VIRGINIA KEY, FLA. (WSVN) - The 2019 Ultra Music Festival kicked off on Virginia Key, as police and city officials took measures to ensure the first day of the highly anticipated event went smoothly.
Lights for the stages were tested early Friday morning before the gates open at 2 p.m.
An estimated 60,000 festival goers are expected to attend the event, as well as those who are attending Miami Music Week events.
“For the last four years, we watched the livestream for Ultra back home, and we’re thinking like, ‘We need to go eventually,'” attendee Richard Tucker said.
“I’m excited for it,” attendee Rocky Perez said. “It’s on the water, so that’s pretty awesome.”
The Chainsmokers and Marshmello are among the artists set to perform over the next few days.
“It’s not just people from America that are here,” attendee Jack Stedman said. “We’ve got people from Europe, people from South America, Asia, all over.”
City leaders met with fire rescue and police on Friday morning to discuss the plan on making sure the festival goes off without a hitch.
“It’s been a lot, a lot easier this year, at least for the beginning of it. Let’s hope the rest of the weekend is just as well,” Miami Police Officer Michael Vega said. “Once you’re in there and you see the crowd, it’s a large crowd. However, it’s so spread out, the space is so big, and the fact that we don’t have them parking all over here, that we’re just having them shuttled here [and] going straight in, makes it a lot, a lot easier.”
Over 500 officers and 200 firefighters were said to be scheduled to work the event over the weekend.
“The staffing has increased because the location has allowed for more people, but also it’s a wider area,” Miami Fire Rescue Captain Ignatius Carroll said.
“This new venue is just one big parking lot, and all the stages are close together, and you can go from stage to stage very easily,” attendee Nathan Boyle said.
Traffic to and from the festival still remains a major concern due to the fact that there is only one bridge in and out.
Students from the University of Miami’s Virginia Key campus are worried about the traffic, the noise and the large crowds.
“They’re worried that some of the people will hurt themselves, and they’re gonna lose a lot of experimental data,” student Kurt Hansen said.
Ride-sharing apps are willing to drop festival goers off but not pick them up, leaving festival goers with the only option to use a shuttle bus service when the festival ends at 2 a.m.
Some attendees hope the late-night exit won’t result in a hike down the causeway.
“I hope not, but we’ll see,” attendee Griffin Watson said.
“There’s 230 buses on their way out,” said Miami Police Assistant Chief Manuel Morales. “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.”
Early Friday, people who tried to make drop-offs in undesignated areas were pulled over and, in some cases, were ticketed.
“There are patrons that tend to overindulge, but it’s nothing that the City of Miami isn’t prepared to handle,” said Miami Fire Rescue Chief Alex Fernandez.
Traffic in the area is expected to be delayed all three days of the festival.
For information on the shuttle service provided, click here.
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