Arguably one of the biggest stories of the past month, if not this year, is that the Miami City Council has officially voted to not renew Ultra Music Festival’s contract in Bayfront Park. The desire to kick Ultra out of Bayfront is nothing new, but this marks the first time that the Council has successfully garnered the necessary support to make it a very real possibility.
The support came largely from local residents who flocked to the city council meetings in droves, complaining of noise and the inability to sleep. Note: Ultra cuts sound off at midnight on Friday and Saturday, and at 11pm on Sunday. Now, in a thread on reddit, one user who claims to be a resident of the building “right across the street” claims that building managers were bribing renters with gifts to attend meetings and also providing shuttles to the meetings.
The effort seems to stem from building developers. It’s hard to believe that property value can be so severely affected by events that go on at the park, but I can’t think of another reason why they would be so staunchly involved.
While Ultra plans to appeal the decision and bring an updated contract to the council at a future meeting, the council has made further plans to earmark 85% of the year at Bayfront Park for public events. This means only 55 days out of the year would be given to private companies for set up, event, and tear down. While that much time is plenty for Ultra on its own, it leaves very little for other events who would undoubtedly enter into some kind of territory war if the preliminary decision becomes permanent.
Photo via EDMkevin for Ultra
