EDM fest Road To Ultra returns in September

It may be hard to believe, but next year’s edition of the Ultra Music Festival, one of the planet’s biggest festivals, will be its 20th anniversary. There are several other similar large-scale music fests around the world, but if you’re a hardcore EDM fan, a pilgrimage to the annual Miami event is a must.

Thankfully, if your funds can’t take you all the way to Miami, Ultra is bringing the party over to you. Here in the Philippines, a local edition of Ultra—albeit on a smaller scale called Road To Ultra—has been held since 2015.

That inaugural Manila edition featured big names such as Skrillex, A-Trak, Fedde Le Grand, and Mija. Last year, Alesso, Hardwell and Tiesto were the top draws.

This year, only a date has been announced for Ultra’s stop in Manila: September 15. No venue yet, but if it’s anything like the last two years, expect to make a beeline for Mall Of Asia, either inside the Arena, or outside at the concert grounds.

If you’re itching to find out how our neighbors in the region party it up Ultra-style, you might want to check out the festival’s other stops over the course of the next few months. The folks at Ultra say that the festival attracted over 350,000 fans to eight events across Asia last year. This year might just top that number with Ultra Worldwide producing a total of nine shows on the continent. Here’s the schedule:

• ULTRA Korea: June 10-11 at Olympic Stadium, Seoul
• ULTRA Singapore: June 10-11 at ULTRA Park, 1 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore 
• Road to ULTRA India (New Delhi): September 8 at India Exposition Mart, Greater Noida, New Delhi
• ULTRA China: September 9-10, Shanghai
• Road to ULTRA Taiwan: September 10 at Da Jia Riverside Park, Taipei 
• Road to ULTRA Philippines: September 15
• Road to ULTRA Hong Kong: September 16 at Nursery Park, West Kowloon Cultural District
• ULTRA Japan: September 16-18 at Tokyo Odaiba Ultra Park, Tokyo
• ULTRA Beach Bali: September 2017

There are a couple things I find interesting about this list. First, this is the first time that Ultra is coming to China, where EDM has quite a sizable following. The American music festival is also making a second visit to India, where it is looking to establish a presence in a market already claimed by another big EDM festival, although that one—the annual Sunburn Festival—happens in the Southern beach town of Goa.

For something closer to home, you might want to make a choice between Singapore and South Korea, which will host the festival simultaneously on June 10 and 11. In Singapore, the venue is across from the Marina Bay Sands Hotel at a place they’re calling Ultra Park just for the big event. Festivalgoers can hop between three stages—Main, Live and Resistance—and can expect to see live headliners KSHMR, Pendulum and tchami and DJs Dash Berlin, Dubfire, Hardwell, Steve Angello, Steve Aoki, Tiestö, Martin Solveig and many more. More names are expected to be announced in Phase 2 coming soon.

Over in Seoul, the big event will be held at the Olympic Stadium and is already shaping up to be the largest electronic music festival in the country’s history. In addition to the three stages like in Singapore, there will be a fourth stage called Magic Beach, which, as the name suggests, has a beach theme, with sand and beach chairs added around the stage.

The headliners in Seoul, according to the Ultra website, are pretty much the same as the one in Singapore, which probably means some or all of the acts will have to jet between the two countries over the course of the two days. (The additional acts announced here include Anna, GTA, Klingande and Ty Dolla $ign). Talk about hustlin’ for cash.

Then again, we’re all slaves to the music and there’s probably no dance party happening this year bigger than Ultra. — BM, GMA News

Paul John Caña is a writer and live music geek. Check out his blog manontheotherside.blogspot.com. Email him at pjcana@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter and Instagram @pauljohncana.