Miami might take back Ultra as Homestead takes step to get it
Weeks after Ultra Music Festival announced it was leaving the city of Miami, other South Florida municipalities have entered what one could call the Ultra sweepstakes.
Homestead has cleared a path for the electronic dance music festival to move to land outside the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Wednesday night, Miami Beach commissioners weighed the possibility of attracting the three-day event back to South Beach before deciding against it. Even Miami itself, having second thoughts, wants to reopen talks with organizers.
“It just reminded me of being in a relationship, then breaking up with someone that you’re not ready to stop dating,” Miami Commissioner Keon Hardemon said Tuesday.
Downtown Miami residents’ complaints about noise and park access mixed with messy political feuding among commiskind sioners combined to create an atmosphere where Ultra was ousted from its longtime home at Bayfront Park. With tickets already sold and fans watching closely, the festival quickly worked out a deal with the city to move to Virginia Key.
The event in March faced serious logistical issues with bus shuttles and new complaints from mainland residents who heard the music. Even Ultra agreed the island was not a good fit for its fans.
“After listening to feedback from many of you (including over 20,000 fans who took our postevent survey), it is clear that the festival experience on Virginia Key was simply not good enough,” wrote organizers in a letter that severed the festival’s relationship with the city of Miami.
Now, the race is on. Homestead could be in the lead after councilmembers voted to allow the speedway to stay open until 2 a.m. The vote was a significant hurdle that likely put Ultra one step closer toward moving to the south Miami-Dade city and transforming into a new of event, where fans could camp out overnight on the festival grounds.
The vote came with conditions for Ultra organizers, covering a site plan and a traffic plan, insurance requirements, coordination with Homestead Air Reserve Base, and a ticket surcharge that would go to the city.
Al Garcia, senior vice president of operations at Homestead-Miami Speedway, said Ultra is looking into mitigating noise issues by aiming the speakers toward Turkey Point Nuclear Generation Station or more southeast.
Ultra declined to comment while other cities talk about their chances of attracting the festival.
On Wednesday, Miami Beach commissioners rejected a proposal to start discussions with festival organizers about bringing the three-day electronic dance music event to South Beach in March 2020.
The idea — which Commissioner Ricky Arriola suggested as a way to make spring-break festivities better organized and more profitable — sparked a strong response from residents, who lined up to speak at the commission meeting Wednesday night and flooded elected officials with e-mails.
“Adding the drug infested, ear splitting chaos known as the Ultra Music Festival to Miami Beach at March Break would be pure insanity,” resident Laura Jamieson wrote Beach commissioners under the subject line “Ultra Insane.”
The idea was defeated 5 to 2 with several commissioners saying they worried Ultra would only contribute to the crowd-control problems during spring break.
On Tuesday afternoon, Miami commissioners
pondered the possibility of getting Ultra to return to the city — specifically to Bayfront Park.
The commissioners agreed to reopen a formal conversation at a future meeting. Commissioner Joe Carollo reiterated residents’ complaints about the music blasting from Ultra’s stages, though he said he would welcome more talk about the matter.
Similarly, Commissioner Ken Russell said he’s willing to discuss the possibility as long as Ultra is willing to work with downtown residents who have for years complained about the volume of the music and the time it takes to set up and tear down the festival, limiting access to Bayfront Park. Russell also theorized that Ultra organizers walked away because they expected an unfavorable vote on May 9, when commissioners were going to decide if the festival could return to Virginia Key.
“Either they didn’t have the votes to continue, or they were losing money to the point where they were better off somewhere else,” Russell said.
Commissioner Manolo Reyes touted the economic impact of the festival and warned against creating a reputation that Miami doesn’t welcome largescale events that fill hotel rooms and help businesses.
“We have to be careful,” Reyes said. “We cannot be running businesses out of Miami.”
Elected officials in other South Florida cities have either been contacted by Ultra or openly courted the festival. In Hialeah, Councilman Paul Hernandez tweeted his desire to open talks with festival organizers. Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis recently told the Miami Herald he had talked with Ultra representatives and planned to put a discussion on the agenda for an upcoming Fort Lauderdale commission meeting.