ULTRA review, comments...

[Guest mr_alex2]

My 3rd Ultra experience.

I attended GG last week and mus say there must have been triple the crowd... IT WAS INSANE...

It was like a disney ride everywhere you went...

I got there pretty late, about 6pm... We took one look at the will call which was at the AAA and the line was like a mile long. I had my tix but some of our friends didn't.

We were fairly drunk when we arrived, so we decided to just try and walk in... IT WORKED!

The gate and ticket scanners were completely overwhelmed... I saw tons of people walking in the "order reciept" instead of the "boarding pass", if you bought your ticket online you know what I mean. We also didn't get checked at all, I think they were not expecting sooo many people... It was insane!!!!

Once on the inside, trying to get a drink was really really a pain in the a$$! but we did it!

All the tents were packed...

Carl Cox and friends - packed, it was great

House Tent - extra packed at approx 9pm - GREAT!

Prodigy - I was sooo looking forward to this, but the sound was really weak, I could barely feel the music.

The stage were Junkie XL was at must have had some tech problems, we got there when he was finishing his set just in ime for sander k, and all the speakers kept bottoming out... They must have trying to push the speakers too hard, i dunno - we left becase it sucked to hear the music on crap speakers.

On the way out the drum and bass tent was awesome, the MC's (i don't know who they were) was great.

Overall, we (wifey and I + friedns) had a great time becuase we were with each other. But the lines were very out of control. I can't believe we just walked in... obviously have to be drunk to just thinkg "forget will call line, it's too long, let's just try and walk in" That was nutz, oh well..

I was also with soe forst timers, and they said they will not return again, too much of a mission. - I agree.

Ultra peeps - please double your epmloyees!

So, how was everyone else's ULTRA experince?

How many people were there????

PEACE,

Alex V.

[Guest coach]

I think that the Ultra team was just totally overwhelmed by the crowd size. When we were there earlier in the day, everything was running smoothly. Trash pickup was good, gate traffic was good, etc. Later in the day, as the crowd got truly gigantic, I think they were taken somewhat by surprise. Though, I am not sure why. Surely they could estimate crowd size by pre-ticket sales and staff accordingly. But maybe there were more gate sales than anticipated. The food lines never got bad, though I could not see how anyone could get drunk out there just drinking booze purchased onsite. Seemed like by the time you got through the alcohol line, you would have finished metabolizing your previous drink.

My biggest gripe was this:

WHERE THE FUCK WAS THE ICE CREAM???????????????????

[Guest LiquidX]

SOmething you should have learned after the years was to get there early .. no?

Heh.. anyways, I got there at around 2. I mean, what can go wrong... you get there early, chill, plus there is someone good playing at any given time.!

The amount of people was overwhelming. CrazY!!!!! I loved the set-up, the tents and everything. But there was some BIG major screw ups.. and Im talking about the Sound System on the MAIN STAGE. Everyone who was there for Oakenfold knows what I mean. The sound system sucked ass... they should have brought the same system as they had on the ampitheater.. but clearly they didnt. Also.. it was TOOO low!!!! wtf!!!

Conclusion... I took about 4 first timears and 4 2-3 timers.

We all agreed that even though this year the setup of the tents and overall look was amazing, last years acts and peak tours the night was much better, with the obvious MOVE BACK to bayfront park comment. I can not deal with all the dirt spewing off.

First timers LOVED it.. they said that if tickets were selling @ the park for next year they would have bought right there.

House Tent seemed the most packed throughout and best designed, while the Carl Cox & Friends tent was HUGE!! the kyrogenix they had going.. NICEEEEEEEEE.

Main Satge.. packed packed, and crappy sound system, that really disapointed me.

I will come back though.. like always.

[Guest HouseJunkie]

I had a great time great time @ Ultra and got a chance to see and listen to some big name DJs for the first time.

Ultra organizers did a good job with planning this event but there were a couple of things that they missed or didn't plan for.

GOOD.

- DJ Schedule with times, we asked for if, you delivered. Thanks.

- Good sound isolation between stages

- Large variety of food, everything from shrimp cocktail to fresh fruits

- More vendors selling water.

BAD.

- All the sound systems were weak; you need speakers in the rear or more in the front. I had to hunt for the 'sweetspot' in the House tent.

- House tent was too small.

- House tent lack ventilation in the rear, smoke+dust=cough.

- Not enough liquor stands, it was a mission trying to get liquor.

- No lights in the Porto, can't find my weener in the dark

- Larger number of people, it’s very apparent that no one planned for such a large turnout.

[Guest soozin]

i got there at 6... it was a pain in the fuckin ass per usual. i miss bayfront park...

carl cox tent was the best imo(space, sound, lighting), saw carl and danny in there, house tent was good too... main stage sound left a lot to be desired, the whole set up was like wtf.. freakin maze.. my own fault for not gettin there w/ enough daylight to scope everything out. gettin a drink was a nightmare.. once i got my groove it was cool enough, caught glaude, killers, carl, danny t, richie hawtin who i was very lookin fwd to, it was fun enough... i liked carry on a lot, anyone know how late danny played?? i wanted to stay but i was wasted tired!

ultra is cool on many levels but i think next yr i may just stick to the beach parties... tho i feel like i say that to myself every yr and still go to ultra just because its there lol

ah well...

back to the beach i go!

