ONE OF the world's biggest music festivals is new on the block – or on the hill – and tickets are due to go on sale any day now for its Costa del Sol début.
Fuengirola has confirmed the Ultra Beach party, a one-day-only mega-event, will kick off on Saturday, August 20 with the main stage at the summit of Sohail Castle, which sits above the coastal town.
A taste of what's to come: Ultra Beach Festival in Miami, Florida (photo: Ultra Music Festival)
A 'secondary' stage, focusing on the 'sounds of the underground' and titled ULTRA Worldwide Resistance, will be within the walls of the ancient Arab fortress.
Coming within the umbrella of the whole-summer-long Marenostrum Fuengirola 2022 festival series, the main stage will include artists of the magnitude of Afrojack, Oliver Heldens and Adam Beyer.
Multi-platinum Dutch legends Afrojack, creators of the Heldeep brand and masters of the genre known as future-house, will head up the action, joined by Indian-American artist KSHMR, otherwise known as Niles Hollowell-Dhar, Oliver Heldens, and other bands and solo artists whose names have not yet been revealed as they are yet to confirm their presence.
Mostly electro-pop, techno, synth and club music, curtain-up on the main festival is at 15.00.
Dutch DJ Afrojack heads the line-up on the main stage (photo: Ticketmaster)
The party rolls on until 01.00 on the morning of Sunday, August 21, in an unrivalled venue with a dazzling night-time panorama of the Mediterranean as backdrop.
Swedish techno-pop artist Adam Beyer leads up the ULTRA Worldwide Resistance from 15.00 on the Saturday, but as yet the other artists – typically those leaning towards the same type of music, but more 'indie' than internationally-mainstream – are not yet definites.
Ultra Beach is not purely a Fuengirola brand – it's global, and fans have been flocking for years to these festivals all over the planet, from Croatia to Indonesia.
Although Fuengirola is one of only two locations in Europe – along with the Croatian coast – to host it, Ultra Beach first launched 23 years ago, on the eve of the Millennium, in Miami, Florida, and has since been hosted all over Asia – on the Indonesian island of Bali, in China, in South Korea, Japan, Singapore, and India – as well as Australia, South Africa and the Americas, in México, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia.
Sohail Castle, Fuengirola - the beautiful venue for the first-ever Costa del Sol Ultra Beach Festival (photo: Guy Percival)
Fuengirola is now hosting Ultra Beach for the first time – not only, in fact, a first for the Málaga-province coastal town, but also for Spain as a whole.
More names will be revealed over the coming months as different acts sign up for the event.
Marenostrum Fuengirola 2022 covers over 60 live arts and entertainment events, mainly music concerts, set to run from May to September inclusive.
They mainly involve famous national chart-toppers, but with some international names, as is the case with the Cabaret Festival – Texas, Simply Red and Marc Anthony join Niña Pastori, Spain's 'artist of the moment' Rosalía, who has won multiple awards and successfully broken into the US market, romance-pop legend Alejandro Sanz, who is well-known for his duos with Shakira and for being a coach on The Voice Kids, plus Aitana, and Rauw Alejandro.
The Fulanita Fest features Rigoberta Bandini, one of the top contestants at Benidorm Fest who narrowly missed out on representing Spain at this year's Eurovision, joined by Delaporte and María Pelae.
'Metal Paradise' features heavy-rock bands Hellowe'en and Sabaton, whilst the Luna Sur festival includes Sanz's fellow The Voice judge Melendi, 'dad-rocker' Fito & Fitipaldis – whose trademark hit Por la Boca Vive el Pez has often been closely likened to Dire Straits' Sultans of Swing – Beret, Pasión Vega, Viva Suecia and Arde Bogotá.
Plenty others will be on the programme for this summer, and will be announced once the artists involved have confirmed they will be there.
Tickets for the Ultra Beach Festival will soon be on sale via Ultrabeach.com and Marenostrumfuengirola.com – and fans should keep a close eye on these to ensure they don't miss their slot, given that the event is expected to attract electro-pop music lovers from every continent.
