Ultra Music Festival 2009 Preview

Miami

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2009, black eyed peas, bloc party, cooljunkie, cut copy, marcos colón, miami, the prodigy, ultra, ultra music festival, winter music conference

home > music > Ultra Music Festival 2009 Preview

March 23, 2009 6:02 PM
by Marcos Colón

Earlier this month Miami became the victim of the first music festival tragedy of the year due to the recession, the fall of the Langerado Music Festival. After this debacle, there was a lot of talk that Ultra could be next, but with the support that they get from the Winter Music Conference visitors, and a tweak in their lineup this year, that certainly isn’t the case.

Instead of opting for the usual lineup, although some of the headliners are pretty familiar with the Ultra Music Festival, this year it’s been tweaked a little and includes some names that aren’t as related to electronic dance music. Names like Bloc Party, The Black Eyed Peas and The Ting Tings will be gracing the main stage and performing to a crowd that’s primarily there for two things…well three…electronic dance music, controlled substances, and just something to do in Miami.

Day one delivers some big names on the six stages of the festival, one of them not being an electro tent (What’d we say about that in our earlier articles? Tail end!). Instead, names like LA Riots and MSTRKRFT were slapped into other tents with names like M.A.N.D.Y. and Simian Mobile Disco. Anyway, everyone should definitely stop by the Carl Cox and Friends tent on this day. You get Richie Hawtin, Loco Dice, Luciano, Tini, Kryoman and the man himself, Carl Cox. This tent’s always jumping off, but be there for the transition from Hawtin to Cox, it’ll be at its boiling point.

Headliners on day one include Bloc Party, which will be interesting to see considering the crowd, Black Eyed Peas, same goes for them, and Tïesto, who’ll have everyone in a…trance? Yea, that’s cheesy, but so are some of his tracks.

At first glance it seems like day two is more electronic music driven than day one. The special treat on this day is the return of The Prodigy. They’ve just released a new album that hasn’t gotten that great of a response in the U.S., but its currently number one in Europe. Still though, these guys should get the respect that they deserve and will as the main stage gets cluttered up at the end of the day.

Others to look out for on day two include Hercules and The Love Affair, Deadmau5, Cut Copy, Booka Shade and M.A.N.D.Y. If you know any of these names, then you shouldn’t have a problem dancing. Obviously day two includes many more acts, but many won’t be getting too much attention since they play early and the crowd at Ultra is usually pretty hungover after a night of WMC.

If you ask us, the lineup at this year’s Ultra Music Festival is better when compared to last year’s event. The addition of some dance-rock bands makes it interesting this year, but it’ll be even more interesting to see who they put on the bill for next year.