Miami Music Week 2015 closes with Ultra bang

Jack Ü and guests closing UMF 2015 Mainstage
Jack Ü and guests closing UMF 2015 Mainstage

Miami Music Week and Winter Music Conference came together last week to create a one-of-a-kind week for EDM lovers across the Nation. With traffic and Uber surges that were out of the usual norm, Miami was littered with visitors taking advantage of the musical festivities. Several venues offered complimentary shows ranging from Drum n Bass artists to massive OWSLA performances.

South Beach hotels were parading an alignment of  pool parties including top of the line performances from Hardwell and Waka Flocka Flame. Warehouses were turned to into massive venues that held ravers ready to see one time performances from many including Above and Beyond, Dada Life and Seven Lions. 24-hour dance parties featuring underground sounds along with pop-up music tents in the streets made anyone anywhere dance till they dropped.

To close off a crazed week, Ultra Music Festival 2015 greeted thousands of attendees with surprises. Rain on the first night dazed Odesza as they had to cut their set short. The second day, Bassnectar blew off the amphitheater with a non-parallel performance that catered to old and new fans. On the last day, Pete Tong, Armin Van Buren and Kygo all brought the dead to life with unheard of playlists that weren’t flooded with today’s top 50 hits. Krewella, who was not in the initial line up, had a surprise performance that was later torn apart by Deadmau5 on one of his usual tweet rants.

Ultra Music Festival 2015
Ultra Music Festival 2015

From all the first time performers at the festival, Die Antwoord definitely stole the spot light. The odd group’s demonic image is easy to get over once you see them perform live. With the insane outfit change for every song, crazy South African beats and sudden dubstep drops, everyone was bouncing while admiring morbid yet artistic video clips in the backdrop screens. The performers proved to have the most energy from any other group as they danced, rapped, sang and interacted with the crowd.

Skrillex’s closing performance, however, stole all the headlines. Starting off his set with original songs previously produced, Diplo shortly joined on stage to take over the reign for Jack Ü. The Skrillex and Diplo Duo featured their first and newly released album, “Skrillex and Diplo present Jack Ü”, that featured live performances by Kiesza, P.Diddy, South Korean rapper and songwriter CL and Justin Bieber. Needless to say, fans of all genres were united as the duo broke through walls and mix mashed new sounds to create a mind blowing set to finish off an amazing weekend packed with celebrity volleyball matches, countless pool parties, different music conferences and a top notch Music festival. South Florida will be taking this week off to rest its tired feet.