Music Festival B.C.

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, also known simply as Coachella, takes place annually in Indio, California. The first festival took place in 1999, shortly after the disastrous Woodstock ‘99 in Upstate New York. Besides 2000, the festival has taken place every year and has grown in attendance and popularity. Rock bands such as the popular Jane’s Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys, Nine Inch Nails, Coldplay, and many more are of the like to be performing at Coachella. In 2006 the festival was even able to draw Madonna to the stage, and in 2008, Prince. Even more impressive and continuing to grow, in 2009, was even blessed by the legendary Paul McCartney, The Cure, The Killers, and more. Check out more of the information for 2010 and onward on their really cool website: Coachella.

The festival took place this year and included an even further extension of genres to include hip-hop artist Jay-Z, and electronic music master Tiesto, along with many other amazing performers. There are so many artists from so many genres, there are loads of music downloads for free online of live performances of artists during the festival. It is sure to continue to grow each year with more and more artists wanting to participate. In 2007, the crowd drew a record of 180,000 people over the three days. In 2009 it drew 160,000 over three days.

As it is a music and arts festival there are some demonstrations and sculptures set up by artists throughout the festival grounds. It is also a camping festival, where there is designated areas to set up tents, campers, vans, etc. for all those dedicated fans who want to stay for the entire 3 days. It is definitely on my list of must-go-to festivals. I’d love to hear about it from someone who has gone, so if you have please don’t hesitate to comment!

Ultra Music Festival (UMF) held every year in Miami, FL might be the largest festival, at least the largest electronic music festival, in the United States. The uber fun dance music event started in 1999 and has since then grown to host crowds of 80,000 over two days. It is rumoured that next year (2011) UMF will span over three full days of pumping beats and internationally acclaimed DJs and artists. After moving location from South Beach (1999 & 2000) to Bayfront Park (2001-2005), it should be able to stay in the larger Bicentennial Park in downtown Miami.

It is an amazing showcase of international talent in the electronic music industry that is hard to come by in the US. Not only does Miami get to host the UMF every early spring (typically right around Easter weekend), but it’s also part of the annual Winter Music Conference (WMF) which is a week long string of events that practically takes over South Beach and Miami with DJs, live artists, venue events, etc. People fly in from all over the world for this week. Hotels and apartments are sold out months in advance. Parties are going on from morning through the night; pool parties at the famous South Beach hotels during the days, and unbelievable parties at some of America’s most popular nightclubs at night (e.g., Club Space, Cameo, Mansion, and many more). If you are into electronic and dance music it is a must-attend festival as well as week.

I will say one thing that I am not a fan of, however. I tend to like a more mature crowd for a festival. I know festivals tend to gather younger crews and all, but it seems as the years go on, UMF gets younger and more inebriated. If you can look past this one big blemish, or perhaps if it’s your bag, then UMF would be the best party you ever went to. Go online and get yourself some music downloads of live sets from the festival and see what I’m talking about. It’s mayhem.

Since it’s a raging success in Miami, UMF has tested the waters in other cities including it’s first appearance in NYC for ULTRA NY in 2005 which took place in Central Park. It has also ventured to UMF Brasil, UMF Puerto Rico, and UMF Ibiza to be hosted by Space Ibiza in 2010. So much information on all their parties and a little bit of a clue into the insanity, you should check out their very cool website, and then buy tickets for the next event! No but really if it sounds cool check it out: Ultra Music Fest.

It was hard to find a good quality video to show you, since most of them are from attendees’ own personal not-professional-quality cameras. However, I did find two cool ones with Benny Benassi and Carl Cox spinning at this year’s UMF. Doesn’t it look like fun?!

Now I bet you’re going to the website to check out some more info. Hope to see you there next year.