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Ultra releases rare footage of inaugural music festival in 1999

The 20th Ultra Music Festival is set from March 23-25 at downtown Miami's Bayfront Park.
Credit: Sergi Alexander, Getty Images
Ultra Music Festival in Miami Beach, Florida on March 27, 2014.

MIAMI - Organizers with the Ultra Music Festival have put together a five-part documentary tracing the roots of the event's origins.

This year's event held from March 23-25 at Bayfront Park also marks the 20th anniversary of the dance music festival.

As of Saturday, March 10, organizers have released four parts of the five-part documentary series.

Episode one of the series depicts the inaugural festival held in 1999. The video features interviews with Josh Wink, Tiësto, John Digweed, Ferry Corsten and Nic Fanciulli.

Episode two shows how Miami served as one of the few U.S. cities to host large dance music events in the early 2000s. At the time, several popular DJs skipped the U.S. on their tours.

Episode three shows how the festival and the popularity of electronic music began to grow in the mid-2000s. The festival expanded to multiple days and had multiple stages. Ultra also expanded from Bayfront Park to Bicentennial Park for several years.

Episode four depicts how superstar DJs emerged from what was once an underground culture into the mainstream around 2010. Collaborations with pop music stars helped this movement.

Several prominent DJs rose to fame during this period, including David Guetta, Tiësto, Hardwell, Afrojack, Avicci and the now separated Swedish House Mafia.

Ultra live-streamed the festival for viewers to watch online for the first time in 2012. Madonna also teamed up with Avicci during Ultra in 2012.

In 2013, Swedish House Mafia's "One Last Tour" finished at Ultra Music Festival. It marked the last time Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso performed together under the name Swedish House Mafia.

VIP tickets to this year's Ultra Music Festival are still available, but general admission tickets are sold out.

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Photos: Ultra Music Festival through the years

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