A music festival is not about stages and lineups only; there is way more around it, like water stations, restrooms, food, and transports. If Ultra Miami is the leading EDM music festival for what concerns lineup and stages, this year edition was the worst one when talking about transportation services.
With the festival moving from Bayfront Park to Virginia Key, Ultra figured out a bus shuttle service that, in theory, should have brought people from the three hubs in Miami to the Key. The service should have run continuously during the entire duration of the festival. And it was but, as you may expect, the number of shuttle buses was way too low compared to the amount of people getting in and out Virginia Key.
Lines at the shuttle buses started to increase around 2 pm with waiting time of hours. This wasn’t the problem anyway because somehow, you could reach Virginia Key by just waiting.
The real madness, though, came at the end of the festival.
Made it over the bridge but so many people on streets now trying to figure what to do WOW @ultra #ultra2019 #FyreFestival pic.twitter.com/z4e8zmduOO
— Speedracer4life (@Dzamora07Dz) 30 marzo 2019
Ultra set up a special division of people called Ultra Transport that, in theory, should have known routes and times. Well, no one knew anything. Shuttle buses stopped randomly, drivers didn’t know which hub they were supposed to reach and, because of the huge amount of people exiting the festival at 2 am, the traffic on Virginia Key’s bridge was stuck, and shuttle buses with it.
As you may image, at this point, people started walking down the bridge back on the mainland.
David Gonzalez, a reporter from Houston’s CBS Affiliate KHOU Channel 11, has shared on Twitter photos and video of the massive exodus of people.
I can already see reaction from #Ultra2019. Fire Festival part 2. New venue is crazy MAJOR ISSUES getting off the island. Thousands are stranded. pic.twitter.com/hUCyzObb8D
— David Gonzalez (@DavidGonzKHOU) 30 marzo 2019
Thousands are walking across the causeway to get out of #Ultra2019. We haven’t seen a single car get off in our direction. Police have no control of the crowds. #miaminews pic.twitter.com/yxiR8wYIL5
— David Gonzalez (@DavidGonzKHOU) 30 marzo 2019
World’s leading electronic music festival? Not this year.
Ultra has released an official press statement; see below.
