Music

There comes a time in every deep thinker’s life when they realizes there’s no such thing as control over their fate, and the best thing they can do is simply let go and enjoy the ride.

That moment came for all 55,000 Ultra-goers at once on Friday evening when the Miami sky opened its dark maw and poured two-to-four inches of rain upon Bayfront Park. Since the 32-acre space is just a few feet above sea level, the grounds soon became a soupy mix of mud and muck, and yet there was more than a bit of merriment in the air. Like the great philosopher Natasha Bedingfield once said, you’ve got to “feel the rain on your skin.” Once we all accepted that our shirts were soaked and our feet were soggy, we were free to dance with complete abandon. We reveled in the absurdity of it all, cheering when the rain cleared and shrugging it off when it returned.

Was it inconvenient? Yes — but did it add to the incredible drama of Belgian producer Apashe’s live stage performance, with a full brass ensemble and insanely detailed visuals? Absolutely, no question. Having a raincoat and boots was a huge help, but to all the ravers who truly embraced the cold reality of the South Florida storm with a smile on their face and a song in their heart, we salute you.

Ultra Miami has seen more than a few challenges in its 24 years (the infamous 2019 Virginia Key walk-a-thon certainly comes to mind), and it’s faced its fair share of inclement weather. We’ve even seen performances paused due to rain. But the fest had never been forced to entirely evacuate until this past Friday.

Non-believers said there was no way the festival would be ready to rage on come Saturday — but even before the rain stopped, the Ultra crew was out there, prepping the grounds for yet another day of joyful 1-2-3-jumps. Massive machines were driven onto the park to soak up as much water as possible, and mulch was placed to stop mud in its tracks.

It worked exceedingly well, and while a small portion of “Lake Ultra” remained at the main stage (and some sticky mud yet lingered in the back of the Resistance Megastructure), walking the length of the festival remained surprisingly comfortable, even if all you had was a pair of Crocs. Nothing about that kind of turn-around is easy, and we’ve got to give it up to the people who put in the hours to make that happen.

If the best part of a concert is dancing to your favorite songs with your friends, Steve Aoki certainly wasn’t going to miss out simply because he was the guy on stage. Even if the sky hadn’t cleared, the Dim Mak king’s Saturday performance would have brought the sunshine with its feel-good vibes.

In what must be a new record for most special-guest appearances in an hour-long DJ set, Aoki kept crowds screaming with an impressive lineup of live performers. It started with West Coast rapper Kalan.FrFr and amped up the funk with Kiesza, who sang her hit “Hideaway.” Swedish singer Kiddo came to sing her Aoki collab “Drive,” then the crowd was treated to a rendition of millennial pop-punk favorite “Ocean Avenue,” with Yellowcard lead singer Ryan Key.

Things got absolutely legendary with a cameo from hit-maker Timbaland, who MCed while Aoki dropped his anthems “The Way I Are” and “Cry Me a River.” Then came an appearance from fellow producer Bassjackers. Aoki’s set was high-octane from the first moment to the last, and since he’d gone ahead and taken the cake for exciting surprises that Saturday, he finished things off by (of course) throwing some cakes, too.

Aoki may have brought the most, but plenty of DJs came bearing the gift of special guests. It’s become a tradition at Ultra, and this year saw appearances from folks who would be headliners in their own right. Alison Wonderland and NGHTMRE both stopped by Dimension’s set at the Worldwide Stage, while recent Billboard cover star Illenium crashed Seven Lions on the Worldwide stage and Excision’s head-turning Main Stage slot. Justin Bieber’s frequent collaborator Poo Bear came through Slander’s Main Stage performance to sing their new Nikademis team-up “If Tomorrow Never Happens,” and Hardwell brought fellow Friday-night cancellation victim Armin Van Buuren to perform their single “Follow the Light.”

Of course, van Buuren got his chance at a rescheduled set Sunday night, and he had the most surprising special guest of all: Jon Bon Jovi, the steel horse-riding cowboy himself, shocked audiences by standing on the decks of the Main Stage to sing along to the Dutch producer’s recent remix of his eponymous band’s 1992 single “Keep The Faith.”

Despite the heroic clean-up, the fact remains that Ultra was forced to close early on Friday and open late on Saturday. Every dark cloud has a silver lining, though, and the foil to Ultra’s historic evacuation was the City of Miami’s historic decision to temporarily lift its sound ordinance and grant the downtown festival a whole extra hour of programming. This meant Hardwell got his 10th-anniversary performance after all, and Amelie Lens returned to rock the Megastructure. (Both artists had their Friday night sets cancelled due to the evacuation.)

But not everyone had the chance to come back. Most notably, fans were shocked to see Fisher and Chris Lake’s Under Construction set would not be rescheduled. But it really did feel exciting to party after midnight in Bayfront Park — almost like our parents said we could skirt our bedtime and eat extra pizza rolls in celebration of a sleepover.