[Guest obby]

Just my opinion:

JunkieXL's set was the best set I heard all night. Period ponit blank. The lighting on the main stage was sweet.

What happened to the sound system in the Ultra stage and the Live stage? Subs sounded blown on both.

The Carl Cox & friends tend was rocking non stop along withthe sound system.

[Guest defunes]

The techno stage was brilliant. Mistress Barbara was rocking non stop...lots of dirt though...I found dirt in my nose this morning. Disgusting...but it was great. Car Cox's set was amazing...great sound system in that tent.

[Guest mp3some]

Listening to the live broadcast on xm on the way over, some idiot announcer said that the show was filled to capacity, no more tickets being sold, dont even bother trying, this and that.... I had no ticket so i almost freaked out.... It was very stressful for a while... LOL

Turns out that my friends on will call said they were selling tickets at the door, so i got there bought my tix, got in and 3 hrs later, my friends were still in line for willcall...... Real screw-up there! >

Crowds were craaazy.... not my type of thing anymore.

Ridiculous lines for everything, but when u have 60k ppl in one place, u kinda have to expect some delays....

The key here is to have a core group of ppl w similar tastes in music, too many ppl w different tastes and u spend all day trying to meet up again.

I must have sent and received more text messages yesterday than in the past 6 months!

Musically, It was a gooood time.

Carl Cox tent was awesome. The set-up, the sound, it was huuuge. Saw Josh Wink and Carl Cox.

Tried to hang around for Sander on the Live Stage, but the sound, the stage and the beats weren't doin it for me, so kept bouncing around....

Went by the House tent, but wasn't really feeling it there.. it was mad packed tho, but nothing special comin out really.

Techno Stage was awesome too... saw Picotto and a little bit of Liebing; and then on to the main stage.

Last hour, PVD for the closing.

Stood right in front and had a blast up there... This guy really brings it down on the masses.... Everyone was loving it!

I love to look back and around and see all the smiling faces.. ppl just really enjoying it.......

Good times indeed.

I was sooo not informed, that i thought ultra would be on bayfront park; a real surprise to find myself walking past the AAA onto bicentennial...lol

In Conclusion:

Did I have a good time?? Yes

Will I go again next year?? Probably Not.

8)

[Guest JMT]

the will-call window at the AAA was a F-ING JOKE!

2 hours to get tickets and then get inside. that experience alone made me not want to go to ultra again.

how do you only have ONE entrance for 50,000+ people? that line was also a disaster. do they only use one gate at joe robbie? i dont think so.

and then to top it off, the sound on the 2 biggest stages blew. heavy distortion, and a complete sound failure at the main stage (a la tiesto 2 years ago).

i had fun simply bc i make my own fun, thats the kind of guy i am. but id have to rank this as the worst-organized ultra out of the 5 ive been to. having it at bicentennial was probably a blessing, its a smaller space but more open. i cant imagine how much of a nightmare the foot traffic would have been at bayfront. the alcohol lines were also a total cluster. beer was a lot easier, but then you had to convice the people working the beer to accept the mixed drink tickets, and somehow they failed to understand how using a mixed drink ticket for cheap beer actually saved them money.

the final verdict is: i wont say that i definitely wont be going back next year, but im certainly going to give it a second thought and weigh other options.

PS. morillo was good, but he rocked the same tunes as the patio. sander k was very solid. junkie xl did marginally ok, played a good coldplay remix. oakey, i was pulling for you, but its like you didnt even try to recover after the sound came back on. PVD, typical pvd, had his monents, but getting the final song (mindcircus) cutoff was pretty lame. killers sounded great.

[cotoncandydream]

www.myspace.com/umf8

[Guest Marina22]

Fucking Bullshit! I am the first to say Ultra is great and worth it but this year it was the worst organization I have seen in the last 5 or six times I have gone. It was my fault that I had to go back home to Fort Lauderdale and that was at like 3:30-4pm. When I got back, I found out the right line (will call) I knew it was going to be bad but not two hours in line!

The only time I waited an hour in line was right after 9/11 and we had tickets. I only got will call cause I have never had problems like that before. I made friends with some Brits in the line, since all my friends were inside, and these guys said "this is bollucks never coming back to this BS." Poor guys had tickets to the Carry-on and that line looked horrendous when we left!

Didn't walk in till 8pm hence $80 for four hours! > An hour later I was lucky enough to find one of my friends in the Carl Cox tent. The stages, there was too many ppl. or the sound was distorted so went back to the tents. Missed Barbara, Beyer, Wink, Dj Dan and so many more :'( So I stuck to the best: Carl Cox-Quality, best tent best everything(Voices inside my head); Mauro Picotto- nice; Armand Van Helden-great; Danny T-tops as usual and besides that I saw some Junkie XL, and some of the breaks and drum and bass as I walked by. Didn't get to see alot of anybody which is a given. I went to afterhours at Metropolis and it was okay but I had not looked into any parties since I had only planned on Ultra. I will prob. go back but next time early and with a freaking ticket in hand. So pissed!