LOL. BRB. OMG. WTF. Most people use these 3 letter abbreviations on a daily basis in their texts, Facebook chats, and conversations (yes, I’m guilty of this too, sometimes…). However, for some of us there is an abbreviation used less frequently that describes something entirely different, something on a much larger scale: UMF. So what does UMF stand for? Ultra Music Festival. (AHHHHH! I hear some of you attendees scream. I know, it was pretty crazy.)
More commonly known as just ‘Ultra,’ UMF XIII happened just over 2 weeks ago in Miami. A 3-day long festival, Ultra consumed the lives of thousands of house and techno music lovers from Friday 3/25-Sunday 3/27. Hard to imagine exactly what Ultra was like? Just so you can get a vague idea, let me give you some quick facts: there were 16 differently sized stages, over 300 DJ’s, bands, and producers, and 150,000 hardcore fans and attendees dressed in head-to-toe neon outfits, or dressed in almost, well…nothing.
Despite the largeness and craziness of the festival, there was still a small Brandeis reunion that managed to take place! Together we enjoyed artists such as Tiësto, Carl Cox, Pendulum, and Benny Benassi on Friday; Avicii, Afrojack, and Deadmau5 on Saturday, and Armin Van Buren, the Chemical Brothers, and David Guetta on Sunday. With this range of local to international, and undiscovered to worldwide famous DJs, I’m not surprised that Ultra was recently voted Best Music Event 2011 at the 26th Annual International Dance Music Awards.
Although a truly eye-opening, crazy, and wonderful experience that most people have agreed was the “best mini-vacation ever,” Ultra wasn’t completely luxurious and flaw-free. You have to remember it’s an outdoor music festival with lots of dirty gravel (we all had white dusty shoes by the end of the 3 days), and no inside bathrooms. The “bathrooms,” aka rows upon rows of porta-potties, were hands down the hardest part of Ultra to conquer. Out of the 50,000 people that attended per day, I’m pretty sure 10,000 of them all happened to need the bathroom at the same time. After a constant, crowd-shoving struggle to even reach a porta-potty that had a fairly small line, going to the bathroom was…not fun. However, this comes with any festival, and the rest of Ultra more than made up for these other little inconveniences.
A typical Day in the Ultra Life entailed a quick body search at the festival gates upon entering, and I have to say I was impressed with their security overall. Although the festival was huge and overwhelming at times, I always felt safe, and knowing that there were a couple of First Aid tents was also comforting. There were other useful amenities too. A good-sized area of the park was a strip of food and drink tents. However, the food and drinks were anything but cheap; water was $5 and beer was $7 (for those 21 year olds who sported big green Heineken wristbands). Knowing that perhaps attendees would be low on cash, there’s also a handy on-site ATM, which we actually used as a good meeting spot when our group got separated. As well as this, we realized that we could return to Ultra next year and make money by joining the numerous street vendors selling cheap water (and of course glow-sticks) outside the grounds.
Overall, the 3 days my friends and I spent at Ultra were some of the craziest days of this Spring semester. From spending our mornings by the pool and at the beach, to eating at Panera almost every day and then excitedly changing into our neon crop tops and denim shorts, we were nothing but smiling and dancing the entire time. And if after learning more about Ultra, you’re interested in going to Ultra 2012 (woo!!!) then you can visit their website…. I’ll see you there!
Photos courtesy of AJR Photography