WMC vs Ultra

So the dates for Winter Music Conference and Ultra Music Festival has been announced.

AND BOY IT WAS A BIG SURPRISE!!!

A little history, Winter Music Conference, is a weeklong electronic dance music event held annually during the month of March in Florida. The event, started in 1985 has become one of the premier EDM events with DJs, artists, record label representatives, producers, promoters, media and EDM fanatics converging in Miami for a week long celebration.

In 1999, Ultra Music Festival was born and had become the festival that closes out Winter Music Conference. UMF or more known as Ultra, started at Miami Beach but had to move to Bayfront Park due to the festival growing in number of attendees. It has also been known to sold out almost every year making it one of the biggest festivals in the United States.

Then came 2011...

On November 16, 2010, Winter Music Conference issued a press release that WMC will be held on March 8 - 12.  During the announcement, I decided to check the website and one of the events was still Ultra Music Festival. And a line that states "A WMC badge includes admission to Ultra Music Festival". So in my mind, ASOT 500 (Armin van Buuren's 500th show celebration in March) was going to be a stand alone event.

I was wrong..

After a few hours, organizers of UMF issued a press release stating the Ultra will be held on March 25 - 27. This resulted into a massive surprise to event goers as well as DJs. I still remember that night when twitter world was all about the breakup of WMC and UMF. Now everyone is stuck with the same question,

which one to attend, WMC or UMF?


Speculation were everywhere on why WMC and UMF broke up and what would now happen those who want to attend both festival. Last Wednesday, Club Space owner Luis Puig issued a statement defending WMC and slamming UMF accusing it of greedy practices. Here are some excerpts from his manifesto

"WMC used to be about free parties with DJs and industry folks sharing and enjoying new music. Now, it is about greed and money"
"I love Ultra and what they bring to the game... but I do not agree with their greedy strategy to manipulate and monopolize Music Conference. This is just not good for anyone"
"..without WMC, there would be no Ultra Music Festival"

Organizers of WMC has stated that they were "blindsided" by UMF's announcement and that Ultra's organizers breach a contract they signed in 2009 which stated that the "2011 UMF would be presented during the five-day period in February, March or April 2011 designated and promoted by WMC as the 'WMC week'."

UMF organizers blames WMC organizers for the scheduling conflict and it wasn't able to move the event to coincide with WMC due to another festival that is being held on March 13 at Bicentennial Park (Calle Ocho street fair). It also stated that it "was rendered impossible by the City of Miami police department as they [would] not have the resources to host Ultra Music Festival and Calle Ocho in Miami on the same weekend."

So what are the repercussion of the split?
For one, event goers will now have to decide which festival to attend, especially those who cannot afford to be at both festival. Then DJs  might end up having to choose to support only WMC or UMF which means that it will be harder for attendees to decide which festival to attend to. And to complicate matters, EDM promoters must now act to see whether they want to thrown two different parties on two different festivals.

What do you think? Which side will you align yourself?