Ultra Won't Thump In Miami Beach, But Maybe Homestead, Miami?

MIAMI, FL — Ultra Music Festival may be mum on its future home, but it's website listed a March 2020 event in Miami as of Thursday night. That's about the only thing that is clear at the moment other than the fact that the driving beat won't be thumping in the sands of Miami Beach.

Miami Beach commissioners voted 5 to 2 Wednesday against a proposal to authorize City Manager Jimmy Morales to "begin discussions with Ultra Music Festival" to bring the 2020 event to Lummus Park in South Beach.

Commissioner Ricky Arriola, who proposed opening negotiations with Ultra, told patch Thursday that he and his colleagues were in agreement that the current spring break situation is "intolerable" but officials could not agree to move forward with Ultra.

"We all agreed that programming and events are a good strategic path forward to counteract the negative consequences of spring break," Arriola explained. "We just couldn't reach consensus on Ultra being the solution."

Meanwhile, across the causeway, Miami commissioners appeared to reach an informal consensus at a special meeting this week that they would reopen a dialogue with Ultra with an eye toward finding a location for the 2020 event, possibly Bayfront Park, where Ultra was located for a number of years prior to moving to Virginia Key Beach Park and Miami Marine Stadium amid a cacophony of resident complaints.

City Manager Emilio Gonzalez was instructed to reach out to festival organizers though it was not clear if Ultra would be receptive.

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.

"We have been approached by many interested parties over the years with offers to host the festival at some very unique and impressive locales," according to Ultra's public statement. "One of these, however, has shined far above the others and we look forward to making our home there for many years to come."

With an estimated 165-170,000 people over a three-day period, that home, wherever it may land, will generate millions of dollars for the local economy. Attendees will 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 possible venue has been 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.

Race Weekend, an annual three-day event at the Speedway, draws an estimated 100,000 people over the course of three days. This year's Race Weekend will be held on Nov. 15-17 but the one after that will be held in March 20-22 in 2020, the same month as Ultra though the dates haven't been announced yet.

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

"I can’t speak for the commission, but it appears as if there is an interest in engaging in dialogue to see how we can make it work," said Fairclough in an interview with Patch on Thursday.

The councilwoman said that she has yet to see any plans with respect to important aspects of the festival like speaker placement.

"The devil is in the details," she said, noting that she lives about a mile from the racetrack and can already hear the roar of engines from her bedroom. "We're grateful for them coming to us, but this has to be well thought out, and well planned because it can be a disaster. We don’t want it to be.

"So, If we can make it work for all parties, I am in favor of that," Fairclough explained. "If it doesn’t work. If the details aren’t there, and there aren’t strategic plans in place with the placing of the speakers, and the sound, and all of that, then I can’t support it, but I haven’t closed the door."

Attorney David Winker, who filed a lawsuit against the city of Miami on behalf of the Brickell Homeowners Association to block the move from downtown Miami to this year's location on Virginia Key, insists that it was a "terrible idea in concept and execution" to move the festival to such an environmentally sensitive area.

But Winker does not necessarily object to moving the festival back to the Miami's downtown area under the right circumstances.

"My litigation against Ultra on Virginia Key has made me a fan of Ultra and I hope that a solution to keep this important festival in Miami can be found" he told Patch on Thursday.

"I know our neighbors downtown are on edge about Ultra potentially moving back downtown," he acknowledged. "Commissioner [Ken] Russell said at the meeting that such a move would cause a 'civil war' with downtown residents, but the city commission appears eager to keep Ultra in the city, and I believe all options are on the table as far as the city is concerned. I think any such move downtown would require radical compromise to make it work."