Ahhhhh yes … the month of March in Miami is known for two things: cheesy spring breakers and out-of-town ravers. Some might say they go hand in hand but this past weekend, March 25-27 to be exact, Miami was overflowing with some international jetsetting, glowstick toting, furry-boots wearing, high-class raving little monsters that Lady Gaga would be deathly proud of. Ultra Music Festival 2011 was an epic 3-day EDM heaven, proof that God is indeed a raver. Over 100,000 people from all over the globe (Brazil and Holland, to be exact) descended onto what used to be Winter Music Conference week. Yet with this year’s weird date change which resulted in WMC arriving a little earlier, it didn’t deter anyone from not experiencing UMF13 in all its glory. In fact, WMC who? With the amount of activities that surfaced around Ultra weekend, locals created its own WMC counterpart appropriately calling it “Miami Music Week”.
This year was a record-breaker for the festival – the first time in their 13 year history, they went from 2 days to 3 making them officially the largest electronic dance music festival in the country; all advance tickets sold out as day passes were going for $3K a pop on Craigslist; and of course, the mega line-up with over 100 diverse artists ranging from Moby to Holy Ghost! to Duran motherfucking Duran! Yeah, screw Tiësto, it’s Simon Le Bon, bitches!
Highlights from Day 1 include Andy Bell of Erasure singing “Little Respect” as 18 year old candy ravers looked on in confusion asking “Who the hell is this old dude on stage?”; BT djing one of the hardest dubstep sets on the smaller side stage that would make Bassnectar cry; Holy Ghost! just murdering the live stage as they redefined the hipster-raver and Duran Duran drinking tiger’s blood while singing “Hungry like a Wolf”. Day 2’s Kodak moments include Karl Hyde of Underworld projected on skyscraper-size jumbotron singing “Born Slippy”, Moby wearing a Minor Threat t-shirt going ballistic during his set at the Carl Cox tent (who knew vegans had so much energy?), Andy C bringing old-school jungle back by, well, spinning with vinyl (rumor has it that he was the only DJ at Ultra to have spun with real records!) and of course, Deadmau5 who got 60,000 people jumping up and down and singing in unison with “Ghosts ‘n Stuff”. Day 3 resulted in Hybrid’s much respected live performance that involved a string section, Will.I.Am. as a willing DJ, David Guetta as the DJ to beat and finally, the one act that closed out the entire 3 day festivities – The Chemical Brothers. The brothers truly worked it out with some serious high-tech moving light shows, $300,000 worth of vintage gear on stage, and of course, some major lasers!
Dates for next year’s UMF14 has already been announced – March 23-25, 2012 and rumor has it that they are taking their 100,000+ rave onto the sands of South Beach! How and where that’s going to take place is a mystery but I’m sure, knowing the extent of Ultra’s success, a giant man-made island with Tiësto djing in the middle of the ocean wouldn’t surprise me. Oh well … until next year.
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