Miami’s Ultra Music Festival is an incredible success story. It draws 55,000 people from all over the globe to the city’s Bayfront Park, where they can enjoy three days and three nights of music performances by some the most well-known acts in the world.
Ultra is the main EDM festival circuit. It attracts mostly followers in their 20s and 30s. These events are similar to music festivals in the past decade. They draw many people, lots of bare skin and a lot more illegal drugs than normal.
Ultra is a rare event where gray-haired men like me are seen. We find the noise annoying and the crowd a bit dangerous. We don’t like the music and we don’t know most of the performers. Some people would cheer if Ultra was cancelled, but others – most likely most of us – would not notice.
The camp that wants Ultra gone is headed by Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado. At least, he’s not in his hometown. Regalado, a long-standing critic of the festival that has been a Miami fixture since the late 1990s was determined to stop Ultra from returning next year.
Regalado was understandably upset but not at the wrong people or for the wrong reasons. As Ultra was about to get underway, a group of gate-crashers ran along the festival’s perimeter. As the crowd pushed Erica Mack (28-year-old security guard) to the ground, the crowd merged with the crowd. Mack sustained a brain hemorhage and suffered a broken leg. A 21-year old festival attendee, who was taken ill by friends, died later in the festival. As they returned to the festival, they left him alone. They later found his body.
Regalado and other officials in the city criticized Ultra’s organizers because they failed to reinforce the perimeter fence despite being advised two hours prior to the gates opening that it was unsafe in the area Mack was later hurt. Officials noted that more than 80 arrests were made, including 33 felonies, during the event which attracted around 165,000 people.
I believe I can understand Regalado’s feelings. The 28-year old woman at the hospital could be someone’s granddaughter or daughter. It could have been his or my daughter. We want to protect young people against life-threatening injuries that could be fatal, even though it is something we can quickly dismiss as trivial.
But I can still go to any professional hockey game and see grown men fight each other in ritualized fights in front of thousands. Dozens of security officers and police watch and don’t do anything. Although the violence in hockey seems premeditated and often contrived to some degree, nobody wants to ban the entire NHL. It is not by accident that gray-haired men like me can be found at hockey games.
The Miami Marlins are just a few miles away from Bayfront Park. Their two-year-old baseball park holds less than 38,000 fans. The venue and surrounding streets are filled with uniformed officers who ensure order and safety during and after games. Although I do not blame Miami police for the actions of the lawless gate-crashers at Ultra I think that a few strategically placed blue uniforms could have stopped the stampeding mob from inflicting injuries on the young guard. Why should we blame Ultra’s organizers if we can’t blame the police? They did not encourage anyone to attend the festival without tickets.
Regalado’s attack on Ultra would not only punish Ultra’s generally law-abiding, peaceful, but youthfully rambunctious fans, but it would also punish his entire city now and into the future.
It would have a direct financial impact. Ultra’s economic impact on the city is anywhere from $40 million to more that twice, all delivered in a matter of days. Many of the attendees are from other cities or countries, which reflects Miami’s position as a commercial crossroads in the Americas.
I think the city’s long-term cost would be higher. Within a few years, Ultra attendees will be tomorrow’s teachers, doctors, lawyers, and nurses. They will soon be done festival-going. Ultra is an invaluable asset to Miami, a vibrant city that has a rising spirit and multilingual culture. Ultra-goers view Miami right now as a great place for a party. Miami is a wonderful place to live. It is something that will be appreciated by those who don’t realize it now.
World-class cities learn how to manage world-class events. Planning and executing crowd control and public safety are crucial elements of managing a community that is in the limelight. Nobody notices when everything is going well. We remember the things that went wrong for a long period of time. Think about Chicago in 1968