Few names on the American Festival circuit can rival Ultra Music Festival in status. Known both throughout the United States and internationally for its sheer scale – not to mention its incredible lineups – the festival has long since outgrown its roots and is now expanding across the globe.
Today, we’ll explore how Ultra Music Festival first found its feet, how it gained its far-reaching base of fans, and how the brand has grown in recent years to become a truly international festival.
How a Local Event Became a Global Phenomenon
The year was 1999, and business partners Russell Faibisch, Ray Navarro, and Alex Omens were hard at work to promote their ambitious new event Ultra Beach Music Festival. The venue was set for Collins Park and the lineup would feature DJ Baby Anne, Rabbit in the Moon, and master of trance Paul van Dyk among others.
A single-day event that took place on the 13th of March that year, Ultra’s first outing proved popular but their success wasn’t quite enough to balance the books and they ultimately made a loss. Things could have been tricky but, at the end of the day, what you really need behind any event of this kind is the love and support of the fans and that’s what Ultra Music Festival saw.
Come the next year, Ultra proved popular yet again. In fact, so rapid was attendance growth that it was quickly decided that the third Ultra should be hosted at Bayfront Park, where Ultra has continued to be hosted for the majority of its run.
Over the next few years, Ultra continued to grow as fans continued to spread word of Miami’s exciting new event. As it grew, so did its lineup and this was core to bringing in huge new crowds. What the organizers understood best of all was the people came, first and foremost, for the music and to see the best artists on the scene.
Soon names like Tiësto and Armin van Buuren were regularly appearing on lineup announcements and attendance numbers just continued to go up and up.
An International Icon of Music Festivals
Ultra Music Festival may have found its first home in Miami, but – ambitious to the core – the Ultra brand has been expanding again these last few years to the point where they now rival the likes of Tomorrowland for sheer international appeal.
Hosting events across all five continents, the spirit of Ultra has captured something significant in the hearts of music lovers. Ultra is now the world’s most international music festival brand and this begins to raise the all important question: where can they go from here?
It’s undeniable that social media has also helped to play a part in spreading the festival and it seems likely that Ultra will continue to grow their online brand alongside their festivals. They’ve also branched out into their techno brand RESISTANCE, and it’s likely that we may see more such creative endeavors going forward.
With how far Ultra has come, what’s perhaps most incredible however is that Ultra Miami 2024 will once again be hosted at Bayfront Park as it has been for so many years. No matter how much the brand grows, it seems Miami’s music fans can always count on them to put on an amazing show.
