Ultra Singapore Wraps 4th Edition with Impressive Sets Despite all the Hiccups.
CONTENT: Michelle Ng
IMAGE: Luxe Multimedia
Ultra hasn’t had a great year, starting from the hiccups at their flagship Ultra Miami that kicks off festival season. Ultra Singapore faced its fair share of problems, but still, the show went on. With a change of venue, a headliner pulling out at the last minute, the hits kept coming.
Punters that actually turned up for the festival were treated to some of the best sets by the solid lineup, with only the organisers and sound system letting them down. Ultra Singapore 2019 saw debuts from dubstep and trap acts like Kayzo and Whipped Cream that had the rail riders and headbangers going all out. There was no need to worry about the impending rain and heat, and the festival goers went all out dressing up in their festival best to kick off rave season.
Martin Garrix was sorely missed as he had to pull out due to an ankle injury (no wrongdoing on Ultra’s side here – just pure luck), but the rest of his STMPD Records gang turned up for their stage takeover. Brooks, Loopers, Seth Hills, Dyro, and Matisse & Sadko started the first day over on the mainstage, building up a mix of house, big room beats, and songs by Martin Garrix to make up for his absence. Things then went real dirty with some bass from Whipped Cream. The blonde bombshell held her own as she pushed the speakers to their limits with her signature trap beats and new songs off her latest EP, before Kayzo turned up the heat with his hardstyle.
Axwell slowed things down a little as the default headliner, delivering crowd favourites and radio edits that had the crowd singing along. Over on the Resistance stage, trance lovers had a dope time with a back to back set with Eats Everything and Josh Wink, before Jamie Jones closed out the night.
Day 2 started out early with local represents Myrne and Rave Republic delivering bass-fueled beats from 2pm. The loss of a stage meant that some regional DJs had shorter sets, earlier set timings, and some even headed to other venues instead. The mainstage then saw a melting pot mix of varied genres in the EDM sphere. Infected Mushroom psyched things up with their Israeli-inspired and rock riffs, before Zed’s Dead returned to rear all the bassheads up. The diverse genres, as good as they were, weren’t every punter’s cup of tea, but the crowds started to swell as Skrillex’s set approached.
For those who attended Road To Ultra back in 2015, the new venue in Marina Bay Convention Center brought them back to the good memories as Skrillex returned to close out the show again. He even brought back pal Porter Robinson back on stage just before saying goodbye. As a buildup to Skrillex, Porter Robinson led with a more experimental set of psytrance, trap and dubstep thrown into his mix of psychedelic future house, coupled with unforgettable rainbow lasers and anime visuals.
The crowd this year was sorely lacking compared to the previous three editions by the numbers, but it wasn’t as disastrous as the social media commenters who proclaimed it the ‘Fyre Festival 2: Singapore Edition’. Sure, the sound wasn’t exactly top-notch and it wasn’t the outdoor experience that was promised when tickets were going on sale, but the DJs put up a great show and that’s who we were really there for.
We’re hoping that Ultra wouldn’t give up on Singapore as this is one of the biggest raves that we can get here without having to go overseas, and it would be sorely missed. Till then, we’ll just keep our fingers crossed.
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