VIRGINIA KEY, FLA. (WSVN) - The Ultra Music Festival will face new challenges as they host the festival for the first time at the Miami Marine Stadium in Virginia Key.
Days before the festival begins, final preparations could be seen taking place, Wednesday.
Chief of Security Ray Martinez said, “We’ve been working very hard over the last few months to put this all together, and as you see, when you walked in, you know, it’s an incredible, incredible venue.”
Organizers expect 60,000 people to attend this year’s festival and believe most of them will leave for the festival around the same time.
Traffic concerns are the main priority of the event’s organizers.
Buses and water taxis will be in place throughout downtown Miami and at Vizcaya.
Buses will leave from the Arsht Center Station, the AmericanAirlines Arena and from Vizcaya.
The water taxi will depart from Bayside Marketplace.
Organizers said no ride-share services, such as Uber and Lyft, will be allowed to travel to the festival, but the services will be able to take attendees to a shuttle location.
“There’s 230 buses on the way out. It will be a little bit of a challenge for us to make sure that all the attendees get safely into those buses, but we’re up for the task,” Miami Police Department Assistant Chief Manuel Morales said.
Police said Key Biscayne residents will be able to travel to and from their homes without concern but traffic may slow down their commute.
However, noise concerns in Miami are still present because the festival’s main stage faces the city.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said keeping the volume at a comfortable level is a priority.
“They are sound-checking today, and they have sophisticated sound monitors throughout Brickell,” Suarez said.
Hundreds of police officers and firefighters will be on the clock to make the event as safe as possible.
“There are patrons that tend to overindulge but nothing that the city of Miami isn’t prepared to handle,” Miami Fire Rescue Deputy Fire Chief Alex Fernandez said.
The event’s close proximity to water also has some worried participants may fall into the water.
However, several layers of fencing should keep attendees away from the beach.
“We’ll have plenty of units here with police rescue divers in the unfortunate event that we have somebody that accesses the water side,” Morales said.
The Ultra Music Festival will begin on Friday and will run through Sunday. The music is set to begin at 2 p.m.
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