Following residential complaints aiming at cancelling the dance music gathering, the festival wins majority votes and will continue at Bayfront Park!
After relentless efforts by the city’s mayor and other political figures to ban Ultra Music Festival, the Miami City Commission has voted 4-1 to allow Ultra to maintain its current location at Bayfront Park.
The vote to allow Ultra to continue to rave on in Miami’s downtown area came in spite of City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff’s impassioned plea to send the fest packing: “We had one person who died of an overdose at Jackson, two who are in critical condition,” he said (via CBS Miami), going on to show a video of a fight that happened near one of the stages this year, which went on for a good six minutes before police finally arrived to intervene.
At this year’s Ultra Music Festival in Miami, 28-year-old Erica Mack was trampled by gate crashers while working as a security guard. It was also reported that 21-year-old Adonis Pena Escoto died following the festival.
Next year, the festival will be required to have an increased police presence, two additional layers of G8 fencing to deter gate crashers, plus mental health and drug stations operated by health professionals.
Ultra released an official statement via their Facebook :