*Featured Cover Photo Credit: Bayfront Park Fountain / Mark R. Brown, AICP (@CompletedStreet)
For many fans of dance music, whether it is techno, house, trance, and so forth, Bayfront Park in downtown Miami is like a pilgrimage spot. Every March, Bayfront Park welcomes hundreds of thousands of fans to Ultra Music Festival, a grand multi-day masterpiece that is generally in the top 5 of music festivals around the world. In fact, the city of Miami recently approved Ultra to continue hosting at Bayfront Park through 2027.
If you’ve been to Ultra you know the Mainstage sits next to a long-dormant water fountain. Now, according to an article from The Next Miami, there are plans to rebuild the Bayfront Park Fountain and add some much-needed modernization. The new fountain will incorporate a sophisticated lighting system and become a signature landmark. The project targets January of 2025 for completion of the new fountain.
Bayfront Park Fountain’s remodeling may lead to more exciting events there
The fountain at Bayfront Park actually opened in 1990 but Miami quickly reduced the hours to “save costs”, according to a post from The Miami Herald. The fountain was shut down before 2007, when it became a base for a hot air balloon ride. So, the Bayfront Park fountain has been dormant for Ultra’s entire existence in Downtown.
The leader behind the efforts to rejuvenate the Bayfront Park Fountain is Miami Commissioner, Joe Carollo. The Commissioner is also Chairman of the Bayfront Park Management Trust and recently, Carollo was found liable for violating First Amendment rights of two Miami residents. Just a couple days ago, U.S. Marshals received an order from a federal court to seize Carollo’s assets. Hopefully the recent news involving Joe Carollo will not affect the remodeling process for the fountain to open once more.
