Avicii. Benny Benassi. Carl Cox. deadmau5. Swedish House Mafia.
These are just a few of the many big name DJs scheduled to convene at Bayfront Park in downtown Miami for the first weekend of Ultra Music Festival, March 15 -17. The festival, known simply as Ultra, is one of the biggest and most successful electronic dance music festivals in the world, usually taking place over one weekend. As promised by Ultra’s producers, this year’s 15th anniversary celebration will be bigger than ever; for the first time in history, it will take place over two weekends.
However, Weekend 2, as its producers call it, almost did not happen. The City of Miami Commission threatened to cancel it because it would be “disruptive to the local business community.” After negotiations between the two sides, it was decided that Bayfront Park would be allowed to host both weekends of the festival.
One of the reasons that Ultra is still able to have a two-weekend extravaganza is because its past one-weekend festivals have high economic benefits for the Miami area.
The 2012 festival was held over three days, with 165,000 people in attendance — 60 percent of whom were not from Miami-Dade County. Ultra producers reported that people from all 50 states and 75 different countries purchased tickets for it.
The Washington Economics Group, Inc. (WEG) conducted a study to uncover exactly how much of an impact Ultra has on the economy. The study concluded that the 2011 festival generated a total of $79 million for Miami-Dade County.
Where does all the money come from? Since the majority of festival-goers are from outside of Miami-Dade County, most of them are spending their money on lodging, meals, transportation and shopping. WEG also calculated that, in 2011, the average out-of-town visitor spent $78, $53.2, $16.6, and $84.9 per day on lodging, meals, transportation and shopping respectively. Due to extremely limited availability, many Miami area hotels charge above their usual rates — especially in the weeks leading up to Ultra. As of Mar. 5, the cheapest hotel found on orbitz.com for the downtown Miami area was priced at $449 per night. The same search showed hotels as cheap as $59 per night a month after the event.
Not only does the festival affect the amount of money that is brought into the county economy, but it also increases the amount of jobs within Miami-Dade County. WEG reported that the 2011 festival generated a total of 915 jobs, the majority of which were in industries that had been targeted by the county as areas that needed to increase for further economic development.
This year’s two weekend festival should create as much, or even more, jobs. The City of Miami has agreed to add 100 police officers in order to control the expected crowd of over 300,000 spectators between the two weekends. This announcement came after Ultra Music
Festival executives offered to pay $500,000 to the city to help cover the cost of the extra police and fire rescue needed.
As of Mar. 5, Weekend 2 of the festival is sold out, while 82 percent of Weekend 1 tickets have been sold. So far, it looks like the City of Miami has made a smart decision in allowing Ultra Music Festival to expand to two weekends.
