Ultra fires back against inflammatory statements made by Mayor-elect Mike Davey
Things are looking even bleaker for Ultra Miami‘s scramble to find a new home for their 2019 venue. After the city stripped Ultra of its longtime home in downtown Miami’s Bayfront Park, organizers began a campaign to move the 165,000-person event to a nearby location on the Virginia Key.
Now, Mayor-Elect of Key Biscayne Mike Davey issued an “urgent” public service announcement to locals encouraging them to join him in blocking the move. He even went as far as to classify the festival itself as a potential “disaster.” Davey cites “environmental impacts,” a “traffic nightmare,” and an increase in “alcohol and drug-related violence” as reasons to stave off the move. Davey ends the statement as follows:
“If, however, we cannot get the City of Miami Commissioners to reconsider, we will have no choice but to mobilize to stop Ultra from entering the city of Miami.”
Ultra immediately released a statement condemning the Mayor-elect’s conduct, stating that the PSA “is patently false and inaccurate and was made with reckless disregard of the truth.”
The city of Miami will vote on Ultra’s move to Virginia Key on November 15.
Listen to Mayor-elect Mike Davey’s statement in full below.
Read Ultra’s full statement below:
It is deeply regrettable that Mayor-Elect, Mike Davey and the Village of Key Biscayne have elected to publish statements that are knowingly false and misleading rather than to first seek to collaborate with either Ultra representatives or its City of Miami partners (if for no other purpose but to gather accurate facts and to gain an understanding of Ultra’s commitment and obligations respecting, traffic mitigation and environmental and historical preservation planning). By opting to instead circulate what appears to be primarily stock photos (unrelated to Ultra) featuring used needles, polluted shorelines, traffic gridlock, by falsely and intentionally reporting that potentially hundreds of thousands of attendees will be converging on the Rickenbacker Causeway and by falsely stating that the City of Miami had purportedly evicted Ultra for environmental destruction, increased alcohol and drug-related violence, safety risks and by reporting other untruths is blatantly disreputable. The offending publication(s) by Mayor-Elect, Mike Davey and the Village of Key Biscayne is patently false and inaccurate and was made with reckless disregard of the truth. “It unfairly disparages our brand and potentially criminalizes our patrons,” says Ray Martinez, Ultra’s spokesperson. The publications made by the Mayor-Elect are believed to be defamatory, as are the horrendous images that were published in an effort to purportedly inflame and scare residents and stakeholders. Ultra condemns this conduct and cautions that such leadership is irresponsible and wrongful on multiple factual and legal grounds including that the disturbing images were not associated with the Ultra Music Festival brand.

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