Downtown Miami

Ultra Music Festival has been canceled again due to COVID. Organizers hoping for 2022

Final day of Ultra Music Festival, Virginia Key, Miami on Sunday, March 31., 2019.
Final day of Ultra Music Festival, Virginia Key, Miami on Sunday, March 31., 2019. for The Miami Herald

Can electronic music fans go another year without an Ultra Music Festival fix?

Apparently, they are going to have to.

For the second year in a row, citing COVID-19 concerns, organizers for the popular DJ techno fest have pulled the plug on the Bayfront Park event that would have happened in March in downtown Miami.

Billboard first reported the pending Ultra Fest cancellation, Friday night.

In a letter obtained by the Miami Herald, Ultra’s general counsel attorney Sandy York tells Miami city manager Arthur Noriega that the novel coranavirus conditions — a “natural calamity” — that led city officials to cancel the festival in 2020, “remain in place.” The letter, dated Jan. 21, asks that the city reschedule Ultra for a single weekend on March 25, 26 and 27, 2022.

Ultra Music Festival’s general counsel Sandy York’s Jan. 21, 2021 letter to Miami city manager Arthur Noriega asking that the city reschedule Ultra to March 25, 26 and 27, 2022.
Ultra Music Festival’s general counsel Sandy York’s Jan. 21, 2021 letter to Miami city manager Arthur Noriega asking that the city reschedule Ultra to March 25, 26 and 27, 2022.

Noriega told the Herald in a text that the city has not yet responded.

Last year, Ultra faced a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of ticket holders who paid hundreds of dollars to attend the event but did not receive refunds after the COVID-19 pandemic killed Ultra. In 2019, Ultra was staged one time at Virginia Key.

South Florida, and the rest of the world, canceled countless performances due to the public health threat. Ultra was among the first events to go locally in 2020.

And, it appears, again in 2021.

This story was originally published January 23, 2021 at 10:30 AM.

Howard Cohen
Miami Herald
Miami Herald consumer trends reporter Howard Cohen, a 2017 Media Excellence Awards winner, has covered pop music, theater, health and fitness, obituaries, municipal government, breaking news and general assignment. He started his career in the Features department at the Miami Herald in 1991. Cohen is an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Communication. Support my work with a digital subscription
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