Boots on the Ground at Ultra's 25th Anniversary

Last weekend marked the 25th anniversary of Ultra, the world’s most renowned electronic music festival.

Over 160,000 attendees from all over the world flocked to Bayfront Park in Miami to celebrate the tenets of American rave culture: peace, love, unity and respect (aka P.L.U.R). When we think of Ultra, we think EDM, a young genre of electronic music that first rose to popularity in the early 2000s, helped by the emergence of drum and bass, trance and house music in the international rave scene. By the 2010s, it had become mainstream, adjacent to cultural phenomena like growing festival culture and the many prominent collaborations between pop artists like Rihanna, Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande and EDM artists like David Guetta, Avicii and Calvin Harris that topped the charts.

Rave culture and fashion have changed a lot over the years. Tammy, a Tampa resident who says she’s been raving since before I was born, explains during the festival that back in the day, when there were no phones, people danced more, and you had to use a map to find the secret festival location. Still, festival-goers are still trying to keep the experience pure.

Style-wise, psychedelic print, neons and face-gems are still a staple. Ravers of all ages proudly show off their DIY custom outfits, which have taken days, sometimes weeks, to sew, glue and assemble. Recent trends, like micro-shorts and Dune-universe outfits, are seen on many Gen Z ravers. Notably, galaxy print has fallen out of style completely, and “boho” is not far behind, thank god. As the days progress, platform boots are traded for flat sneakers. Then on Sunday, when the festival-grounds are briefly evacuated due to a tropical storm, the crowd returns as a sea of ponchos. “The rain doesn’t stop real ravers, we’ve been stomping around in the rain all day and it’s only getting better,” attendee Kira Rudderow says as she dries off in the Megastructure.

As a young teenager whose early cultural exposure coincided with this EDM boom, I had watched the YouTube recaps of Ultra on YouTube, thinking this might be the pinnacle of entertainment in the modern day. Ten years later, attending the festival in real life, it became obvious how many people share that sentiment. The crowd was made up of both seasoned ravers and first-timers, scene kids and old hippies. Almost every language could be heard in the crowd as friends strategized the fastest way to get to their next act. As we snapped photos of festival-goers, swarms of people descended to give us sprout clips and trade kandi. Gratitude and closeness emanated, and regardless of our aesthetic affiliations in the outside world, here we were one big community.

Below, check out photos of Ultra alongside quotes from attendees and artists.