Will Ultra Music Festival 2011 Be Affected By Upcoming Bicentennial Park Construction?

Photo by Jacob Katel

The crowd at Ultra Music Festival 2010 at Bicentennial Park.

​UPDATE: Ultra's organizers let us know about the fate of next year's festival.
UPDATE x2: Crystal Castles confirmed as part of the 2011 lineup.
UPDATE x3: Ultra Music Festival will be taking place March 25 to 27, outside of the WMC dates.

Monday, The Miami Herald reported that environmental cleanup of the contaminated soil at Bicentennial Park would start this month to make way for the construction of the planned Museum Park which would house the new Miami Art Museum, as well as Miami Science Museum and Historical Museum of Southern Florida.

Despite being mislabeled as a park (only people who wander the grounds are the homeless, and considering that the Herald reports high levels of arsenic and petroleum residue were found in the soil, we think it's probably best that nobody does) 29-acre site has played an important role as the city's premiere music festival grounds hosting enormous, high-grossing events like Ultra Music Festival and Best of the Best. So what will happen to those events once groundbreaking has begun and the new Museum Park is complete?

Museum Park will so break ground at Bicentennial Park.

​Tim Schmand of the Bayfront Park Management Trust, which operates Bicentennial Park, told New Times that "we are still looking into it," when asked about the fate of Ultra 2011. Because the cleanup will be done by November 1, Cirque Du Soliel's yearly residency will go ahead as planned this year when it raises its tents for Kooza on November 12. It seems like any events after that are still being discussed.

However, looking at the final plans for Museum Park, it's easy to see that the museums will take up considerable amount of room leaving about two-thirds of carefully planned and manicured park space. It is unclear at this point as well if the remaining park space will be utilized to host enormous events like Ultra.

We are still awaiting comment from representatives of both Ultra Music Festival and Best of the Best, both whom we have contacted.