The 3-day festival overcame weather obstacles for a triumphant installment at Bayfront Park ahead of 25th anniversary in ’25.
Despite a weekend filled with torrential rain, flooding, thunderstorms, lightning, and tornado watches, Ultra Music Festival 2024 was certainly a memorable edition. From Friday, March 22 through Sunday, March 24, the annual 3-day fest took over Bayfront Park in Downtown, Miami.
Festival organizers faced several challenges this year due to severe weather obstacles, yet they managed to handle each and overcome every hurdle as best as they could – and it showed. Keeping attendees informed through social media for an open line of communication was refreshing, and even though attendees were forced to evacuate the grounds just after 9pm EST (three hours before the scheduled closing time), Ultra did its very best to make up for the lost time.
On Saturday, the storms began to subside in the late afternoon – and due to an overly saturated festival grounds around the main stage – therefore the doors did not open at noon as originally planned, however, they were given clearance to open at 4pm EST. Although some artists scheduled for Friday were unable to stay in town on Saturday or Sunday, Ultra did their best to accommodate those whose sets were canceled due to timing and reschedule them for day two or three. Ultra also extended its hours on Saturday, adding an extra hour, which allowed sets from Hardwell, and more.
For those unable to be there to experience the fest in person, UMF TV broadcasted a 4-channel live stream, #ULTRALIVE, which reached more than 34 million viewers around the world. Some of the festival highlights included: Armin van Buuren’s Main Stage set, where he brought out Bon Jovi, as well as ARTBAT and Gryffin; Hardwell’s rescheduled jaw-dropping Main Stage set; ILLENIUM joining Excision as he made his Main Stage debut; Peggy Gou making her Ultra debut on the RESISTANCE Megastructure, Madeon b2b San Holo at the Ultra Live stage; Alison Wonderland joining Dimension at the Worldwide stage; Kill the Noise and Bro Safari debuting their Kill Safari project; RL Grime & Knock2 brought out ISOxo to premiere their new ISOKNOCK x RL Grime collab; and Calvin Harris returned to the festival for the first time in 10 years, but fans took to social media to express disinterest due to the fact that he chose not to air his closing set on the #ULTRALIVE stream.
Additional weekend highlights included Elderbrook at the Ultra Live stage, ARTBAT, CamelPhat, Amelie Lens, Eric Prydz, David Guetta, Martin Garrix, Afrojack, Steve Aoki, Adam Beyer, and the larger-than-life Ultra drone show, which took place above the festival and Biscayne Bay.
Ultra’s award-winning sustainability program Mission: Home boasted 50 initiatives that focus on pollution prevention, nature preservation, waste reduction, climate action, and community engagement. As part of the “Leave No Trace” and recycling initiatives, Ultra once again partnered with Clean Vibes to keep grounds clean and sort waste behind the scenes. Ultra also partnered with Replenysh, a circularity platform with full traceability, to assure all collected bottles and cans were truly recycled back into the regional domestic supply chain.
Ultra Music Festival 2025 will take place on March 28, 29 & 30 at Bayfront Park and will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the world’s leading music festival. Tickets are available now, HERE.