Sources: Ultra cancels music festival over fears of spread of coronavirus

Event has been produced in Miami annually for more than two decades

The 2020 Ultra Music Festival will be postponed — possibly for a full year, which would effectively cancel this year’s edition of Miami’s marquee electronic dance music event.

The decision to postpone was made in a meeting Wednesday morning between Miami’s elected leaders and Ultra representatives, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Before the meeting, Mayor Francis Suarez and Commissioner Joe Carollo told reporters they wanted to postpone the event due to concerns over the spread of novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.

City officials have yet to announce details of the change because attorneys are ironing out the legal issues tied to the decision, including the length of the delay, sources said.

Wednesday morning, Suarez, Carollo and City Manager Art Noriega met with Ultra representatives to discuss the possibility of postponing the three-day event, which is scheduled to open March 20 at Bayfront Park. The meeting followed a press conference where Carollo and Suarez called for the event’s postponement. After the meeting, Carollo and Suarez told reporters they had a reached a resolution, but there would not be an official announcement until Friday morning.

“The decisions was made to postpone it,” Commissioner Manolo Reyes told the Herald. He spoke to Suarez after the meeting. Reyes also signaled that the city will likely look at postponing another large event on the city’s March calendar.

“I agreed with the decision to postpone it,” Reyes said. “And now I’m worried about the Calle Ocho Festival.”

Sources with knowledge of the deal told the Herald that Ultra intends to postpone the event until 2021, effectively nixing the 2020 event. The move would mark the first time in the festival’s 21-year history that Ultra will not produce an event in the greater Miami area.

But Noriega did not address the details of the deal because the city’s legal team and Ultra are still drafting language for a new agreement. “We’re working on a plan with them, and I’ll formally announce it on Friday,” Noriega told the Herald. The devil’s in the details. I haven’t seen the actual draft of the agreement.”

Ultra, a major live music event in Miami that has been produced annually for more than 20 years, was scheduled to return to Bayfront Park after one year on Virginia Key. Residents’ complaints over noise and limited access to the park, along with political feuds, have framed the controversy around Ultra’s future in the city’s public spaces — at one point last year, it appeared that the festival might move to Homestead after logistical issues plagued the Virginia Key event.

After commissioners expressed second thoughts about booting the event from Bayfront Park in 2018, they approved a new licensing agreement in 2019 for the festival to stage its 2020 festival on downtown’s waterfront again.

Ultra’s brand stretches across the world, with events on multiple continents. In the last week, Ultra’s event in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, was canceled by local organizers.