Ultra’s Live Acts Broaden the Bicentennial Park Bill

Ultra’s 2009 edition returned to Bicentennial Park on March 27 and 28. The festival continued to combine its electronic identity with live-band and crossover bookings, making the two-day event a meeting place for listeners arriving from different musical directions.

That mixture changes the meaning of a large dance-music gathering. A live act can give someone a familiar reason to buy a ticket, while the wider lineup opens a route into less familiar DJs and styles. The experience can work in the other direction, too, with electronic-music audiences encountering performance formats outside a conventional club set.

For Miami, the park gives those choices a common setting. A visitor can move between musical priorities without leaving the festival grounds, making the sequence of acts as important as any single booking. The 2009 event continues Ultra’s development as a full weekend on the downtown waterfront, where the audience’s route through the program helps determine the version of the festival it experiences.