Ultra Music Festival Celebrates 25th Anniversary and Here’s Why It’s So Special

Ultra Music Festival is preparing to come back to life and build on the hype for its massive 25th anniversary in March 2025. The 2024 Aftermovie has just been released and the ticket waiting lists have opened again, meaning tickets and the Phase 1 lineup are just a few weeks away. While Ultra Music Festival is always a great time with a groundbreaking lineup, Ultra Anniversary festivals are on a whole other level. You don’t want to miss 2025 and you can bet tickets will sell out early this year. Let’s take a look back at Ultra’s history to see why this year will be something truly special.

The previous two anniversaries (2013 and 2018)

Ask anyone you know who has been to Ultra Music Festival multiple times and they will undoubtedly rate 2013 and 2018 as some of their favourite years. When Ultra celebrates an anniversary it knows it has to blow minds with its lineup and it always delivers. Who can forget 2013, when Ultra Music Festival expanded to two weekends for the first and only time and also brought in the final two performances from Swedish House Mafia before their fracture hiatus? The 15th anniversary in 2013 was also the first year with the Arch Worldwide stage, which has since become a permanent fixture.

A lot happened in the years that followed, but Ultra outdid itself once again for its 20th anniversary in 2018. The hype leading up to Ultra 2018 was astronomical. That’s the year Ultra teased us to “expect the unexpected” and dropped almost inaudible hints about its secret closing act. This year, largely regarded as one of the festival’s best outings, saw the epic reunion of Swedish House Mafia and a rare ASOT closing set of Above and beyond in the megastructure. It was also the last year that A State of Trance would hold their Sunday takeover in the megastructure :(. After 2018, Ultra entered an extremely tumultuous period, as did the rest of the world in 2020. Thanks to COVID, Ultra’s anniversaries will align perfectly with the year, so the 20th anniversary was in 2018, but the 25th anniversary will be in 2025 (going by festival events, not years).

What to expect

There is every reason to expect Ultra to go big for this anniversary, as Ultra always outdoes itself. For starters, the Resistance sub-brand has expanded and now owns two stages and its own satellite location. M2where in 2018 it only had the Spider stage (RIP) and 2 days in the megastructure. The Cove stage has been expanded into its own stage overlooking the bay, while the UMF Radio stage has also swapped places. Armin van Buuren’s A State of Trance will now take over the Worldwide Stage on Friday, and the fountain at Bayfront Park will finally come back to life after over a decade. To add to the hype for 2025, Carl Cox skipped Ultra 2024, but has hinted that he’ll be back in full force in 2025 and will bring something special. This also marks the first anniversary of Ultra hosting its satellite party for Resistance at M2 all week long. We’re sure there will be some special events there too.

Will we see anything new this year? We know the fountain is finally going to be operational, so could that change the festival footprint in the main stage area a bit? We’ll have to wait and see.

Artists we hope for

For every birthday, fans wish for a return of Trance Tiesto, but the chances of that seem considerably smaller now that ASOT is in the megastructure on Friday. Could we see a return of Armin van Buuren’s dormant GAIA project on the Resistance Stage? That would definitely fit the bill for this year. We would love it if Dom Dolla and John Summit Everything Always to the main stage. On that note we feel like we Everyone make an epic main stage debut with full visuals in tow. Now we know that Anyma will not only be gracing the main stage, but he will be doing so with Solomun. Of Rufus of the Sun releasing an album this fall, could this be the year we finally get Rufus du Sol on the Live Stage? After Eric Prydz debuted his amazing (CELL) show at Hi Ibiza this summer, everyone is wondering if we’ll see that technology cranked up 10x and dropped into the Resistance Megastructure. What will Carl Cox to make this year special, considering he played back-to-back with Green Velvet, Vintage Culture and more in 2024. Can we expect a marathon set with multiple b2b’s?

While Ultra recently ventured into Hardstyle with one-day performances on the UMF Radio Stage, we can’t help but wonder if this is the year we’ll see Hard Techno make its Miami debut. Sara Landry is a breakout hit at EDC and Tomorrowland, but is Ultra ready to embrace that new sound?

We can’t tell you anything for sure at this point, except to expect the unexpected. Stay tuned as the information flows in.