On Thursday, November 15th at 9am, the Miami City Commission will vote at City Hall on Ultra Music Festival’s proposal to move its venue to Historic Virginia Key Beach Park (HVKBP) for March 29-31, 2019. Some residents of Virginia Key and the mayor of neighboring Key Biscayne have loudly voiced their disapproval, but another issue also stands in Ultra’s way, perhaps more significant. Rapture Festival, which has been held at HVKBP for the past two years, already has a contract on the venue for March 29 and 30, 2019.
This morning, Rapture Festival released a statement to press strongly opposing Ultra’s new proposal:
Rapture Music Festival has successfully held two editions on consecutive years 2017 and 2018 at the Historic Virginia Key Beach Park (HVKBP). We are strongly opposed to Ultra Music Festival’s proposal to relocate to HVKBP as we currently have a signed contract with the Historic Virginia Key Beach Park Trust for March 29 and March 30, 2019 and we’re very much looking forward to returning to this beautiful beachside setting for our third edition with our fans. 
Rapture Festival brings a lineup similar to Ultra’s Resistance stage, hosting names such as Luciano, Chris Liebing, Guy Gerber, Hernan Cattaneo and RPR Soundsystem. In further comparison to Ultra, Rapture is much, much smaller in attendance, drawing just 7,000 attendees in 2018. This could definitely be seen as a positive by the community of Virginia Key, who are worried about the environmental effect festivals have on the surroundings.
Whether the city of Miami will vote to approve Ultra’s proposal and oust Rapture to another date or location, or deny Ultra’s proposal, remains to be seen. Should things proceed as planned, we’ll know one way or the other tomorrow morning.
