After a long and often bitter feud, the organizers of Ultra Music Festival and residents of Downtown Miami have reached an agreement to allay tensions related to local disturbances.
Ultra and the Downtown Neighbors Alliance—a neighborhood organization representing a dozen residential communities—have announced that the festival will implement a "community standards program" that addresses a litany of issues such as construction schedules, park closures, traffic management, and noise impact.
A press release shared with EDM.com quotes James Torres, President of the Miami Downtown Neighbors Alliance, who believes the agreement "will allow Ultra and its neighbors to coexist."
Miami residents have long bemoaned Ultra, which has been held in the city since 1999, for its booming bass and local infrastructure disruption. Citing noise complaints, Miami officials eventually ousted the event from its Bayfront Park home in 2018, forcing organizers to relocate to Miami’s Virginia Key island. The move led to a festival that Ultra reps deemed "not good enough" in a statement, which also announced the news of the company's voluntary termination of its City of Miami license.
In 2020 over a dozen residents from the Downtown Neighbors Alliance filed a lawsuit against Ultra in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, seeking to block the City Commission’s vote to host the fest at Bayfront Park. However, the longstanding feud seems to have been resolved.
Kaskade performs during the 2018 edition of Miami's Ultra Music Festival.
"This development finally opens the door to establishing an ongoing working relationship between the parties, which was long overdue," said Ultra spokesperson Ray Martinez in a statement. "Ultra’s leadership was privileged to work closely with local residents in striking the balance between accommodating local residential lifestyles and hosting large-scale and state-of-the art music productions in Miami’s urban core."
Martinez also stated that the agreement will further showcase Miami and its culture as "the dance music capital of the world."
The next edition of Ultra Music Festival is scheduled for March 25th to 27th, 2022 at Bayfront Park.
