Written By Duncan Walgreen
It is with great sadness we are reporting that Ultra Music Festival in Miami is officially postponed until 2021, only a week after the cancellation of the debut Ultra Abu Dhabi event. The outbreak of the Corona Virus, COVID-19, has proved detrimental to the launch of the 2020 festival season. Countries like South Korea, Italy, and the virus’s origin country of China have seen full-blown quarantines including the closing down of schools, train stations and other means of travel. While the situation is still developing it seems very apparent that the outbreak of COVID-19 is soon to shape the festival landscape.
While other US-based festivals such as BUKU in New Orleans and movement festival in Detroit have released official announcements that they will not be postponing or cancelling their events, Ultra Music Festival, which sees attendees from over 130 countries, has had a very difficult decision to make by cancelling their flagship event set to start only one week from today. While rumours began circulating only three days ago from a tweet by the festive owl on Twitter, Friday marked the official statement by Ultra Music Festival noting that their event had in fact been cancelled by the City of Miami.
Last year’s venture out to Virginia Key came with its own set of problematic logistical issues; the city of Miami was very reluctant at first to allow Ultra Music Festival to carry-on as it were at Bayfront Park in the center of the City of Miami.
We began to question whether or not the city of Miami might have been looking for any excuse to cancel the event, however, we have also just received news that Calle Ocho festival in Miami, with a very international crowd fueled by the South American and Latin population of the city of Miami has also in fact been cancelled. That leads us to believe that both festival organizers and the city of Miami are in fact taking extreme caution in order to prevent the spread of this virus.
While most may think this was an unnecessary move, some may also have security and the fact that it is better to be “safe than sorry.” Miami Music Week, which is a conference of events, is still set to take place in the city of Miami for the week of March. While it is “extremely frustrating” to see this beloved festival that has taken place for the past 22 years see its first official cancellation, we know that next year I’ll try music festival will come back stronger than ever.
We can only assume the tremendous loss that festival organizers and it’s attendees travelling from all over the globe have faced in light of the situation, we extend our gratitude and our condolences to all of our fellow ravers that were preparing for an excellent weekend of fun and sun in the city of Miami with Ultra Music Festival.
The festival announced its plants for a refund for all ticket holders and those ticket holders should expect to see an email coming this Monday to explain the necessary steps.
In the meantime, we expect Miami music week to carry-on as planned and perhaps even be more, well attended than years past. We also hope and pray for the containment of this virus, and hope that our world governments take the necessary steps to do what is needed to control the situation, so that we may continue to party on and celebrate life.
As Ultra Music Festival is currently underway in Australia, we hope and expect the many other international Ultra Music Festival events to carry on as planned.
For more info on Ultra Music Festival go to: www.ultramusicfestival.com