Yesterday, we at New Times told you Ultra “blew its surprise superstar load” when Usher crashed Martin Garrix’ headline set on the Main Stage. We have to apologize a bit to Ultra. They have more loaded in their star-power canon than we thought. Arianna Grande blind-sided the Ultra World Stage…
It’s become an annual Ultra Music Festival tradition. Even before party people, DJs, and downtown Miami condo residents have recovered from their latest romp through Ultraland, the fest springs the news that next year’s 200,000-strong EDM extravaganza is only 365 days away. At Ultra 2013, it only took organizers 17…
There have been a lot of changes at Ultra Music Festival. The audience is over 18 now. And many of rave culture’s familiar accoutrements — finger gloves, glow sticks, rage totems, etc. — have been banned under the fest’s new Prohibited Items policy. There are still those of adult age…
When I wrote back in January that I found Ultra Music Festival’s 2015 underwhelming, honest to God I wasn’t doing it do be contrarian or clickbait-y. EDM is big and there’s a lot of money to be made. No one is going to argue that headliners like Avicii and Tiësto…
Downtown Miami’s 32-acre Bayfront park is swarming with some 40 thousand (NOT SURE IF THIS IS ACCURATE #, CANT FIND 2015 ATTENDANCE) glistening glittered bodies. The lights on the main stage make the Vegas strip look like the ass of a dying lightning bug. The hard-bodied minimely dressed millennials are…
Ultra Music Festival 2015 just blew its surprise superstar load as Usher joined heir-to-the-EDM-throne Martin Garrix for a surprise live performance of their new collabo track, “Don’t Look Down.” The explosive Main Stage was all fireworks, confused ravers, and screaming girls when the A-Town R&B legend stood atop the decks…
“I need to know now, can you love me again?” That was the opening line of Avicii’s set on Ultra Music Festival 2015’s main stage last night. Sure, they weren’t his words. (He isn’t an especially chatty DJ, only occasionally reaching for the mic to express his affection for the…
Only 48 hours left. Don’t cry. Don’t hyperventilate. Don’t despair. We know it seems Winter Music Conference and Miami Music Week is oh-so-quickly coming to an end. But there’s still plenty of party time to go. You will realize your wildest WMC and MMW dreams. You will fist-pump underwater. You…
The big news from day one at Ultra Music Festival 2015 was, of course, the rain. Personally, we spent more time in the press area trying not to get wet than we did on the festival grounds. (Still, Röyksopp’s last-minute performance on the Live Stage made all the crappy weather…
Even our “Eat Me” bikini bottoms and weed-leaf knee socks are soaked. Ultra Music Festival 2015’s opening day was wet. Very wet. And the drizzles, showers, and storms eventually led to five of the fest’s seven stages being temporarily shut down. At about 6 p.m., the rain started falling. It…
Sad ’cause you’re stuck at home while 60,000 half-naked party people stampede toward downtown Miami’s Bayfront Park for the ceremonial bass drop that signals the start of Ultra Music Festival? Shake off those negi vibes. There’s a solution to your problem. Even if you don’t have tix for this weekend’s…
Contrary to what your physician may suggest, after three straight days of partying, you do not need a dark room, a warm bed, some rest, a good cry, and an IV dose of 1000 milliliters of normal saline. All you need is more partying. Lots more partying. And even more…
Are you ready to rave? Maybe not. It’s actually quite likely you just can’t wait for that 200,000-person traffic snarl, noise nuisance, and neon eyesore — otherwise known as Ultra Music Festival — to clear outta downtown Miami. Well, chill, bro. The fest doesn’t even swing open the gates to…
Nothing’s worse than being broke in the Magic City… Especially during the epic uhntz-uhntz madness that is Winter Music Conference, Miami Music Week, and Ultra Music Festival. And if you’ve already blown that stack of emergency party cash on some of the year’s best ragers, you can still rock that sequence…
We are going to pose a question for you: does anything go together better than a hard night out and delicious greasy food? No, it doesn’t. No one knows that better than South Beach hotspot, Cheeseburger Baby. Owner Stephanie Vitori has been serving up noms like bacon cheeseburgers, chili cheese…
George Clinton is one of the God particles of hip-hop. Like James Brown before him, his crucial contributions to the world of funk form the basis of rap as we know it. Not just the samples, the breaks, the ripoffs, and the re-writes, but the classics. From De La Soul’s…
Good morning, party people. You’re probably the super-serious sort of nightlifers. And that means you will have already been celebrating that weeklong holiday known as Winter Music Conference and Miami Music Week for about 46 hours now. There has been no sleep. (Except for five-minute power naps in VIP poolside…
Ever since joining Major Lazer, Walshy Fire has been circling the globe, dropping bass, and inciting international party crowds into wild, explosive, and twerkelated versions of themselves. It’s the logical progression for a Jamaican kid from Carol City who picked up on music early and never let it go. First…
Splish, splash, and uhntz-uhntz. Every year, when Winter Music Conference and Miami Music Week come ’round, picking the right H2O bash to show off that cute “I’m in Miami, Bitch!” bikini and matching shades can be a daunting task. Luckily, we at New Times have taken many trips to the…
Legendary EDM duo Deep Dish quit working together in 2007, much to the disappointment of music fans around the world who’d grown up on their trend-setting studio work and massive skills at murdering a party crowd. Early last year, Sharam and Dubfire, having established themselves as individuals capable of twice…
George Clinton has fought so many lawyers, he can smoke a spliff rolled in a Habeas Corpus and still know every word printed on it. For decades he has fought for legal and monetary justice over song copyrights he says were fraudulently signed out from under him and then exploited…
Do not stop dancing. Maybe you haven’t heard (and maybe you live in a padded, soundproof room with no internet, a busted TV set, and boarded-up windows), but that annual 144-hour dance marathon known as Winter Music Conference and Miami Music Week is about to swarm South Beach, downtown, Wynwood,…
