MMiami became the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) capital of the world when Ultra Music Festival and Winter Music Conference (collectively referred to as Miami Music Week) came to town this March.  The festival / conference coincided with spring break for many major universities.  Needless to say this created a kinetic party atmosphere.  After a few days of rest and recuperation, ADANAI reflects on Miami Music Week (it actually lasted ten days):

Ultra Music Festival is something you have to see to believe
The six days of Ultra generated about $90 million of economic activity for South Florida. Each day, close to 60,000 people attended the festival.  This view from Avicii’s DJ booth probably says it all.

Now, imagine seven different stages going at the same time for six days.  Pretty sick.  Multiple DJs playing at once made it difficult to pick which sets to watch.  The “professional” festivalgoers in the crowd had it down pat. They knew when to be at each stage, when to take a bathroom break and when to grab a beer.

The energy of the crowd was something to behold.  Here is a taste from the Deadmau5 performance on day 2 of weekend 1:

There is fun to be had for all
Most assume that the attendees all fit the same profile.  Clearly everyone has two things in common – they like EDM and they like to party. But the event has become so large that it actually spawned a fair amount of segmentation.  The broad segments include:

• Young ravers –  “Raver” sounds like a Reality Bites term belonging to the ‘90s, but it’s the easiest way to describe this group.  These people likely had three-day passes to Ultra (maybe for both weekends).  They made sure to be front and center for the Swedish House Mafia and Avicii sets.  They had little to no interest in some of the more underground or older school DJs (Roger Sanchez? Who?).  At night, the guys in this set likely found themselves at Nikki beach, the Clevelander or passed out in their hotel room.  The enterprising single women found their way into LIV or Story while the others hung with their guy counterparts.

• High rollers looking to party– Where there’s a party, there are always high rollers looking to join in on the action, on their own terms.  Some of these folks ventured into the madness of Ultra but only went as far as the Marquee-run VIP decks (entry cost for a table = $5,000/day with some tables costing as much as $20,000/day)
  • Given the traffic issues getting to Ultra from South Beach, this group also found themselves opting to remain beachside, attending pool parties at the SLS and the Delano.  Even at these luxury hotels, only the best cabana would do – starting at $3,000 with some going as high as $10,000
  • This segment ruled the night.  They held the golden keys to exclusive nightclubs like LIV, Story and Mansion.  Entry level tables were $3,000 across the board throughout the week while prime tables on prime nights cost as much as $50,000 (Kaskade at LIV garnered this much).  While Ultra was exciting, everyone wanted to watch Calvin Harris and Tiesto DJ at the same club on the same night (this happened at LIV)
    

    An enterprising club goer created this club cheat sheet

• Hardcore/Old School EDM fans with underground tendencies– There are many EDM fans that despise how popular the music form has become.  Folks like Avicii and Calvin Harris make their skin crawl.  Fortunately for them, there were quite a few slots at Ultra reserved for the hardcore fans.  That being said, this group had to travel around to find their solace.
  • During the afternoon, pool parties at places like The Surfcomber often catered to their tastes
  • At night, clubs that have a more local feel, like Treehouse, were popular destinations.  Every once in a while there would be whispers of a David Morales or Frankie Knuckles appearance at some small bar on Washington Avenue.  Nobody ever knew specifics—the night or the set time—but just the idea that they were playing somewhere made people feel good
  • And last, for the late night/early morning folks, Club Space was always available with a huge lineup of strong DJs.

• Industry folks– EDM has become big business.  As the industry grows, there are more and more people trying to make a career of it.  Miami Music Week is as good as it gets when it comes to networking opportunities.  Between the artists, their PR firms, the record labels, the writers and the sponsors, thousands of people “worked” this year.  Each day, there were several sponsored parties (e.g., Red Bull and Ciroc) and industry members hopped around with business card in hand hoping to make a new contact (and hopefully walk away with some swag).

Who doesn’t like a pool party?
While Miami still has a lot to learn from Las Vegas, the pool party was a central part of the scene during Miami Music Week.  Pretty much every hotel in South Beach had some sort of event going on each day.  The formula for all of these was fairly simple: lots of DJs, lots of sun, lots of little bikinis, lots of booze and safe to say a decent amount of Molly.  Here is a snippet from SLS/Hyde Beach:

Given that the vast majority of revelers paid an entry fee and tables were being sold left and right, the hotels had to rack up a pretty penny from these parties. The odd thing – if you go to Miami on most other weekends separate of Miami Music Week, there are very few good pool parties to be found.  Why is that?

The party line is that hotel guests during “normal” weeks would be livid if EDM music blared all day.  While this is definitely true at the Ritz Carlton or The Setai, there has to be a way to make this work.  The Shelborne has made an effort at its regular Saturday pool party but it hasn’t built the moment it should.  The Gansevoort (when it was open) had a pretty good thing going but no more.  The Fontainebleau has given it a go but the area they designated for their pool party is in the shade in the afternoon making it a fairly undesirable location.  Hyde Beach at the SLS is still ramping up.   There is no Las Vegas Encore Beach Club equivalent in Miami and there should be.   A few tips for the struggling pool parties:

• Bring in a name DJ – If one thing is clear after this past week, brand name DJs bring people and money
• Hire promoters – The promoters bring the two most essential items for a successful pool party: girls and people with money to buy cabanas
• Use professionals – Instead of trying to throw the pool party on their own, the hotels need to bring in people who know how to throw a party – the nightclubs.  In Las Vegas, the VIP host for Surrender nightclub has the same role for Encore Beach Club.  He knows how to manage a crowd and generate maximum revenue.  The Opium Group in Miami (owners of Mansion, Set, Cameo and Mokai) could make a fortune if they took over management of a big pool in SoBe.

Here’s a thought: The Shore Club is basically bankrupt and can be purchased for a decent price given its size and location.  Someone should partner with the Opium Group to buy it.  When The Shore Club first opened, it was basically a party hotel but that was before the days of major dollars being spent for bottles at pool parties.  The pool party there was nice but never met full potential. Instead of the two cabanas they have near the main pool, they should have 10-15.  Instead of the back little pool feeling like an afterthought, that should be a super VIP area with hot tubs and bungalows.  They could basically build a mini Wynn/Encore (minus the craps tables) right on the beach.

Interestingly, Ultra is on the docket for only one weekend next year (March 28-30 – book your hotel!).  While the young raver set is probably not too happy about this, many residents of Miami are probably pleased.  Could this mean a reduction in the craziness during Miami Music Week? Unlikely since, one; people always like to party at the beach and, two; this music genre’s popularity is growing by the hour.  Each year, more and more EDM festivals pop up around the US (Atlanta and Kansas City most recently) but Miami Music Week will always be at the top (alongside that small little gathering out in Las Vegas called Electric Daisy Carnival).

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