Ultra Korea is an outdoor electronic music festival that is a part of Ultra Music Festival's worldwide expansion, which has now spread to twenty countries.[1] Following Ultra Brasil's third edition in 2011, Ultra Korea made its debut as a two-day festival in August 2012 and took place at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, Korea.[2] The most recent edition of Ultra Korea took place during 8–10 June 2018 at Seoul's Olympic Stadium. Ultra Korea is strictly a festival for those ages 19 and over.[3] The next edition of Ultra Korea will take place during 7–9 June 2019 at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul.[4]
The debut of Ultra Korea took place during 3–4 August 2012 at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, Korea and featured three stages—Main Stage, Live Stage, and the Carl Cox & Friends Arena.[5] This is the second Ultra Worldwide festival to ever host an Ultra Live Stage, following Miami.[6] The first edition of Ultra Korea welcomed approximately 60,000 people in attendance[7] and included the likes of Skrillex, Steve Aoki, Sidney Samson, J Symposium, Twelvetones, Marc Vedo, Elio Riso, Afrobeta, Tiesto, Team H, Chuckie, Sander Kleinenberg, The Crystal Method, Carl Cox, John Digweed, Yousef, and many more to Seoul's Olympic Stadium.[8][9]
2015 marked Ultra Korea's fourth event and was held at Seoul's Olympic Stadium once again and took place during 12–13 June 2015.[16] This edition replaced the Mega Outdoor Stage with a new stage entitled the Magic Beach Stage.[17] Artists on the bill for Ultra Korea 2015 were Hardwell, Skrillex, Nicky Romero, DVBBS, Justin Oh, Porter Robinson, 2ManyDJs, Kennedy Jones, Los de La Vega, Protoculture, David Guetta, Alesso, Knife Party, Galantis, Snoop Dogg, Lil Jon, Nic Fanciulli, Pirupa, and many more.[18] Ultra Korea drew 110,000 fans from all over to the Olympic Stadium in 2015.[19]
The fifth edition of Ultra Korea has expanded to three days and took place during 10–12 June 2016 at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, Korea.[20] The fifth edition consisted of four stages—Main Stage, Live Stage, Underground Stage, and the Magic Beach Stage.[21] Artists on the bill for Ultra Korea's fifth edition included Afrojack, Avicii, Armin van Buuren, Axwell & Ingrosso, Chase and Status (live), deadmau5, Knife Party, Martin Garrix, Heatbeat, Eelke Kleijn, Rabbit in the Moon, Fedde Le Grand, Jauz, Netsky (live), Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano, Justin Oh, and many more.[22] Ultra Korea drew in a record-breaking 150,000+ strong crowd, for what was officially the largest electronic music festival ever to take place on Korean soil.
To celebrate Ultra Korea returning in 2017 to Seoul, a special private sale took place on 23 August 2016 and the allotted tickets were sold out within that day.[23] Tickets continued to go on and off sale throughout the remainder of the year. On 1 February 2017, the official dates for Ultra Korea's 6th edition were announced (10–11 June 2017).[24] The event will run simultaneously with Ultra Singapore, making it the second time Ultra Worldwide held a number of events on the same day, and the first 2-day festival to do so. The phase one lineup for Ultra Korea 2017 was announced 10 March 2017 and includes Axwell ^ Ingrosso, Dash Berlin, Don Diablo, Dubfire, KSHMR (live), Nic Fanciulli, Nicky Romero, Sasha & John Digweed, Sam Feldt, SHRKTOPS, Steve Aoki, and Tchami (live).[25][26] The phase 2 lineup was announced on April 28, 2017.
For the seventh edition of Ultra Korea, the festival is returning to a three-day event, taking place on 8–10 June 2018. Phase 1 lineup of Ultra Korea was released on 4 April 2018 and included Above & Beyond, Axwell & Ingrosso, The Chainsmokers, David Guetta, Galantis, Nicky Romero, Steve Angello, Zedd and Zhu.[27]
For the eighth edition of Ultra Korea, the festival is returning to a three-day event, taking place on 7–9 June 2019. The lineup includes Martin Garrix, Skrillex, Virtual Self and Jamie Jones as main artists.
Martin Garrix, and Swedish House Mafia on each day they were supposed to perform of the event, cancelled due to various reasons. Martin Garrix and Swedish House Mafia were originally slated as headliners. Refunds were issued in the amount of 1/3 of the tickets purchased.