MIAMI (WSVN) - The Ultra Music Festival has postponed their 2020 event due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, according to City of Miami Commissioner Manolo Reyes.
According to the Miami Herald, the music festival could be delayed as long as a full year, but a specific time frame for the postponement was not revealed.
“They have decided to postpone this event to a future date,” Reyes said. “In an abundance of caution, we have to be very sure that those events that have gatherings of many people that come from all over the world, all over the United States, that we should postpone them.”
City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Commissioner Joe Carollo met with festival organizers on Wednesday to consider postponing the festival to protect attendees from the coronavirus.
“We’re going to be discussing with them the possibility of postponing the event, similar to what they’ve done in other parts of the world,” Suarez said. “As was mentioned, this event is very unique because you have people traveling from over 100 countries. Our decisions in the city are always going to be guided by protecting the citizens of our city.”
They asked organizers to put the iconic music festival on hold in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
“We’re not saying cancelling,” said Carollo. “We’re saying suspending, so what we’re trying to do right now is to make sure we’re gonna control this to the maximum that we can and prevent it from becoming the kind of crisis that you’d have seen in other countries like South Korea, like in Italy and others. Our main responsibility is to the health, safety and welfare of our citizens.”
Ultra was set to start on March 20 and setup for the event was scheduled to begin on Thursday.
“They gather in a very congested area where there’s very little movement,” said Carollo. “People stand there like I’ve seen. They dance in the same area for hours at a time.”
Some people in downtown Miami were unaware that the festival had been postponed.
“The most beautiful thing about it is that so many people come and fully enjoy it,” tourist Irina Starodubova said. “It’s very sad that they cancelled it.”
“It depends on the point of view of the people,” Miami resident Kenye Serna said. “The locals maybe want to get it cancelled because people from all over the world will be here.”
On Tuesday, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said on Twitter that the county would not be cancelling any major events, such as Ultra.
“The surgeon general and the governor said that we should live our lives normally,” Gimenez said. “They advised not to cancel any of these activities.”
“For locals that live within walking distance of the park, like, we actually have our park open for the next five to six weeks,” Miami resident J.J. Colagrande said.
Reyes said that this year’s Calle Ocho celebration could be in jeopardy for the same reasons as well.
“I’m proposing that we shall postpone Calle Ocho,” he said. “It is my firm belief that we have to be very careful, and we have to take this virus seriously.”
Reyes said the city will be discussing Calle Ocho on Thursday.
Calle Ocho was set to begin on March 15.
“Particularly in Miami when we have such a large elderly population, as you know, they are largely susceptible to that virus, and we have a duty to protect them,” Reyes said. “I’d rather say I’m sorry to the person that already made plans to come to Calle Ocho than to give condolences to the family of the person that has been the victim of the virus.”
The city will hold a news conference about the decision on Friday morning.
7News has reached out to organizers of the Ultra Music Festival for comment but have yet to hear back.
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