Ultra Music Festival wants a 20-year contract for downtown Miami event

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Downtown residents say they’re shut out of city talks

Just weeks before the bass drops at Ultra Music Festival, a different kind of noise is building in downtown Miami. Residents say they’re being shut out of the conversation.

At a Zoom community meeting Thursday night with members of the Downtown Neighbors Alliance, a representative for Ultra reportedly told residents that Miami Commissioner Damian Pardo had asked that no additional meetings be held about this year’s festival beyond a single “Sunshine Meeting” scheduled March 11.

For the people who live around Bayfront Park, that felt less like coordination and more like a shutdown.

Read related: Miami Commissioner Damian Pardo loses support, inspires recall threats

Ultra — scheduled for March 27–29 (tickets from $479.15 via ultramusicfestival.com) — isn’t just a three-day party for electronic music fans. For downtown residents, it’s weeks of park closures, construction staging, sound checks, street closures and traffic reroutes. The festival build-out begins long before the first DJ hits the stage and lingers well after the last glow stick hits the pavement.

Residents say they’ve traditionally had multiple meetings to air concerns and negotiate mitigation measures. This year, they’re being told there will be just one.

In a statement, the DNA called it “deeply troubling” that the commissioner would try to limit discussions just weeks before the event effectively sidelines the people who live closest to the park.

The group asked for a meeting with the Ultra organizers after members saw an item on the agenda for Thursday’s city commission meeting that will have commissioners consider whether or not to give Ultra — and organizer Event Entertainment Group (EEG) –something it has long sought: a potential 20-year contract to remain at Bayfront Park. Ten years up front, and an additional option for 10 more.

For residents, that’s not just about one festival weekend. That’s about the next two decades of downtown life.

Ultra Music Festival is secured at Bayfront Park in downtown Miami through 2027, following a 2022 agreement with the city commission. The five-year contract includes a $2 million base rent, with 4% annual increases, and allows for a 28-day closure of the park for setup and teardown.

Read related: Miami’s Joe Carollo grabs Ultra Music money for Bayfront Park slush fund

“Commissioner Pardo’s continued pattern of dismissing, undermining, and ignoring the voices of Downtown families is deeply troubling,” DNA President James Torres in a statement. “Limiting community dialogue on issues that directly impact residents, parks, and quality of life only reinforces the perception that Downtown residents are being sidelined rather than heard.”

Torres told Ladra that, during the Zoom call, someone asked to confirm their in-person meeting on the logistics of the festival. “To our surprise we were told that the commissioner doesn’t want to have any additional meetings and that the March 11 was the official meeting,” Torres said. “Last I checked, I don’t live in Iran, Cuba or places of suppression.”

Sandra “Sandy” York, the attorney for Ultra for the past 10 years who was on the Zoom call with residents, did not return a call left with her answering service by Ladra Friday. Commissioner Miguel Gabela, the chairman of the Bayfront Park Trust who sponsored the item on the 20-year contract on the agenda, did not return a call to his cellphone either. Commissioner Pardo never returns Ladra’s calls. Neither does his chief of staff, Anthony Balzabre.

Bayfront Park is one of the few open green spaces in the city’s densest neighborhood, and residents say they already absorb the impacts of the many large-scale events hosted there. If the festival — which has long been a point of contention for downtown residents — is going to lock in a long-term deal, they argue, the community deserves more than a single meeting.

They want a seat at the table.

Whether they get one could depend on how much political noise they make before the music starts.

The commission meeting starts at 9 a.m. Thursday at City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive, and can also be viewed on the city’s website and its YouTube channel. The whole agenda is posted here.

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