Ultra Music Festival is preparing to return to life and start the hype-building for its massive 25th Anniversary in March 2025. The 2024 Aftermovie just dropped, and ticket waitlists re-opened, so ticket sales and Phase 1 lineup are only weeks away. While Ultra Music Festival is always a great time with a groundbreaking lineup, Ultra Anniversary festivals are on another level entirely. You do not want to miss out 2025, and you can bet that tickets will sell out earlier this year because of it. Let’s look back on Ultra’s history to see why this year will be something truly special.
The Previous Two Anniversaries (2013 & 2018)
Ask anybody you know who has gone to Ultra Music Festival multiple times, and they will undoubtedly include 2013 and 2018 as one of their favorite years. When Ultra reaches an anniversary, it knows that it has to blow minds with its lineup and it always delivers. Who can forget 2013, where Ultra Music Festival expanded to two weekends for the first and only time, and also landed the final two performances of Swedish House Mafia before their breakup hiatus? The 15th Anniversary in 2013 was also the first year with the Arch Worldwide stage, which has become a staple ever since.
Much happened over the following years, but Ultra outdid itself again for its 20th Anniversary in 2018. The hype leading up to Ultra 2018 was astronomical. That’s the year that Ultra teased us to “expect the unexpected”, dropping almost unintelligible hints about its secret closing act. Largely regarded as one of the festival’s single best outings, this year saw the epic reunion of Swedish House Mafia and a rare ASOT closing set from Above & Beyond in the megastructure. It also happened to be the final year that A State of Trance would host its takeover on Sunday in the megastructure :(. Then after 2018 Ultra entered an extremely tumultuous period of time, as did the entire rest of the world in 2020. Thanks to COVID, Ultra’s anniversaries will match up perfectly with the year, so the 20th Anniversary was in 2018 but the 25th Anniversary takes place in 2025 (going by festival occurrences not years).
What To Expect
There’s ample reason to expect Ultra to go huge for this anniversary, since Ultra is always outdoing itself. For starters, the Resistance sub-brand has expanded to take over two stages and its own satellite venue at M2, where in 2018 it only had the Spider stage (RIP) and 2 days at the megastructure. The Cove Stage has grown into its own overlooking the bay, while the UMF Radio Stage has switched places with it. Armin van Buuren’s A State of Trance now takes over the Worldwide Stage on Fridays, and the Bayfront Park fountain will finally come back to life after over a decade. To add to the hype of 2025, Carl Cox skipped Ultra 2024 but noted he would be back in full force bringing something special for 2025. This is also the first anniversary where Ultra has its satellite party for Resistance at M2 all week. We’re sure there will be some special events there too.
Will we see anything new this year? We know the fountain will be operating finally, so could that slightly change the festival footprint in the mainstage area? We will have to see.
Artists We’re Hoping For
For every anniversary the fans will wish for a return of Trance Tiesto, but the chances of this seem significantly lower now that ASOT is on Friday at the megastructure. Could we see a return of Armin van Buuren’s dormant GAIA project at the Resistance Stage? That would certainly fit the bill for this year. We’d love to see Dom Dolla and John Summit bring Everything Always to the mainstage. On that note, we have a feeling we’ll see Anyma make an epic mainstage debut with full visuals in tow. Now we know that not only will Anyma grace the mainstage, but he’ll be doing it with Solomun. With Rufus du Sol releasing an album this fall, could this year be the year we finally get Rufus du Sol on the Live Stage? After Eric Prydz debuted his amazing [CELL] show at Hi Ibiza this Summer, everybody is wondering if we’ll get to see that technology turned up 10x and dropped into the Resistance Megastructure. What will Carl Cox do to make this year special when he has been playing back to backs with Green Velvet, Vintage Culture, and more in 2024. Could we see a marathon set with multiple b2bs?
While Ultra has recently ventured into Hardstyle with single-day takeovers at the UMF Radio Stage, we’re wondering if this is the year we’ll see Hard Techno debut in Miami. Sara Landry has been a breakout hit at EDC and Tomorrowland, but is Ultra ready to embrace that new sound?
We can’t tell you anything for certain at this point besides, expect the unexpected. Stay tuned as info trickles in.
