Paul Oakenfold
Photo: Perfecto

Paul Oakenfold, Deep Dish, Gorillaz and more than 100 other electronic music acts from around the world will perform at a massive Miami Beach, Florida, party on March 23.

The fourth annual Ultra festival will kick off the Winter Music Conference, a yearly five-day electronic music gathering that has been transforming Miami Beach into the epicenter of DJ culture for 17 years.

Paul van Dyk, Carl Cox, DJ Skribble, Timo Maas, Goldie and Roni Size with MC Dynamite are among the other artists who will perform on six different stages at a yet-to-be-announced location.

Also on the bill are DJ Craze, DJ Dan, Christropher Lawrence, Rinôçérôse, Tall Paul, Josh Wink, DJ Rap, Dieselboy, DB, George Acosta, DJ Icey and Liquid Todd.

Gorillaz will perform live with Del the Funky Homosapien, the voice behind their massive single "Clint Eastwood."

Tickets will soon be available online at www.coolworld.com and www.ultrafestival.com.

The Winter Music Conference, scheduled from March 23 to March 27, will be held at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Last year's Ultra festival featured many of the same acts, along with John Digweed, Pete Tong and BT (see "Winter Music Diary: The Beats Go On With Bukem, Bahamadia, Digweed").

• Paul Oakenfold
• Deep Dish
• Gorillaz
• Paul Van Dyk
• Carl Cox

Fatboy Slim
Photo: MTV News

Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method and Orbital will headline America's first Creamfields festivals in Long Island, New York, and Las Vegas in September.

DJs Timo Maas, Tall Paul and John Aquaviva will also perform outside of the Big Apple on September 1, while Basement Jaxx, Sandra Collins and DJ Dan will play Sin City on September 29, organizers announced Monday (May 21).

Several other top electronic acts are slated for both shows, including former Underworld DJ Darren Emerson, Stereo MC's, Uberzone, Richie Hawtin, Pete Tong, Josh Wink, Photek, Max Graham, Scott Henry, Scott Hardkiss, Scanty Sandwich and the Dub Pistols.

The Long Island festival, which will feature an outdoor main stage and several circus tent arenas hosted by influential clubs from the East Coast and the U.K., will also include DJ Feelgood, Christian Smith, DJ Dara and DJ DB. The event will run from 2 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Dave Ralph, Donald Glaude, Bad Boy Bill, Christopher Lawrence and Adam Freeland will spin at the Las Vegas festival, which will feature an outdoor main stage and six tents. That show will run from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

More acts, along with ticket information, will be announced later this month, organizers said.

Leading European dance event promoters Cream staged the first Creamfields in the U.K. in 1998. Held annually since, it has become one of the biggest dance-music festivals in the world, attracting 50,000 fans last year.

This year's U.K. fest will be held August 25 at the Old Liverpool Airfield in Liverpool. Fatboy Slim, Gorillaz, Paul Oakenfold, Carl Cox, Sasha, John Digweed, Paul van Dyk, Goldie, Seb Fontaine, Judge Jules and Pete Tong are among the artists scheduled to appear.

• Fatboy Slim
• The Crystal Method
• Orbital
• Timo Maas
• Basement Jaxx

Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method and Orbital will headline America's first Creamfields festivals in Long Island, New York, and Las Vegas in September.

DJs Timo Maas, Tall Paul and John Aquaviva will also perform outside of the Big Apple on September 1, while Basement Jaxx, Sandra Collins and DJ Dan will play Sin City on September 29, organizers announced Monday (May 21).

Several other top electronic acts are slated for both shows, including former Underworld DJ Darren Emerson, Stereo MC's, Uberzone, Richie Hawtin, Pete Tong, Josh Wink, Photek, Max Graham, Scott Henry, Scott Hardkiss, Scanty Sandwich and the Dub Pistols.