If you’d walked by the Live Stage earlier Saturday night, you might have been caught in the magic of Kasablanca. The synth-heavy duo delivered an awesome performance, one that ensnared many would-be passersby with its head-turning array of on-stage synthesizers and hypnotic rhythms, and the black-and-white-clad twosome’s cool ‘80s look.

Once locked in, the Canadian band took the audience on a moody ride perfect for anyone who still can’t get enough of the Drive or Stranger Things soundtracks. The set was outstanding on its own artistic merit — but the true emotional gut punch came near the end of the hour, when the duo’s Micky Kasablanca grabbed the mic to thank everyone for being there, sharing that he was diagnosed with cancer just a few months ago and had just underwent his last round of aggressive chemotherapy.

He said he was still waiting on a clean bill of health, that it should be coming this next week, but that it meant everything to him to be on that stage playing music for all of us, then the duo dropped into a new collaboration. It was an incredibly emotional, hopeful and inspiring moment, one we’re so thankful to have been a part of.

Just as special guests have become a tradition at Ultra Miami, rare and never-before-seen back-to-backs have also become a staple of the festival’s lineups. Saturday alone saw a bass match between RL Grime and Knock2 on the Worldwide stage, and three majestic b2bs on The Cove stage, with Waff b2b Cuartero, Joris Voorn b2b Kolsh and Dubfire b2b Ilario Alicante.

Sunday brought Oliver Helden’s Hi-Lo b2b with house maestro Eli BRown, plus b2bs from Paradoos and Volaris to headline the Purified takeover of the UMF Radio stage, Die Maschine b2b Scott Knight at the Oasis stage, and even a b3b with Andy Pate, Christopher James and Rod B. But no back to back was quite as stunning as the mayhem unleashed by Madeon and San Holo to close out the Live Stage Saturday night. 

After Jai Wolf warmed the crowd with an invigorating DJ set (the musician was unable to perform his usual live set due to rain interfering with soundcheck), the audience settled in for an hour and a half of breakneck beats, emotional singalongs, wild edits and surprise remixes. All of it was set to a flash-heavy visual that showcased the French and Dutch producer/DJs filming each other with a black-and-white live feed, giving the whole show the intimate feel of watching a home movie.

Having only ever performed as a duo once before thanks to an emergency headliner cancellation at China’s VAC Festival last November, the pair proved lightning could indeed strike twice — giving Ultra an exclusive finale when San grabbed his guitar and played solo while he and Madeon sang a harmonic medley of each other’s hits, including “Lift Me From the Ground,” “Shelter,” “Light” and “All My Friends.”

This year’s Ultra was a massive spectacle wherever you stood, and it felt somehow more immersive than usual. The artists themselves came ready to play. Mathame’s A/V set at the Megastructure on Saturday was beautiful and enthralling, adding even more depth to the already impressive airport hanger-style stage, and Apashe’s visuals at the Live Stage Friday had the look and feel of major motion pictures.

Even if the artists didn’t bring their own cinematic experiences, the overwhelming array of fireworks, pyrotechnics and costumed dancers turned the festival into a psychedelic circus. This year’s Main Stage was a massive collection of triangular screens that enveloped the horizon, no matter how far back in the 10,000-person crowd you might have stood, and the drone show that played in the sky across the full moon each night was breathtaking, to be sure. It was overstimulation-station, but it was great.

Drum’n’bass heads have been saying “it’s coming back” every year since the heyday of the late ‘90s — but walking through this year’s Ultra, it would seem the old heads’ premonition has finally come true.

Everyone was working a bit of the hardcore breaks into their set, banging heavy beats from the Main Stage to the Live Stage and even a bit in the Megastructure. The Worldwide Stage is the usual home for bass at UMF, and Chase & Status’ Saturday night performance was for sure the high point of the d’n’b comeback. The “Baddadan” duo proved its chops as kings of the moment, while earlier that evening, loudest-DJ-alive Excision delivered his dinosaur dubstep to the Main Stage crowd in a move that proved slightly contentious to keyboard warriors in the festival’s Instagram comment section. Love it or hate it, bass, d’n’b breakdowns, hardstyle beats and all things heavy were the ruling sounds of this year’s Ultra.

While there were plenty of incredible ways to cap the Ultra experience in 2024, the big celebration definitely felt like Calvin Harris’ Main Stage finale. After 11 years away, the Scottish hit machine returned to the Miami festival and gave fans a parade of anthems that made the wait totally worth it. He opened with his Rihanna smash “This Is What You Came For” — which felt like the world’s best brag because he was totally right — then worked through a barrage of sing-alongs from “One Kiss” to “Outside,” “Feel So Close” to “Summer,” “Blame,” “I’m Not Alone” and of course, “We Found Love.”

It was nostalgic even while some updated drops kept things feeling new. We just hope we don’t have to wait another decade to see Harris come back again.