I got a lot to write on this one, so I’ll try to stay on track

Being that this was my first Ultra Music Festival, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Personally, this past year has been a mega flurry of activity in the realm of concerts, festivals, and shows. From week night shows to Insomniac massives, Coachella to a week in dusty Black Rock City, the next logical step was to fly across the country and attend one of North America’s absolute largest Electronic Music Festivals, right?

Duh.

Enter, Ultra Music Festival, one of the biggest, most talent-studded annual festivals of any around. Set against the tropical background of the beautiful city and bay of Miami, Ultra seemed to me like a little bit of Ibiza and a little bit of EDC rolled into a non-stop, three-day festival (2011 being their first year with a three-day set-up).

Traditionally piggybacking as the ad-hoc closing party for the industry event Winter Music Conference, this year saw the tri-day festival and week-long conference happening on different weeks. Regardless of schedule differences, Miami was absolutely flooded with EDM fans and top talent DJs alike to spin at the festival, club after-parties, pool parties, and other mega-events such as Swedish House Mafia’s Masquerade Motel.

Miami was the perfect host city. As I got off my red eye flight and wiped my droopy eyes the first morning, I was met with shuttle-loads of young LA faces that had sought to participate in this sand-caked pilgrimage. Leaving the dreary winter chills that we had in LA prior to March 25th, I strode through the doors at Ft Lauderdale International airport with perfect humidity touching my skin. Our hotel was situated in beautiful and culture-rich South Beach where the water was blue, EVERYONE was tan, DELICIOUS Cuban dives were a minute walk apart, and well, there was no lack of eye candy.

Honestly, I could just write for DAYS AND DAYS breaking down my trip by hour, artist, experience, breath, but I’ll just give a laundry list of things that come to mind as I recall the memorable weekend:

-Watching the water, t-shirt, and odd-item peddlers (selling Emergen-C for a buck a pack outside of the festival), from the young to the old, it reminded me of a S. East Asian day market right outside the festival gates.

-The weather was perfect from sun up well through sun down. You could have slept outside, woken up comfortable to the sunrise, and went through the day in a perfectly breezy 80 degree-degree of comfort.

-Whole farms of swine were DESTROYED with the amount of Cubano sandwiches consumed.  If you’re ever in South Beach, Playa Cafe is a must. Hands down.

-Security was pretty quick and efficient with their scans, and the GIGANTIC UMF pass worn on neck via lanyard turned out to be quick to scan with no need for further verification.

-Having an damn good time at Thursday night’s Above & Beyond’s Anjunabeats party with special guests Gabriel & Dresden!

-Dropping by where Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden were staying to say hello and get some updates since their reunion (check out that interview here).

-Walking back from Day 1 of UMF 5 miles from Bicentennial Park to South Beach because cabs, buses, and shuttles just weren’t going to happen (OUCH).

-Amazing stage set ups, especially the Carl Cox/A State of Trance 500 tent, the Root Society Dome, of course, the main stage, and the Tower of Ultra (a grid made up of projection screens with the DJs INSIDE).

-Turkey legs the size of my femur for the true festival fatties.

-A coincidental meeting and weekend spent with accidental roommates, Anjunabeats DJs Jaytech and Jeera.  Long story short, the fellas were stranded without room and board due to some shady hotel maneuvers. With such a high-demand weekend, everything minus Overtown (mentioned below) was completely booked up. Luckily, the amazingly professional grade amateur trade party planner Willowtree got a call from the guys asking for a couple nights of couch surfing. The result, being able to hang out with some awesomely down to earth guys that also happen to be on Above and Beyond’s Anjunabeats label. It was definitely something else to sit there in bed nursing my hangover while watching the two bounce ideas and suggestions off each other for some new tracks.  These sort of things only seem to happen while hanging out with Willowtree.

-A heart-stopping evening walking through Miami’s Overtown to get from a friend’s hotel to the Anjunabeats party. Figuring the one mile walk wouldn’t be too bad, our group of 7 (including four aesthetically pleasing girls in slightly scant nightwear) strolled underneath a couple of freeway underpasses, then through a neighborhood that reminded me of an old school Juvenile music video. We later found out through a shuttle driver that we were pretty lucky to get through without incident and that if we ever wanted to pick up some crack in Miami, that’s the place to be. (LOL).  These sort of things only seem to happen when I’m not hanging out with Willowtree.

-My unattended (for a moment) beachmat becoming the venue for unspeakable acts committed by a lovely 50 year old couple. Thankfully I wasn’t there to witness it but the horror on my friends’ faces told the tale.

-And the fantastic artists I was able to catch!

Friday:

• Fun and upbeat set by Designer Drugs with some Hard Trance!
• A ridiculously hard hitting set by Fedde Le Grand and some dubstep linking at Benny Benassi.
• Sidney Samson, I’m even more a fan now. I barely survived the crowd at his stage.
• Jefr Tale doing his thing at home in the Root Society dome. A slice of the playa! Thank you to Jefr Tale for being a great host and welcoming us to Root Society with open arms!



• Royksopp has forever made me a fan with their live set! When “Only This Moment” dropped, I was damn near shook to tears.
• Just couldn’t stay away from Pendulum at the main stage as they rocked the crowd with their latest tunes. Mosh pits galore.
• Tiesto, always good, always GREAT with plenty of Kaleidoscope fun.

Saturday:

• Bummed to have missed Donald Glaude who performed at noon. So early.
• Got in right when Kaskade took the main stage and got the party going. Signature white balloon drop ensues and thousands of fans screamed.



• Spent the entirety of Skream! & Benga’s set wondering when my ears would ever stop ringing. My legs gave out from the bass.
• Rusko required me to take a fresh air break and watch from the gravel. That very gravel within the crowd would have been my grave as I would have inevitably been trampled with a gigantic smile on my face.



• Cut Copy at the Live Stage provided some much needed chill out time with Empire of The Sun continuing strong with their quirky weirdness.
• Seen Deadmau5 a few times in 2010 and this was easily my 2nd favorite time seeing him (Coachella was of course first).

Sunday:

• Catching a small glimpse of Little Jinder as she sang her chorus lines from 12th Planet’s remix of “Youth Blood.” Swoon.
• Listening to the end of Ferry Corsten’s set. I wish we had gotten there for the whole thing, it definitely had the sounds of an old school trance-driven warehouse dance off.
• Armin Van Buuren’s powerhouse A State of Trance 500 set that lasted two hours. Two. Mindblowing. Hours.
• ATB tearing it down, up, and sideways as he played and closed with “What About Us.” Signature fog jets: YES PLEASE.
• Caught a bit of Chemical Brothers. “Swoon’s” jumbo-tron visuals were simple, amazing, and simply amazing.
• Unfortunately, just couldn’t get into the Heineken Dome to see EDX, but instead caught Sub Focus and Afrobeta. Hands down my favorite set of the weekend.

For those I lost at paragraph one, I guess I’m just stroking my memory bank at this point. For those who are still with me, UMF Miami is crazy. Just. Crazy.

Waaaay more pics from the weekend below!