Ultra Music Festival 2012 Recap

Ultra Music Festival 2012

Recap by Zoe Disselkoen

The 14th annual Ultra Music Festival brought Winter Music Conference to a close on a sunny weekend in Miami, FL. Every year, UMF brings the best and most in demand dance music DJs from around the world to Miami Beach for 3 reckless days of partying. This year, 150,000 fans descended upon the sold-out festival at Bayfront Park.

Group Therapy Warm-Up

UMF ’12 was kicked off with Above & Beyond headlining Group Therapy Miami, part of their tour that brought Boom Jinx, Andrew Bayer, Arty, and Mat Zo to the festival grounds for a special 6-hour event. Arty brought the crowd to their feet with tunes like “Kate” and “Trio” and his remix of Paul Van Dyk’s “We Come Together.” Mat Zo’s “Superman” got the crowd especially riled up.

DC nightlife’s Andrew Bayer had the privilege of dropping Above & Beyond’s summer hit “Sun and Moon” for the crowd while Jono and Tony from Above & Beyond brought the night to a close with “Air For Life 2012,” their brand-new remix of Kaskade’s “Room for Happiness” and “Prelude.”

Day 1

The Knocks and Tommy Trash started UMF off with a bang on the main stage, while Nicky Romero and Michael Woods went off simultaneously at the UMF Korea stage next door.

The high point of Nicky’s set was inarguably when he dropped Skrillex and Wolfgang Gartner’s “The Devil’s Den.” Chris Lake brought the packed arena to a new high with his spin on TJR’s “Funky Vodka.”

Miike Snow took over the Live stage with classic crowd favorites as well as his latest release, “Paddling Out.”

Afrojack started his packed set with “Bangduck” and followed through with “No Beef,” his collaboration with Steve Aoki and Miss Palmer. 17-year old Madeon got the eager crowd to singing with Calvin Harris’s popular hit “Feel So Good.”

While Kraftwerk bewitched the crowd with experimental German techno, Groove Armada took over the Korea tent with deep house and thumping bass. Pretty Lights drew a massive crowd back to the Live stage for an incredibly energetic performance while Wolfgang Gartner held it down next door.

Tiesto brought Day 1 to an end with tunes like his brand new “Chasing Summers,” his remix of Coldplay’s “Paradise” and Axwell’s remix of Ivan Gough and Feenixprawl’s “In My Mind.”

Day 2

Bassjackers and Mord Fustang were among the first performers of Day 2.

A-Trak and Hardwell followed next on the Main Stage and kept the crowd going in the hot Miami heat throughout the day while Pendulum, Flux Pavilion and Felix Cartal also tore up tents simultaneously throughout the park.

Later in the day, Gesaffelstein entertained the crowd with techno at the UMF Worldwide stage and the energetic Nervo girls warmed it up for Deniz Koyu.

Deniz whipped out the big guns at the BAO Dome with bangers likes his remix of James Blunt’s “Dangerous,” “Tung,” and Axwell’s remix of Micheal Calfan’s “Resurrection.”

His was undoubtedly one of the most high-octane sets of the day. Also hosted at the BAO dome was Sidney Samson, who was joined on stage by Lil Jon to mixed but high-energy responses.

A stampede of fishnets and neon raced to Laidback Luke’s takeover of the Main Stage where Wynter Gordon joined the Dutch dynamo live onstage for a rendition of “Dirty Talk.”

Duck Sauce churned out live mixes of funky house tunes and fun vocals along with “Big Bad Wolf” and a revival of last year’s hit “Barbara Streisand.”

Carl Cox at the Carl Cox arena drew millions of viewers live online while Fat Boy Slim took the Main Stage with old-school jams like “Jump On It” and light techno.

Ending Day 2 with a bang was Avicii, who was joined onstage by Madonna.

Playing crowd favorites like “Fade Into Darkness” and “Silhouette,” Avicii also mixed in Mark Knight’s remix of Florence and the Machine’s “You’ve got the Love.”

He ended with a blasting peak of his infamous anthem “Levels.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Day 3

Fans of all electronic genres rallied for Day 3, which featured the highly anticipated Armin van Buuren’s 11-hour A State of Trance 550 live broadcast on SiriusXM (the majority of Ultra sets were broadcast live. Armin owned Sunday).

On the line up were Eco, Tritonal, Cosmic Gate, Ferry Corsten and Gareth Emery among others. ATB brought the arena to a close at the end of the night.

The fan favorite from ASOT 550 was Gareth, who played an unexpectedly diverse set with trance hits like “Concrete Angel” and Tiesto’s “Love Comes Again” as well as SHM’s “Greyhound,” Topher Jones’ “Brohammer” and a sick mash-up of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” and the classic “Sweet Dreams.”

Also at the ASOT 550 tent, Emma Hewitt joined Cosmic Gate live onstage for a surprise performance.

Manuel de la Mare and Alex Kenji drew a sizable crowd to the BAO dome where they fed the chilled-out mass some bumpin’ progressive house.

Knife Party killed the Main Stage with Antidote before Fedde le Grand kept the love flowing with his anthem “So Much Love;” taking the crowd from soft house to hard electro within minutes.

Kaskade opened with “Eyes” and W&W’s “Impact” at the Main Stage and upped the ante with a mash-up of “Fire in Your New Shoes” and “Antidote.”

Gui Boratto drew a large crowd seeking to recharge at the UMF Ibiza tent, keeping the energy flowing with his very own “Azzurra” and “No Turning Back” while Armin van Buuren brought the masses to their knees with tunes from his recently-released Universal Religion album.

A repeat of Electric Zoo ’11, Armin van Buuren and Bassnectar competed for fans to wrap up Ultra Music Festival ’12. While Bassnectar kept the bass wobbling and the crowd vibrating at the Live stage, Armin played a second set following David Guetta on the Main Stage.

AvB started his grand finale with Omnia & IRA’s “The Fusion” which morphed into the Cosmic Gate’s hit “Be Your Sound” and his own new release “J’ai Envie de Toi.” The highlight of the night was Ferry Corsten joining AvB live onstage to electrify the crowd with “Brute.” The night ended with a full blast of AvB’s “In and Out of Love” as fireworks lit up the bay.

All hits considered, the anthem of UMF was no doubt Dada Life’s “Kick Out The Epic Motherfucker,” which played by the likes of Laidback Luke, Tiesto, Steve Aoki, and Deniz Koyu amongst many others. Alesso’s “Years” came in at a close second.