaborate on marketing and cross-promotion.
Alongside the flagship event in Miami, Ultra has spawned a larger series of international franchises under the blanket branding Ultra Worldwide, which have included locations such as Croatia, South Africa, South Korea, Singapore, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and others.
History
The Beach (1999-2000)
Ultra Music Festival was inaugurated and produced in 1999 by business partners Russell Faibisch, Ray Navarro and Alex Omes. The festival was named after the 1997 album of the same name by English band Depeche Mode. The first festival was held as a one-day event on March 13, 1999. Artists at Ultra's first festival included Paul van Dyk, Rabbit in the Moon, Josh Wink, and DJ Baby Anne. The first Ultra Beach Music Festival, which was held at Collins Park in Miami Beach proved popular, with an estimated ten thousand concertgoers in attendance. However, Faibisch and Omes still saw a financial loss of between $10,000 to $20,000 during the festival's inaugural year.However, in March 2000 the festival returned to South Beach's Collins Park and was met with even more success. The festival was immediately renewed for a third year.
Growth
Due to the massive rise in attendance between 1999 and 2000, festival organizers decided to relocate to Bayfront Park in Downtown Miami for Ultra's third annual event in 2001. Ultra Music Festival continued to bring the biggest names in electronic dance music to Miami with performances by Robin Fox, Tiësto, DJ Eddie G Miami, Armin van Buuren, EC Twins, Paul van Dyk, Paul Oakenfold, Ferry Corsten, Sander Kleinenberg, Photek, Josh Wink, DJ Craze, Pete Tong, Erick Morillo, and Rabbit in the Moon from 2001 to 2005. In 2005, Fabisch met with Adam Russakoff, who has since been the executive producer, director of business affairs, and talent buyer for Ultra Music Festival and Ultra Worldwide. 2005 was also the year that Carl Cox and Ultra worked together to curate the Carl Cox and Friends Arena, formerly known as the Carl Cox Global Arena, which has been a mainstay at Ultra Music Festival ever since. With the record-breaking attendance of the seventh annual Ultra Music Festival in 2005, the festival was again relocated to another venue, Bicentennial Park, for 2006. In 2007, the festival held its first two-day event at Bicentennial Park with more than 50,000 concert goers in attendance, which was another record at the time for Ultra. The festival celebrated its 10th anniversary during March 28–29, 2008 with performances by Tiësto, Underworld, Justice, Paul van Dyk, Carl Cox, Armin van Buuren, MSTRKRFT, deadmau5, Annie Mac, Eric Prydz, Ferry Corsten, Calvin Harris, Moby, Eddie G Miami, The Crystal Method, Boys Noize, Benny Benassi, Armand van Helden, The Bravery, David Guetta, and many more.2009
With an estimated attendance of over 70,000 people at Main Stage, Ultra Music Festival set a new record for the City of Miami for the number of tickets sold at a single event. The eleventh annual edition of the festival occurred during March 27–28, 2009—the lineup included more crossover acts and live bands featuring the likes of The Black Eyed Peas, The Prodigy, The Ting Tings, Santigold, Crystal Castles, The Whip, and Perry Farrell. Ultra's twelfth edition took place during March 26–27, 2010, featuring exclusive performances from Tiësto, deadmau5, Groove Armada, Orbital, Little Boots, Sasha & Digweed, Above & Beyond, Armin van Buuren, Carl Cox, Swedish House Mafia and The Bloody Beetroots. Each stage was accompanied by visual arts provided by VJs Vello Virkhaus, Psyberpixie, and Cozer.2011
The festival sold out for the first time with over 100,000 attendees at the Main Stage, where it was also announced that the thirteenth annual edition would take place over the course of three days during March 2011. Ultra Music Festival expanded to a three-day festival in 2011, spanning the weekend of March 25–27, 2011. Also at Ultra's 2011 edition, Armin van Buuren debuted a stage dedicated to his radio show, A State of Trance, celebrating 500 episodes. Like the Carl Cox & Friends Arena, the A State of Trance stage continues to be a mainstay at Ultra Music Festival, taking place on the third day of the festival each year. The A State of Trance 500 stage featured artists like Ferry Corsten, Markus Schulz, ATB, Cosmic Gate, Gareth Emery, Sander van Doorn, Alex M.O.R.P.H., and more.2012
The fourteenth edition of Ultra Music Festival was held from March 23–25, 2012. Due to the construction of the Miami Art Museum at Bicentennial Park, the event was moved back to Bayfront Park for the first time since 2005. Beginning this year, the festival also began to produce an official live streaming broadcast.Early bird pre-sale tickets for Ultra Music Festival 2012 sold out within seconds. Shortly after, pre sale ticket prices increased from $149 to $229. The lineup was headlined by acts such as Kraftwerk, Bassnectar, Justice, Avicii, Fatboy Slim, Wolfgang Gartner, Richie Hawtin, Skrillex, Pretty Lights, M83, Duck Sauce, Kaskade, and others. Madonna made a surprise guest appearance to introduce Avicii, in support of his remix of "Girl Gone Wild" — the second single from her recently released album MDNA.
