As Miami’s vote to approve Ultra Music Festival‘s new contract for Virginia Key approaches on November 15, the Miami Herald has come into possession of a draft of the Agreement. Just as we are all anxiously awaiting the vote and the opportunity to learn more, the residents of Key Biscayne are breaking out the pitchforks.
Key Biscayne is another island only accessible via Virginia Key, where Ultra would be staged. Their concerns are noise, traffic, safety, and environmental issues. They are promising to mobilize against the effort and have even hired a PR firm to prepare an opposition strategy. Key Biscayne residents called an emergency meeting Monday night calling Ultra “abhorrent” . They also feel it is important to work on a transportation plan early if the plan is approved.
Looking into the contract itself (full contract below), we wanted to highlight a few key points:
The Term is Wide Open
The Agreement is “indefinite” but can be cancelled by Miami with 1 year’s notice. The Agreement shall be revisited in 2024. Also, the agreement allows Ultra to take place during any of the last 3 weekends of March or the first weekend of April.
Ultra Late
This might be the biggest news of it all, but the Agreement allows Ultra to hold operating hours of Friday 4pm to 2am and Sat/Sun noon to 2am! The sound level is allowed to be 110 decibels measured 60 feet away from each stage.
3 Areas
Ultra does not get to use the Miami Marine Stadium, but the entire area around it. It also gets to use the land adjacent to Arthur J. Lamb road along with parking and event space at Virginia Key Beach. Ultra is allowed 60,000 people per day under the Agreement. At Bayfront Ultra was capped out at 55,000 people per day. The photos below come straight from the contract.
Parking
The Arthur J. Lamb land shall be used for parking, and if it fills up Ultra will have to pay to find additional parking.
Fee
Ultra is paying $1.4mil for the use of the space each year. The fee increases by 3% each year. There is also a ticket surcharge would could increase this amount.
Exclusivity & Rapture
The Agreement makes Ultra the only music festival allowed to use the entire property with over 30,000 people expected per day. There is also a targeted radius clause to prevent even portions of the area being used in the 60 days before or after Ultra.
