10 unmissable acts at Ultra Miami 2024

Depending on when you last checked it out, Ultra Miami is not what you think. Once the reserve of chart-topping dance stars, EDM bigwigs and epic drops, it has very much evolved in recent times into something with a more wide-ranging appeal. Sure, the biggest names in the game still line up, but so do a whole array of cultured house, drum & bass and techno artists and electronic innovators. And this year, arguably, even more so than ever, especially when you take into account the mighty Resistance megastructure which boasts the likes of Eric Prydz, Camelphat, Amelie Lens, Artbat, Patrick Mason, Sasha & John Digweed and a whole raft more.

This year's event at Bayfront Park will feature out-of-this-world production across no fewer than seven stages on Friday 22nd, Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th March. It represents a real electronic marathon so we have picked out some of the markers you need to be hitting to ensure you complete it in the most unforgettable fashion.

Dance music titans Chris Lake and FISHER unveiled their new collaborative show Under Construction at Coachella last year and have since taken it to Hollywood Boulevard and Phoenix Raceway. It comes to Europe for the first time later in the summer when the pair headline Parklife in Manchester, England, but not before they debut it at Ultra this March. The show sees the chart-topping producers working through a multitude of their major hits, all with epic production, dazzling light shows and scintillating lasers designed to leave an indelible mark on dancers. Under Construction is something of a landmark moment for the scene because never before have two house acts commanded stages of quite such gargantuan proportions as these.

Read Chris Lake’s interview for the May 2023 cover of DJ Mag North America here.

Collaboration has become an ever more key part of a producer's career, but so too have back-to-back sets — an intriguing way for promoters to bring a little exclusivity and intrigue to their line-ups. So it is that there will be more than one of those at Ultra this year, including this rather unlikely pairing. That element of surprise only makes it all the more interesting, though — how will Dubfire, known for his electrifying big room techno, and Ilario Alicante, a long-time Ibiza mainstay with a more stripped-back house sound, find common ground? You'll have to be there to find out.

South Korea-born Peggy Gou's rise to prominence has been nothing short of remarkable. Her journey began in London well under a decade ago when she stayed in the English capital to focus on music following the completion of a fashion course. Fast forward to now and she has had a global hit with '(It Goes Like) Nanana', runs her own respected label Gudu Records, and has a hardcore global fanbase. This set at the epic Ultra Miami is only going to heighten her reputation. Expect party-starting fireworks from this eclectic, energetic selector.

Peggy Gou was voted the World’s No.1 House DJ in DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs poll 2023. Check out the full list here.

South African-Swiss DJ and producer Nora En Pure is something of an anomaly in the scene — while climbing high in DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs, she has managed to maintain her organic house sound. It's an energy she brings to her big league bookings and regular sets at some of the largest and most commercial venues in the world, including a residency at the plush Las Vegas spot, Wynn.

You could no longer really say that prog house is enjoying a revival because it has been one of the most dominant sounds in clubland for years now. One of its more notable new school stars is Miss Monique, the Ukrainian artist whose Siona Records label has been responsible for turning out plenty of emotionally intense, rolling house and deep tech tunes from a range of fresh names. The boss' stylish output is at the core of the label — and often at the top of the digital charts — with its bright chords, twinkling melodies and serene grooves, all of which have you gazing off into the cosmos and lost in many lush layers of sound.

Live shows always offer a different sort of experience on the dancefloor — they're can sometimes offer something a bit more nuanced, musical and experimental than a DJ set, and that is very much the case when composer and multi-instrumentalist Giorgia Angiuli steps up. She has a background studying classical guitar (and played her first solo concert aged just 10) and pairs that with a love of electronic music. Her shows move between pop, techno and house and are intertwined with her own vocals, plenty of samples and loops, and get intensified by her use of a wide and ever-changing mix of toy instruments, as well as keyboards, drum pads and a theremin.

Even outside of niche underground clubs, techno has been getting harder and faster over recent years. Dutchman Reinier Zonneveld is no doubt at least in part to thank for that. His label, Filth On Acid, gives you an idea of what he is all about — lashings of 303s, stomping, hard-edge drums, distorted basslines and, in the last year or so, not-so-subtle trance overtones. It combines the best of the '90s with new school methods and results in brilliant bamboozlement on the dancefloor. What makes his arresting, rave-ready sound all the more remarkable is that Zonneveld's first forays into music were composing classical pieces and performing solo piano concerts.

Read Reinier Zonneveld interview for the September 2022 cover of DJ Mag North America here.

If there is a harder working DJ in the game right now than Brazilian export Vintage Culture, we'd like to know about it. Lukas Ruiz is famous for playing multiple sets each weekend in diverse locations around the world — sometimes even playing twice in the same night in different venues — but also for hanging around after he is done so he can get involved with some after-party action. He also turns out tunes at an unprecedented rate, and pairs lush synths with fat, rolling house basslines and hooky vocals that bring feel-good vibes to any party. Some of his first post-Covid sets outside of his homeland were in Miami, so this gig marks something of a return to where he really kicked things up to the next level.

Read Vintage Culture interview for the May 2022 cover of DJ Mag North America here.

If you want proof that Ultra has evolved its musical outlook in the years since the EDM explosion, look no further than Belgian behemoth Amelie Lens. She is a booking that is a world away from the maximal, bro-led drops of yesteryear. The Lenske label head has a fierce, darkened techno sound that has seen her headline at the world's biggest clubs — not least DC-10 in Ibiza, where she hosts her own popular Exhale parties. To hear her play on the main stage with all the Ultra production in full flow will be explosive indeed, and could well find her playing with her trusty Pioneer RMX 1000, an effects box she has been known to call upon to add extra layers of percussion and groove to her mixes.

Read Amelie Lens’ interview for the June 2023 cover of DJ Mag here.

The appearance of Bou on the Ultra line-up is a big one for drum & bass fans that shows the underground's ever-present genre continues to reach ever further outside of its usual confines. Extra proof comes from the fact that peers Hedex and Chase & Status also make the cut, but Algeria-born, Manchester-based Bou in particular is one to catch. He is coming off the back of a huge 2023 in which his tune ‘Closer’ charted at No.24 on the UK Singles Chart. Better still, his ‘Baddadan’ collaboration with Chase & Status, also last year, hit number five in the charts and made it onto the duo’s ‘2 Ruff Vol.1’ album. All that means that this set should be a great cause for celebration for all.

Read Bou’s interview for the July 2023 cover of DJ Mag here.