For one week each March, Miami is the center of the dance music world. Miami Music Week fills hotel pools, rooftops and clubs from South Beach to downtown, the Winter Music Conference, which dates to the 1980s, handles the industry side, and Ultra Music Festival closes it out with three days in Bayfront Park on Biscayne Bay. Hotel rooms go early that week, and traffic around Bayfront Park crawls all weekend, so plan on walking the last stretch.
Orlando breaks and EDC
Orlando wrote its own chapter in the 1990s, when DJ Icey and the crowds at clubs like The Edge built Florida breaks, a sound that mixed breakbeat with Miami bass and electro. The big Orlando weekend is EDC Orlando, which takes over Tinker Field beside Camping World Stadium each November, when the evenings finally cool enough to dance outside for hours.
Club nights
Between festivals the club calendar keeps going. Club Space in downtown Miami is known for its terrace and parties that run well past sunrise, and Ybor City, downtown Orlando and Fort Lauderdale have late rooms of their own. Bring earplugs, drink water and sort out the ride home before you go in.
Miami and Orlando carry most of the dance calendar, and the festivals page tracks the big weekends in every genre.