2013
In honor of its fifteenth anniversary, the 2013 edition was held over two weekends, March 15–17, 2013, and March 22–24, 2013. Phase one of the festival's lineup was officially revealed in January 2013, confirming appearances from David Guetta, deadmau5, and Tiësto on both weekends, along with Swedish House Mafia. Other notable headliners included Afrojack, Avicii, Calvin Harris, Richie Hawtin, Boys Noize, Carl Cox, Armin van Buuren, Alesso, Dog Blood, Luciano, Snoop Dogg, The Weeknd, Martin Solveig, and Zedd.On January 7, 2013, after organizers requested additional road closures for the event, Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff proposed a resolution calling for disapproval of the second weekend. Sarnoff believed that allowing the event to be held across two weekends would be "disruptive to the local business community and area residents due to noise, nuisance behavior of festival goers, and grid lock traffic," regardless of the fact that Ultra generated $79 million during its previous year. The city council voted in favor of continuing with the second weekend on January 10, 2013, charging the organizers for police and fire services.
The two weekends had a total attendance of 330,000 spectators at the main stage.
2014
For 2014, the festival returned to a single weekend, which took place March 28–30. Phase one of the festival lineup was unveiled in December 2013, confirming headline appearances by major acts including Armin van Buuren, Afrojack, Carl Cox, David Guetta, Hardwell, Fedde Le Grand, Krewella, Martin Garrix, New World Punx, Nicky Romero, Tiësto, and Zedd. After being diagnosed with a blocked gallbladder and going back to Sweden for surgery, deadmau5 replaced Avicii as the final act on the main stage for Saturday.Notable performances during the festival included the premiere of Eric Prydz's new live show "Holo", the debut of Diplo and Skrillex's new side project Jack Ü, Above & Beyond's set being interrupted by a rainstorm, the debut performance of Armin van Buuren and Benno de Goeij's duo Gaia, and deadmau5 "trolling" the audience during his set by playing a remix of Martin Garrix's "Animals" set to "Old McDonald Had a Farm".
On March 28, a security guard was left in "extremely critical" condition after being trampled by a crowd of people attempting to gate crash the festival by breaking down a chain-link fence.
2015
Preparation
After the gatecrashing incident in 2014, some uncertainties arose as to whether Ultra would take place; however, organizers proceeded to announce the 2015 event would run March 27–29. Organizers also announced plans for a comprehensive review of the festival's security arrangements with the involvement of the Miami Police Department, which assessed how security could be improved to "prevent a criminal incident of this nature from happening again." Following the incident, Miami mayor Tomás Regalado suggested that the gatecrashing incident could be deemed a breach of the organizers' contract with the city, which would block Ultra from being held in Miami.In a meeting on April 24, 2014, Miami commissioners voted 4 to 1 against banning the festival, allowing Ultra to remain in downtown Miami for 2015. Marc Sarnoff, the lone commissioner to vote in favor of banning Ultra, presented footage of lewd behavior by attendees at previous editions, and contended that the event affected the quality of life for downtown residents because they were being harassed by visitors. The remaining commissioners supported the festival's presence because of the exposure and positive economic effects it brings to Miami, and Keon Hardemon disputed the argument that it affected downtown residents, as they, in his opinion, chose to live in the city so they could participate in local events. However, the approval was made on the condition that organizers introduce facilities for addressing security, drug usage and lewd behavior by attendees. In a related move, organizers announced in September 2014 that Ultra would no longer admit minors, in order to improve the overall safety and experience of attendees. Additionally organizers hired the retiring Miami Beach Police Chief Ray Martinez to oversee security for future events.
On January 12, 2015, Ultra co-founder Alex Omes, who had left the organization in 2010, was found dead at the age of 43 from a drug overdose.