brian428

Paul Van Dyk - "The Other Side"

If you google for "drug dog" and "ecstasy" you'll see numerous articles about dogs finding pills. However most of these were at customs and involved huge numbers of pills (10,000 or more). I've never seen a drug dog in a public area in the Miami airport and even if there was one I have a hard time believing it could smell a couple of pills unless it was practically on top of you.

Exactly, except we took a cab so we were screwed, we had no choice but to pay the insane fee to store the camera and backpack. Now I know that the security people just had no idea what the hell they were doing. But I'd love to get a definite answer from someone at Ultra. You'd think this would be the kind of thing you could find out at the web site, but it isn't.

In 2003 I was forced to pay $20 to leave a backpack and a camera at the "checked baggage" area by the Ultra security. This is why I'm trying to find out for sure in advance.

OK so what is the official word on backpacks or cameras at Ultra? I've searched the entire Ultra web site, looked at the ticket I printed, looked at what Wanttickets has, and there is no information about this anywhere. Can someone from Ultra make a definitive statement?

I would doubt that the average doorman will be able to detect whether the birth certificate is authentic or not. I would bring the passport for sure.

Virtually all events are 21 and up only. There might be a couple of 18 and up parties but I haven't heard of any.

Yep, Sasha started using the MAVIN controller with Ableton Live software on a Powerbook on January 29, 2005. Prior to that he mixed with Traktor and Final Scratch.

Sasha's been using Traktor for a while now. I believe he's using it with Final Scratch, which is also the program that PVD runs. It uses encoded vinyl records but plays the sound off of the laptop. They encode to a ultra-high quality lossless codec and store the music on the laptop. Not only do they keep the benefits of touching vinyl on the turntable, but they have almost limitless music without lugging around records, they can never scratch the record, never skip a CD due to a scratch, and never warp a record. Plus they can capture and sequence samples together on the fly. Some people scoff at using digital media but they probably better get used to it because it is the future. EDIT: ahhh, the site says he's using something new called MAVEN. Interesting, I'll have to look that up!

Infusion.

He's talking about 2am for Ultra, not the after party.

Yes, these parties will be packed so I would strongly recommend not wearing open-toed shoes.

It totally depends on who you want to see. You can bet that Space will be packed to the walls. Everywhere will be crowded (Spin, Crobar, etc.) but Space will be jammed like a sardine can every night. Of course the fact that it's crowded means nothing if you don't like who's playing...

Count on 21+. The only time I've seen it 18+ was at last year's PVD Rock the Vote show. I highly doubt they'll do that again.

This has been discussed numerous times, if you do a search on ultra vip you should see several threads. The bottom line is: no, VIP at Ultra is not worth it.

I did it last year and in my opinion it was not worth it. The VIP area was way off to the side of the main stage, none of the staff knew *anything* about VIP or where to go, I got none of the promised "goodies", there was *one* portajohn in the VIP area which resulted in a massive line, and the security people were letting anyone who wanted to jump over the little barricade into the VIP area. The only reasons I could see to do it are that it DID let you skip the line, and if you are planning on dropping $500-$1000 on table service inside the VIP area (the minimum purchase to sit at a table was about $600 for a couple bottles of grey goose and mixers). Ultra is fun as hell, but the VIP thing just wasn't worth it.

I've stayed at the Tudor at the past two conferences at it was fine. It totally falls into the other statement of being a basic place to crash. It's certainly not fancy and you wouldn't want to just sit and hang out in your room, but anyone just sitting in their room at the WMC is really missing the point. I've never had any problems except that sometimes it can be loud outside the hotel (but I suspect it's like that anywhere on SoBe). For the price and location you can't really beat it, unless you really want to stay in a fancier place (and don't mind paying out the ass for it). I certainly have never seen yellow water come out of the shower or the faucet at the Tudor as you say you did at the Ramada...yikes! Basically I'd put the Tudor in the same category as a Day's Inn.

Since PVD is also confirmed to play at Ultra on Saturday, so much for Space's threats to force the big name DJ's to play only Ultra or only Space. I knew there was no way they could go through with it.

You missed a stellar performance. I've been able to see them live 3 times and each one was utterly mindblowing. Maybe this year you'll get your chance! They are wrapping up work on their new album (with a new member by the look of it, Darren Price). Here's hoping they decide to drop in on Miami!

holy shit, sasha/digweed/infusion...that would be ungodly!! How about: underworld deep dish armin van buuren fatboy slim carl cox sander kleinenberg

Yep, I've stayed at the Tudor the last 2 years and I'm staying there this year. It's cheap and in the middle of everything. It's not fancy, but not bad either...it's just a place to sleep and shower which is all I need. I snagged mine for $124 per night but they just raised the rate to $219 per night.

Clubs in SoBe are actually usually VERY snobby. However, during the WMC they are a bit more relaxed due to the conference. Still, I'd recommend looking nice.

Tiesto: awesome. Space: waay to fucking packed, it was a sardine can in there.

Since there were a lot of people (including myself) who were looking for info on whether the VIP tickets were worth it for Ultra, I figured I'd post about it so others can search on it for next year. Ultra 6 was great, the acts that I saw were really good, and Junkie XL was a great surprise. So I won't comment much on the music itself, this review is really specifically for the VIP ammeneties themselves. The Good: The VIP Beach area was really awesome, lots of hammocks and beds, a great vibe in there. The drink area for VIP was a great touch, the lines were short and fast, they had lots more choices, and the drinks were strong as hell. Lots more room. The ampitheater VIP area had a great view of the stage and was waaay less crowded than the non-VIP areas. Separate entrances both into the show which got us in fast and let you miss many of the bottleneck areas to get into the ampitheater area from the back Seemed like all very cool people doing the VIP thing, definitely weeded out the assholes and zombie drug-heads. The Bad: There WAS NO VIP area for the Ultra Sound Stage (the second main stage) as there was advertised to be. That is a low blow as it was a major selling point. I walked the whole area and could not find it, and every employee I asked said the only VIP area was at the ampitheater. You suck for this, Ultra people. The organization of the VIP stuff sucked. No one knew anything about the VIP stuff, even the people working in VIP. "Where are the other VIP areas?" you could ask, and no one would have a clue, etc. They desperately need to give you a small piece of paper that tells you where the VIP areas are (or aren't, see above) what the deal is in each area with drinks, bathrooms, etc. This was an area that really, really needs improvement. The ampitheater VIP area had ONE bathroom. Ultra, what the fuck were you thinking?! The only other bathrooms were a looong walk away. As a guy, I started taking matters into my own hands. Sorry, but I'm not walking 15 minutes to the bathroom in the middle of Tiesto. For christ's sake Ultra, next year place 6 or 8 johns in the VIP section. No meal ticket as we were supposed to get, no bag of goodies Was it worth it? I would still say yes, because for me, the real benefit was having more room to dance at the ampitheater. All the other stuff was like gravy, and since virtually all of it fell short of advertised or just did not exist at all, it was gravy I never got. Would I do it again? Not sure...maybe. Having more room to dance was great, but I could easily see myself saving the VIP money and doing VIP at Space or Mansion instead. Ultra really REALLY needs to organize it better and stop lying about what you get for it for me to think about doing it again. Anyway, I hope this long rant helps out others next year if they're thinking about doing the VIP ticket at Ultra 7.

Wow, what a useful idea...except that 99% of people won't KNOW they're not supposed to have a camera, and thus won't stuff it in their pants before they get to the search at the gate.