My first year attending Ultra was in 2022. Yes, believe it or not—the rumors are true—I was an Ultra Virgin. I had actually planned to attend in 2019, but my grandfather passed away a week before the Music Festival, and his funeral was during that week, so I had to cancel. Then the world pandemic entered, and two years of Ultra were on pause. Fast-forward to 2022 – I finally had the opportunity to attend this legendary music festival located in downtown Miami, Florida, in Biscayne Park.
One of my initial observations was the large crowds of people dressed in amazing outfits flooding the streets of downtown Miami and excitedly entering this broad set of stages blasting music in different genres, strategically located to not interfere with each other’s listening experiences.
My experience at my 4th Miami Music Week kicked off with the Nexus Lounge, where we interviewed artists performing their first time at Ultra Music Festival and artists who have played since the very beginning. For example, French DJ Cedric Gervais (a Miami local for over 25 years) attended the very first Ultra and saw it grow from a small 500-person festival on the beach to what it is today—a mammoth event!
pause), and some big surprises/highlights included a guest performance of Sia during Afrojack & David Guetta’s set as she beautifully performed their hit “Titanium” and then sang live for the first time a new Guetta/Sia single “Beautiful People.” Other sets I looked forward to attending this year were John Summit b2b Dom Dolla (aka Everything Always), Skrillex, FISHER, Solomun, NERO and Becky Hill’s Live stage performances, Carl Cox, deadmau5 and of course Joel Corry! I interviewed Joel Corry in my first year attending Ultra and found him delightful and fun to talk to, so I was eager to support him and see his show again!
On Day 2 and Day 3 of Ultra, we got a lot of rain – which has become almost expected as last year was also very rainy and caused partial cancellations of shows as the weather impacted the festival lineup, sadly. I highly recommend you bring rainwear: boots and a poncho, which should undoubtedly be in your wardrobe!
With so many great artists playing at different stages, it’s essential to plan, and if you’re lucky, you can catch more than one artist’s set if the stages are nearby 🙂 The stage is, of course, the most crowded! As a singer, I love to attend the Live Stage performances. In 2022, I saw Sofi Tukker perform at Live Stage, and I have to admit they were the best thing I saw the entire weekend. In 2023, I saw Becky Hill, and I was so happy to see she was back again!
All in all, attending ULTRA and Miami Music Week was a blast. There was so much going on in every venue that I couldn’t help but feel like I was missing out on something, even though I had done so much in such a short time. I look forward to attending again.
Signing off DAVIS MALLORY
