Ultra May Return To Bayfront Park

MIAMI, FL — The Magic City's love-hate relationship with the Ultra Music Festival appears to have struck a high note. The Miami City Commission will consider a measure at its June 27 meeting that would authorize City Manager Emilio Gonzalez to present Ultra with a "revocable license agreement" to once again hold the 2020 event in Bayfront Park.

While city officials love the money, glamour and prestige of the annual event, many residents hate the noise, traffic and certain proclivities of the young, well-heeled audience of about 165-170,000 people who attend every March.

A draft contract reviewed by Patch appears to address some of those concerns while offering Ultra organizers compromises to reconsider last month's decision that unplugged one of the world's largest electronic music festivals from Miami.

"Sponsoring Commissioner Keon Hardemon and others pushing the move back downtown are going to have their work cut out for them with downtown residents," cautioned Miami attorney David Winker, who filed a lawsuit against the city on behalf of the Brickell Homeowners Association to block the move from downtown Miami to Virginia Key.

"We told the city it would be a disaster on Virginia Key and it was a disaster for everyone," he said.

Winker told Patch that the fundamental concerns of downtown residents with respect to noise and congestion are not going to go away.

"The city has shown year after year that it is unable to address resident concerns about Ultra," he told Patch. "The bottom line is we're going to monitor what happens here."

Under the terms of the draft contract that will be considered by Miami commissioners, Ultra would pay the city a minimum of $2 million every year, and possibly more based on ticket sales. That amount would increase by 3 percent after the third year of the agreement and every year after that. The payment does not include other charges such as clean-up services, police, fire-rescue and sanitation.

Ultra would be permitted to close the park to the public for up to two weeks. It could have its equipment in the park for up to 30 days.

But the hours of operation would be shortened from the most recent 2019 event. Entertainment could run from 4 p.m. to midnight on Fridays; noon to midnight on Saturdays and 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Sundays.

Moreover, the festival would only be permitted to sell a maximum of two alcoholic drinks per person during any single transaction. The sale of alcoholic beverages would have to stop at least one hour prior to closing.

The agreement would also restrict the times that lighting and sound checks could take place ahead of the event. Such checks could only be performed starting on the Tuesday prior to the event. Sound levels would be limited to no more than 110 decibels as measured 60 feet away from each stage at any given time.

Ultra would have the ability to expand the number of attendees with approval by the city. The draft allows either Ultra or city officials to terminate the agreement without justification with at least 305 days notice.

"Should the city elect to terminate without cause, such termination shall require unanimous approval of the commission (i.e., five of the five commissioners must vote in favor of termination)," according to the draft agreement. "If the commission approves
termination with anything less than unanimous approval, such termination shall not be
effective."

Ultra did not respond to Patch's request for comment on the proposed agreement. It was not immediately clear whether Ultra is considering the city's proposal.

"This might just be a pipe dream by the city," added attorney Winker.

Bayfront Park is the same spot where the popular festival was held for years before it was shipped off last year to the environmentally sensitive Virginia Key Beach Park and Miami Marine Stadium amid a cacophony of resident complaints.

That decision didn't come as music to the ears of nearby Key Biscayne residents, who felt like prisoners in their homes with only a single road in and out of the barrier island.

The move also didn't sit well with the thousands of Ultra goers who faced transportation problems caused by a lack of buses on the first night of the festival. The problem was corrected for the other two nights, but not without damage to Ultra's reputation.

Organizers announced last month they would be pulling up stakes in Miami after more than 20 years and moving elsewhere in South Florida though they have been mum about other locations under consideration. The event has been held in Miami for 19 years.

"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 in announcing the decision. "This is Ultra Music Festival, after all, and our attendees expect us to deliver on our commitment to excellence."

Event organizers have thus far told fans only that they are "finalizing a new South Florida location that will serve as an incredible and permanent home for Ultra Music Festival," but have not given many clues beyond that.

City officials estimate that Ultra has contributed some $995 million in economic impact since 2012 and created 1,834 jobs in 2018 alone. The most recent festival drew attendees from 105 countries and was livestreamed to more than 30 million people around the world.

Attendees stay at local hotels, eat at local restaurants and spend money at local businesses in what the Miami city manager likened to the economic equivalent of a Super Bowl that comes around every year.

One other possible venue that's been discussed is 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. The site is accustomed to large crowds.

Homestead commissioners voted recently in favor of extending the hours of Homestead Speedway to 2 a.m. in anticipation of hosting Ultra, but that was only a first step in the approval process, according to Councilwoman Patricia Fairclough.