The Long Island festival, which will feature an outdoor main stage and several circus tent arenas hosted by influential clubs from the East Coast and the U.K., will also include DJ Feelgood, Christian Smith, DJ Dara and DJ DB. The event will run from 2 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Dave Ralph, Donald Glaude, Bad Boy Bill, Christopher Lawrence and Adam Freeland will spin at the Las Vegas festival, which will feature an outdoor main stage and six tents. That show will run from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

More acts, along with ticket information, will be announced later this month, organizers said.

Leading European dance event promoters Cream staged the first Creamfields in the U.K. in 1998. Held annually since, it has become one of the biggest dance-music festivals in the world, attracting 50,000 fans last year.

This year's U.K. fest will be held August 25 at the Old Liverpool Airfield in Liverpool. Fatboy Slim, Gorillaz, Paul Oakenfold, Carl Cox, Sasha, John Digweed, Paul van Dyk, Goldie, Seb Fontaine, Judge Jules and Pete Tong are among the artists scheduled to appear.

• Fatboy Slim
• The Crystal Method
• Orbital
• Timo Maas
• DJ Dan

Fatboy Slim
Photo: MTV News

MIAMI — Sleep was nothing but an afterthought among the sonic smorgasbord of Sunday and Monday Winter Music Conference events that included live performances and DJ sets by, among others, Richie Hawtin, Roni Size & Reprazent, Danny Tenaglia, Fatboy Slim and Basement Jaxx.

Faced with the daily conundrum of five times the number of desirable events for the amount of real time in a day, what was the poor Winter Music Conference reveler to do? The answer for the last two days and nights of the annual global dance-music spectacle was the same as it has been every year: don't stop.

Whether that means don't stop dancing to the groove (at any of the dozens of glamorous shindigs at South Beach's clubs, hotel poolsides or exclusive boat cruises and mansion parties), don't stop workin' it (at the roiling, tireless shmoozefest that is the conference's social fuel) or don't stop the party (the decadence is awe-inspiring and seemingly ubiquitous), there has been enough fantastic music in Miami over the last two days to spoil even the most jaded dance-music fan.

One of the conference's most talked-about parties was the showcase for Detroit independent label Intuit-Solar (home to ghetto-tech/booty bass dons DJ Assault and DJ Godfather), though not necessarily for its musical aspect. Bringing the speedy, gritty beats and lewd, goofy lyrics to their seemingly natural home at the South Beach strip joint Club Madonna, Assault and Godfather provided a fitting soundtrack to the nude dancers with such hit tracks as "Ass-N-T--ties" and "Ho's in This House," with some music-industry members receiving complimentary lap dances.

A more conventional and typical WMC offering came Sunday night in the form of one of the week's premier lineups, at Decadence, a party sponsored by the leading American dance-music magazine Urb. Stocked with artists who normally pack venues on their own, the event's four sound areas provided as accurate a cross-section of dance music as any this year.

Size and his live drum'n'bass outfit Reprazent finished their U.S. tour in fine style at Decadence, tearing through cuts from last year's In the Mode and their epic debut, New Forms (1997), with an incendiary mix of blistering digital funk and organic, soulful grooves. Bay Area veteran DJ Dan followed with a solid if unadventurous set of breaks that warmed the largest room at the club, Space, for the night's headliner, Hawtin.

Simply by performing live electronic music in a week supersaturated with DJ sets, Hawtin distinguished himself from the rest of the techno class Sunday night. That he produced a chest-quaking, fiery ensemble of minimal, at times brutal, tracks with his signature getup — three turntables, a 909 analog bass synth and a bank of effects — established, yet again, that Hawtin is alone today in dance music's top tier in his ability to entertain while thoroughly challenging the listener.

Space's Red Room was given over to the Berlin-based Sonar Kollektiv, an affiliation of mostly downtempo producers influenced by jazz (especially Latin-flavored) and house music. Sonar artists Fauna Flash, Truby Trio and Jazzanova, who lead the collective, spun mesmerizing deep house and dubby techno sets that featured elements of Brazilian and African percussion as well as soul jazz and funk.

• Richie Hawtin
• Roni Size
• DJ Assault
• DJ Dan
• Danny Tenaglia