Ultra Music Festival: Our Modern Day Woodstock

A little over thirty years after Woodstock (1969), Ultra Music Festival was born. It has taken 13 years to get to where it is at today.  What started as a small outdoor rave music festival at the beach for the local youth in Miami has evolved into what one might consider a modern day Woodstock.

Although not as grand in comparison to Woodstocks 500,000 attendees, Ultra has become an annual music extravaganza with it's own bragging rights. Woodstock, the greatest musical festival that changed the History of Music has created somewhat of a do's and don'ts blueprint for Ultra which now attracts people from all over the world and keeps growing not just in fans each and every year but expanding in location and size to accommodate performers, sound, lighting engineers, multiple stages, DJ's and room for everything that happens behind the scenes.

The music festival started as a one day event, crept to two days and has now progressed into three days of crazed out fans raving and grooving to their favorite bands and DJ's of electronic music. Multiple stages feature different artists such as Tiesto, Duran Duran, deadmau5, The Chemical Brothers, Carl Cox, UnderWorld, Empire of the Sun, Armin Van Buuren, and David Guetta to name a few. For a complete list of artists, DJs and stage performances you may go to the Ultra website.

For those of you unfamiliar with a rave, it is a term used to describe this unique thumping high energy music and or the platform to enjoy the genre. A rave club or rave party is the actual event where trance, techno and electronic music are played. Bumpin beats, light shows, and glow lights are all part of the rave culture.

This year the dates for the festival fell on March 25, 26, and 27th of 2011. Held in Bicentennial Park, a 30 acre park in downtown Miami, tickets sold out six weeks prior to the event. Tickets did not even reach the ticket booths as they sold the 50,000 Ultrafest tickets available for sale online for the three day festival. VIP seating is available for those wishing to shell out the cash. Six grand gets you VIP seating for six and includes two bottles of your favorite poison, comfy seats, great service and air conditioned restrooms.

The dates are already set for next years Ultra Festival so keep an eye out and purchase early otherwise risk getting shut out.

Although the festival brings traffic, chaos and unsolicited noise to neighboring residents, plenty of money also flows into the city of Miami. Strict ordinances are in place and followed making it a well organized and tolerable event for locals. Security and police are present and more than adequate. Given the number of people attending most concert goers are there to share a beer, a smoke and great music with friends. There will always be the select few in the crowd that will be drunk, obnoxious and looking for trouble but nothing that 200 police officers and 300 security personnel can't handle. Law enforcement presence is visible on foot, bicycles, at front entrance and park perimeter. Ticket scalpers, drug dealing, and belligerence are not tolerated.

In addition, fire rescue personnel and ambulances are on sight ready to treat mostly dehydrated individuals and a few party goers gone real wild. Ravers are known to be entranced by the lights and thumping sounds after using the illegal drug ecstasy, which is known to heighten and stimulates the senses. With or without the illicit drug, the festival is a sight to behold. Fans show up in record numbers to meet up friends, dance and share a great time under the hot sun and later on underneath bright Miami stars.