Ultra Music Festival voted as world’s greatest festival for second year in a row

DJ Mag voters selected Ultra Music Festival as the world’s greatest festival for the second year in a row. Half a million voters chose Ultra over other festivals in this year’s poll, granting the coveted top spot to elite music festival. Its flagship edition, Ultra Miami, was attended by 125,000 ravers this year at Bayfront Park in March.

Headlined by the biggest names in electronic dance music, Ultra Miami hosted 215 of the world’s most talents DJs over three days. These included DJ Mag 100 winner Martin Garrix, David Guetta, and Tiësto.

For fans who didn’t fly to Miami, the livestreams were viewed by an impressive 18 million viewers. A perennial fan favorite is the Resistance stage, a massive, moving, fire-breathing spider named Arcadia—this year’s installment saw the legendary Carl Cox take the helm of this futuristic steampunk spectacle.

Much like this spider invading Miami, the Ultra brand has dominated the EDM scene worldwide with an ever-expanding lineup of editions outside the United States. Resistance itself has set-up shop in South America as well as an announced residency this summer in Ibiza.

Ibiza itself is a new host site for Ultra, along with other new installments in Australia, China, and India. A staggering 23 countries and counting hold Ultra events, including Crotia, Korea, and Singapore.

Ultra began in 1999 back when the EDM name didn’t exist and fans just called the genre house and techno. The 2018 edition of Ultra Miami will honor these humble beginnings with a 20th anniversary edition.

Check out Ultra 2017’s “Thank You” video to relive the memories of this number one festival: