Virginia Key board to talk about Ultra Music Festival

Written by Miami Today on April 22, 2019

The Virginia Key Advisory Board plans to discuss the 2019 Ultra Music Festival during its 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, meeting at Miami City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive. The meeting will be held in the city commission chambers and is open to the public. For the first time, the internationally known electronic music festival was held March 29-31 on Virginia Key.

The advisory board was not consulted before a Nov. 15, 2018, vote of city commissioners approving a revocable license with the festival producers, allowing the event to be held at two city-owned sites on the island: the flex park around idled Miami Marine Stadium and near the Historic Virginia Key Beach.

The advisory board later debated the appropriateness of holding such a large and loud event on the island, and adopted a resolution against holding the music festival there. The resolution says the city’s agreement with the festival producers “is in conflict with the 2010 Virginia Key Master Plan’s overarching themes of preservation and enhancement of natural areas.”

At the city commission’s April 11 meeting it heard from many people who asked that Ultra not be staged on the island again, citing complaints about snarled traffic, noise, trash and potential impacts to animals and the environment.

The fate of the annual event is up in the air and expected to be decided by the city commission May 9.

Under provisions of the special license approved last year by the commission on a 4 to 1 vote, the city has 60 days from this year’s festival to decide whether to allow the event on the island next year.