Photo by Victor Gonzalez

​Are you tired of hearing about Ultra yet? Do you want nothing to do with wearing neon colors, sunglasses at night, and glow sticks? We certainly are.

So, while the masses flock to Miami for the weekend, find a safe haven in the Broward and Palm Beach counties with the anti-raving folk. Ok, a few of the events might be in Miami, but we promise they're far away from Ultra.

From midnight shopping markets to a weird 80s night, and some local music, there is no shortage of things to do instead of dropping ecstasy to dubstep. Bonus: a whole lot of the events on our anti-guide are free!

Check out our full list of events after the jump.
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​Dance music fans likely know Gary Richards for Hard. That rapidly exploding brand of parties and shows includes local events like Holy Ship, the all-electronic music cruise that departs again from Fort Lauderdale next January, as well as a two-night stand at Grand Central in Miami that starts tonight. But while he's been crossing the globe taking Hard as far as away as Australia, Richards has also been semiquietly working on his own original music under the name Destructo.  More >>

Matt Nordstrom, left, and Dave Nada of Nadastrom.

​Tonight's Moombahton Massive party at Grand Central marks the first of two back-to-back, Hard-sponsored nights at the venue. As that name indicates, the entire late-night party is devoted to the breezy, 110-ish-bpm bass sound that's currently burning up the underground the way dubstep did a few years back before it broke big. But if all of the iterations you hear of moombahton that night take the sound in vastly different directions, that's the way Dave Nada, the genre's accidental creator, wants it. More >>

​Caribbean lifestyle blog LargeUp, founded by DJ Gravy, is bringing a big voice in dancehall to one of South Florida's biggest electronic music festivals. You might think Mr. Vegas and Winter Music Conference are an unlikely pairing, but the similarities are clear: It's all dance music and all kinds of fun. No place in the world likes to dance like we do down here. More >>

​It's no surprise that Dutch DJ demi-god Tiesto again headlines Ultra Music Festival this Friday. For him, it's now a yearly ritual. "It's actually the only festival in the world I can play every year. All the DJs over the world come together to go to Miami that week, so it's not just a festival that's only for people in Miami," he says by phone from Iceland before a recent gig. "It's like a showcase almost for everybody to show that's going to happen in the next year." More >>

​Australia native Tommy Trash might not yet be a household name for the average casual dance music fan -- but give it time. The producer/DJ is currently only part of the way into his first headlining tour, ever, but he's already got the support of some of the highest-powered names in the big-room industry. On the strength of banging, peak-hour tracks like "Cascade" and "The End," Trash has scored fans in everyone from Swedish House Mafia -- whose "Antidote" he remixed to great acclaim -- to Tiesto, David Guetta, Deadmau5, and Laidback Luke.  More >>

​With Winter Music Conference and the madness around Ultra in full swing next week in Miami, don't be alarmed if it seems like the entire county is pulsing to an unending four-four beat. Leave it to Bardot, a boutique venue with increasingly interesting programming, to book a show for that Friday night that both fits in with the overall electronic zeitgeist of the week and subverts it. The headliner on March 23 is Four Tet, the alias of Kieran Hebden, an underground, London-based cult figure who specializes in zagging when everyone else is zigging.  More >>

Photos by Alex Rendon

​Our sister paper's account of the drama that unfolded with the Winter Music Conference and Ultra Music Festival divorce this year and all finger-pointing that ensued left us curious regarding how everything would actually unfold for the weeklong dance music festival.

Noticeably lacking in 2011's WMC list were the agency shows, like Windish Agency, which always bring down a great assortment of talent, and other reliable parties like the one hosted by online dance music store Beatport. Additionally, Ultra's reported exclusivity contracts made this year's WMC a rather skimpy one in terms of headlining über-DJs like Deadmau5 and Tiesto. But what we came to find out during the day and a half we spent soaking up the action was that many of this year's attendees truly preferred it this way.

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Photo by Ian Witlen

Ultra may be expanding to a three-day bender.

​Word is swirling around that Ultra Music Festival's organizers have decided to expand next year's festival to three days, presumably Friday through Sunday. Supposedly the decision was made after this year's sellout event.

We've emailed Ultra's publicists for comment and are still awaiting a response.

But word of advice to the festival's organizers: If you want this expansion to go off without a hitch, take our advice and get a little more ambitious and daring with the bookings. This year's lineup left a lot to be desired when it came to progressive acts. If large festivals like Coachella have found success it's because it's ahead of the curve setting trends, not following them.

We probably promised a few posts back that we wouldn't talk about Winter Music Conference or Ultra Music Festival anymore, but we just stumbled across this great video of Afrobeta performing live at last month's festival. The duo got an awesome late-evening slot on the Bayfront Live Stage, which sources told us is because their manager also happens to be one of Ultra's founders and organizers -- ain't no shame in using your connections to get more exposure. The video above shows Cuci Amador and Tony Smurphio performing their track "Play House," which is off their newly release Do You Party? EP.

After the jump, more bonus-video goodness with a live performance of "As Long As You Like."
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