The Miami City Commission unanimously approved a new contract that could enable Ultra Music Festival to play at Bayfront Park for the next 20 years. However, organizers will still need to contend with a lawsuit from a local neighborhood association, which charged that the “apocalyptic noise levels” generated by the electronic music concert is “creating a severe life-safety hazard and inflicting emotional distress.”
The Downtown Neighbors Alliance (DNA), an organization that represents 15 condo associations in the downtown area, filed a lawsuit against Event Entertainment Group, Inc. (EEG), headed by Ultra CEO Russell Faibisch on April 22—one day prior to the city’s approval of Ultra’s new contract.
DNA president James Torres said the intent of the lawsuit is to enforce the terms of a settlement agreement his organization has with Ultra that sets the maximum sound level at 95 decibels beyond 60 feet from the stage.
DJ and music producer Amelie Lens at last year's Ultra Music Festival.
“All we are saying is Ultra should be in compliance with the settlement agreement they agreed to,” Torres said.
The maximum sound level stipulated in the agreement is also higher than the 97 decibels required under the city’s new contract. Under the city’s previous contract, Ultra’s noise limit was 102 decibels.
Ultra’s attorney, Sandra York, did not return a request for comment by deadline. In a written statement to WPLG Channel 10, Ultra declared that it will “vigorously defend against the lawsuit filed by the Downtown Neighbors Alliance, Inc.” and insisted that Ultra always operated within the parameters of its license agreement with the Bayfront Park Management Trust as well as the city’s requirements.
“Ultra will continue to act as a responsible neighbor, independent of any formal agreement or arrangement with the DNA or any other resident group, and irrespective of this lawsuit,” Ultra’s statement added.
DJ and music producer Maddix at the 2024 Ultra Music Festival
Commissioner Damian Pardo, whose district includes Downtown Miami, insisted that the new contract was a significant improvement over the previous agreement with the city’s Bayfront Park Trust regarding noise, security, and returning the park back to the public. He also criticized the DNA for making a private non-disclosure agreement with Ultra.
“The DNA had a settlement agreement that was in the dark, never disclosed, signed, and executed and [the city] has no way of knowing what was in those agreements,” Pardo said. The new agreement, in contrast, is “completely transparent.”
“Commissioner Pardo can go fly a kite,” replied Torres, adding that it was Ultra’s organizers who insisted on a private non-disclosure agreement when they wanted to return their event to Bayfront Park in 2021 because Virginia Key “was not quote-unquote sexy enough for them.” The DNA decided to go public after Ultra violated its noise terms 17 times, he added.
Ultra’s new contract doesn’t automatically give the music event another 20 years at Bayfront Park. Instead, there are four five-year terms. And 45 days after the end of each term, a report on how the event conducted itself will be presented to the city, Pardo said.
James Torres
Per the new contract’s terms, Ultra organizers will pay the city’s Bayfront Park Trust a user fee of $2.34 million, which will increase on a compounded basis of 4% each year after that. By 2029, a $100,000 “amphitheater step-up” fee would be added, which would also increase by 4% annually. In addition, Ultra would have control of the park’s display signage, which would be allowed to display “promotional, branding, sponsorship, and marquee messaging related to the current event,” per the new contract.
The contract also stipulates that the maximum number of people Ultra can have each day is 55,000 people, though that can be boosted to a max of 63,000 attendees with the city’s approval.
The new contract also requires that Ultra fix up the park and return it to the public 28 days after the music festival ends instead of 38 days under the old contract, Commissioner Pardo said. In addition, Ultra agreed to pay a fine of $2,500 for every minute they go over their set concert hours instead of $1,000 a minute, install fencing for downtown residential buildings abutting Biscayne Boulevard, provide a “dog triangle” at the southwest corner of Bayfront Park for the non-ticket holding canine-owning public, provide annual internships for Olympia Downtown Music Schools students, and hold at least two community meetings 45 days prior to a concert.
Regarding noise, Ultra’s concerts would be measured via nearby monitoring locations every hour and, each time the event goes above the maximum decibels, the organizers will be hit with a $1,000 fine, Pardo added.
But this would be at the city’s maximum of 97 decibels, which Torres said was 20% higher than what the DNA’s settlement agreement allows. The contract also doesn’t say who will be doing the monitoring, Torres added.
Founded in 1999, Ultra Music Festival originally started as a Miami Beach electronic music concert that was held concurrently with the Winter Music Conference. At its last event, held between March 26 and 28, Ultra attracted 165,000 attendees from 100 countries all over the world, the Miami New Times reported.
During the April 23 hearing, proponents of the Ultra Music Festival argued that the event enhanced Miami’s standing in the world and has a huge positive economic impact for downtown area businesses. But nearby residents complained that the noise, vibrations, and horrendous traffic caused by Ultra made their lives miserable.
Indeed, Ultra Music Festival was moved from Bayfront Park to Virginia Key in 2019 due to intense opposition from the Downtown Neighbors Alliance. But that event was plagued by transportation issues and complaints from people living in Key Biscayne about noise traffic. When Ultra tried to return to Bayfront Park in 2020, the DNA sued to stop it. That opposition was alleviated when Ultra signed a confidential deal with the DNA, the Miami Herald reported in May 2021.
Yet, despite promises to shield 50 Biscayne, Vizcayne, One Miami, and Met 1 from excessive noise, Ultra organizers “transformed these homes into ground zero for a commercial acoustic bombardment,” DNA’s attorney, Adam Cervera of Association Law Group, stated in the legal complaint. For the past three years, Ultra’s organizers “brazenly obliterated the 95-decibel limit and “failed to exercise proper oversight in ensuring that the audio levels were maintained as per the agreement,” Cervera’s complain added.
“The ensuing acoustic bombardment is nothing short of psychological torture, turning Downtown Miami into an inescapable war zone of low-frequency bass that violently shakes the foundations of residential towers and actively endangers human sanity,” DNA’s legal complaint further charged.
Although the suit asks the court for “damages,” including attorney’s fees, Torres said the DNA’s goal is to get Ultra to comply with their agreement. The lawsuit doesn’t even demand that Ultra stop using Bayfront Park, he added, though they might want to consider it.
“Ultra needs to look in the mirror and truly decide if Bayfront Park is the right venue based on what they need to be,” Torres said.