Ultra music festival is a trip. An all-day event with 14 stages and more than 40 different artists in techno, trance and house, Ultra music festival is a haven for lovers of beat music.
Starting at noon and continuing through the night, the festival took place at Bicentennial Park in downtown Miami. Though the main headliners, The Prodigy and The Killers, didn’t quite conform to the rest of the DJ lineup, the festival as a whole brought together some of the best DJs in the world.
From Hernan Cattaneo to Infected Mushroom and Junkie XL the lineup kept the hands in the air and the crowd moving, even as early as one in the afternoon. Though the acts on the main stages were clearly the most popular, as evidenced by the massive body of people that extended beyond the allocated grass area, it was the acts on the smaller stages that deserve prase for their talent.
“The lineup really gives some off the lesser- known DJs the opportunity to showcase their talents,” said techno fan Ellie Clements. Although a huge fan of The Prodigy, like other concert attendants most spent their time on the grass listening to the sounds and mixes of the lesser knowns. As for the other stages, divided by music genre, each tent is almost of a venue of its own.
On the Break Beat stage Jen Lasher mixed it up with some Fall Out Boy while DJ Exzact from West Palm Beach used a virtual voice box and his Sony Vaio to mix his music live. Simultaneously, long-haired Bass Nectar and his bandit of dragon- tailed women clad in fishnets entertained dozens of frenzied electric colored fans.
As expected, Ultra is a trip through different relams of techno and house music. Coupled with thousands of avid fans, glow sticks and plastic beads, Ultra music festival was nothing short of a chaotic mess of moving bodies and distinct beats.
Joanna Davila can be contacted at j.davila1@umiami.edu.