Late this afternoon, Swedish House Mafia announced to their Facebook and Twitter followers that they would be hosting a massive 10-hour party, "One Night Stand Masquerade Motel," in Miami on March 26 in the spirit of their Halloween weekend party of the same name. In a year when Winter Music Conference and Ultra Music Festival have been shrouded in controversy due to conflicting dates, the Swedes have added an extra drop of fuel to the fire by skipping what would have been their third consecutive year at UMF.
"To clarify, we are not doing Ultra," Axwell posted on Facebook. "We will do Masquerade Motel and then solo shows."
Artists and fans alike had cried foul in the past over the alleged exclusivity deals that made Ultra the only place where thousands of fans would have the opportunity to see some of their favorite international and domestic acts. This is the primary reason huge names like Tiesto and deadmau5 only had one 2010 WMC date. But artists were able to use loopholes to escape that clause; the Swedes, for instance, would play other shows as Axwell & Friends. It has been rumored that the UMF promoters have been busy fixing the language in their artist contracts to forbid these alternative gigs, making the exclusivity deals ironclad.
Today, UMF blasted a 2011 lineup teaser and linked to the music video for the Tiesto and Diplo single "C'mon," which debuted at the 2010 event, hinting that both will again be on the bill. UMF will announce officially signed talent for phase one of its three-day event tomorrow to accompany Crystal Castles and Norwegian duo Röyksopp.
Okay, so I actually started to write something yesterday, but I ultimately decided to wait until I had a little bit more time to think about how I feel about this. My first reaction was something along the lines of "OMG HOW COULD THEY DO THIS TO ME?!" Obviously, though, SHM are not declining to play UMF in order to personally spite me. However, while I can understand where they are coming from, and the fact that the exclusivity contracts kind of suck, I think this is slightly arrogant. Plus, it is just adding to all of the drama surrounding this year, which I am getting tired of, to be honest. It would be different if they were just choosing to do solo shows and after parties rather than Ultra But this event is 10 hours, a whole day, forcing people to choose between one or the other, and for me personally, between One Night Stand Masquerade Motel and A State of Trance. Anyone who knows me well knows which I'm going to pick, but I really wish it didn't have to be one or the other.
ReplyDeleteObviously, these are just my feelings because of how this effects me in particular. I've read comments from people saying that it's a terrible move for SHM and is going to hurt them, but really I don't think it will. I can understand why they might not want to only play a short 1-1.5 hour set for people who might not necessarily be the biggest fans. In the end, they can do what they want to and perform when and where they want. It's not going to make me like them any less, and I am still dying to see Take One.
(P.S. The 26th is day 2.)