Attendees have labelled this year’s Ultra Music Festival in Miami “Fyre Festival 2″ after thousands were left stranded on the event’s island.
The electronic music festival, held for the first time on Florida’s Virginia Key this year, wrapped its first day in the small hours of Saturday (March 30) with approximately 50,000 ticket holders waiting for buses to return them to the mainland. That or walking almost three miles back to the mainland to find transportation were the only choices. This was the first year the festival had taken place at Virginia Key.
Ultra had 200 buses readied to take people to three hubs in Miami. Long lines began forming at the buses after 1 a.m., with attendees complaining about proper organization of the lines and festival staffers’ inability to direct people. And as concertgoers began pouring out of the festival grounds, a tree even caught on fire. The cause is still unknown.
Many concertgoers abandoned the shuttles and opted to walk across the Rickenbacker Causeway to Miami. Uber and Lyft had been barred from picking people up on Virginia Key.
The organisers of the festival released the following statement yesterday (March 30) via Twitter.
“Last night, many of you experienced challenging transportation conditions leaving the festival. This is unacceptable and inconsistent with the high standards you have come to expect from us. For this, we are sorry.
“As you might expect, we have already been working cooperatively with our city and county partners to promptly address and resolve these issues. We look forward to offering you a significantly improved transportation experience today and throughout the weekend, and we appreciate the opportunity to earn back your confidence and trust.”
A fire broke out at the festival venue shortly after the night ended, engulfing a tree and some surrounding vegetation.
Fortunately no injuries have been reported, and the fire department put it out without incident. The cause of the blaze is unknown, however some attendees have attributed it to a firework.
