Ultra Can Save Spring Break, Miami Beach Official Says

MIAMI BEACH, FL — Looking to avoid a repeat of this year's raucous spring break — and generate an economic upside comparable to a Super Bowl for his tourist-driven resort city — one Miami Beach commissioner believes the answer may lie with Ultra Music Festival and its legions of well-heeled electronic music lovers.

"We are going to make a play for it," Commissioner Ricky Arriola told Patch late Thursday afternoon after introducing an agenda item for next week's commission meeting that would authorize City Manager Jimmy Morales to "begin discussions with Ultra Music Festival" to bring the 2020 event to Lummus Park in South Beach.

The Ultra Music Festival has yet to announce its new home after terminating its agreement with the city of Miami after a two decade run. The event draws an estimated 165-170,000 over a three-day period, typically in March around the same time that spring break hits the shores of Miami Beach.

But the seaside resort isn't alone in wanting to lure Ultra.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez also told Patch Thursday that he would support an effort to get Ultra to reconsider its decision following the festival's rocky move from downtown Miami to the environmentally sensitive Virginia Key Beach Park and Miami Marine Stadium this year that led to the fallout with the city.

Miami city officials have scheduled a special meeting for 2 p.m. on May 21 "regarding Ultra Music Festival and city bond issues."

That may include a discussion on approaching Ultra with a counter proposal.

"I presume that that will be part of the discussion," the mayor said in an interview with Patch. "I know that Commissioner Hardemon had some very, very specific concerns about losing major events in the city and the revenue, and the prestige, and the hit to the image."

Arriola said that he has already had informal discussions with organizers of the music festival and they seemed genuinely interested. Organizers would still need to address noise concerns as well as traffic and security issues.

"Look we’re never going to have 100 percent consensus on this, or anything," acknowledged Arriola. "So the question really is, 'Is this a better alternative for the residents and our guests in Miami Beach than the spring break experiences we’ve had over the past several years?' In my judgement, I think yes.

"The ultra festival brings in a global clientele that will stay in our hotels, spend money locally, support local businesses," he explained. "The international cache of Ultra is far better than the public embarrassment that we suffered over this spring break and last year’s spring break. It puts the city in a better light."

Suarez has said that Miami stands to lose not only the $2 million the festival paid out in its agreement, but also "hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact" every year.

"I've been a very big supporter of Ultra for many, many years," the mayor explained. "Obviously there's a balance between the quality of life of our residents, which is something that I have to protect as mayor, and having major events that are economic drivers that provide jobs for our residents as well, and that enhance our image nationally and internationally."

Ultra's announcement came on the eve of a planned vote by city commissioners that was to decide if they would allow the festival to return to Virginia Key Beach Park and Miami Marine Stadium following a number of complaints from nearby residents who said they could feel the thunderous bass notes in their living rooms and had to deal with congestion overload.

Ultra has been in discussions to possibly move the festival to the Homestead-Miami Speedway, which has seating for 46,600 in its grandstand but also sits on a some 650 acres that includes a combination of open land, recreational vehicle lots and parking areas near Everglades National Park — in other words, far from people who will complain.

A spokesman for the city of Homestead confirmed that his city is expecting a proposal from track officials regarding next year's Utra event.

In a letter addressed to "Ultranauts" that was posted on social media, Ultra officials said they were in the process of "putting the finishing touches on the final details" of a new South Florida location but they still hadn't named any possible sites as of this week.

"After listening to feedback from many of you, including over 20,000 fans who took our post-event survey, it is clear that the festival experience on Virginia Key was simply not good enough," organizers penned on social media. "This is Ultra Music Festival, after all, and our attendees expect us to deliver on our commitment to excellence."

In his memo outlining the rationale for hosting Ultra on Miami Beach, Commissioner Arriola pointed to the success of scheduling the National Salute To America's Heroes on Memorial Day weekend, which has traditionally been viewed as a problematic weekend by elected leaders for its upswing in crime.

One alternative that had been discussed to deal with unruly spring break crowds involved closing down parts of the beach.

"The month of March is one of the nicest months of the year," Arriola said in his memo to commissioners. "In my view, closing down the public beach as it has been proposed for the entire month of March, would not only be unfeasible but also disastrous to our small businesses and hotels.

"Inviting an established, well-organized event like Ultra for spring break 2020 will put heads in beds and serve as the counter programming mechanism against the unorganized chaos that was spring break 2019 on Miami Beach," the commissioner asserted.