On Saturday, April 20th Miamians from
all over flocked to South Point Park for
the second annual Floatopia event.
3
Features
5
Waka Kickball
9
Floatopia
What's Going on this Month?
There's a New Sport in Town.
Float On in Miami.
What's Going on This Month?
Ultra Music Festival
MIAMI INTERNATIONAL
FILM FESTIVAL
As the world’s most famous outdoor electronic music
festival, ULTRA has won “Best Music Event” by
the International Dance Music Awards (IDMA)
six consecutive years, from 2005 to 2011,
“Best International Dance Music Festival”
by the Ibiza DJ Awards in 2008 and “Best
Festival” by the Village Voice Media New
Times for five consecutive years from
2005 through 2009. Originally introduced
as a pure electronic dance music festival
in 1999, ULTRA has generated cosmic
popularity through the years and evolved
to present not only the genre’s hottest
headline artists such as Swedish House Mafia,
The Chemical Brothers, Tiësto, David Guetta,
deadmau5, Underworld, Kraftwerk, Armin van
Buuren, Moby, Fatboy Slim, Justice, Carl Cox and
Avicii to name a few, but also to share the stage
with crossover headline bands that incorporate EDM
elements in their music and have a history in the EDM
community including, The Cure, The Killers,Duran, The
Black Eyed Peas, Erasure, M83, and Santigold.
SONY ERICSSON OPEN
The Miami Masters (currently sponsored by Sony
Mobile) is an annual tennis tournament for men and
women held in Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida. It is an
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event on the men's tour
and a Premier Mandatory event on the women's tour
and is played on hard courts at the Tennis Center at
Crandon Park. The tournament is currently held in
March each year.
The Miami Masters, which has had multiple
sponsorships, was initially known as the Lipton
International Players Championships and was a
premier event of the Grand Prix Tennis Tour from 1985
until 1990 as part of the Grand Prix Championship
Series. In 2000, there was a change of title sponsor and
the event was renamed the Ericsson Open. In 2002,
the event became known as the NASDAQ-100 Open. In
Run by Miami Dade College, MIFF showcases the
best of world cinema. Some 70,000 people attended
the 2008 festival – the 25th – including scores of
Oscar winners and nominees. There is a special focus
on Ibero-American cinema, and prizes are given in
documentary and dramatic categories.
The Miami International Film Festival had its
beginnings as the main activity of the Film Society
of Miami, Inc., which was founded in 1983. Since its
first edition, which opened on February 3, 1984, the
Festival has continued to bring the finest in world
cinema to South Florida. The Festival has gained
recognition with its consistently high quality of
programming and presentations from filmmakers,
critics, and the film industry. During the early years,
films were screened in a variety of local theaters in the
greater Miami area. By the sixth Festival in 1989, the
Gusman Center for the Performing Arts had become
the official residence.
2007, the tournament was renamed the Sony Ericsson
Open in a deal where the company will pay $20 million
over the next four years. The 2013 edition is officially
named the Sony Open Tennis.
In 2010, a record 300,000 visitors attended matches at
the 12-day Sony Ericsson Open making it one of the
largest tennis tournaments .
Continued on page 14.
Gay Pride FESTIVAL
Miami Beach Gay Pride is an extraordinary two-day
event that features a Beach Party on Saturday, April
13 and a festival & parade on Sunday, April 14, 2013
with more than 125 LGBT-friendly vendors and
businesses, exciting celebrities, musical performances,
refreshments, food and a family-friendly play area.
Coming into its fifth year, Miami Beach Gay Pride has
grown into the largest, single-day event of the entire
year in Miami Beach. The hugely successful event in
2011 attracted more than 40,000 people and in 2012
more than 60,000 people from all walks of life, all
parts of the country, and all age groups.
THERE'S
A NEW
SPORT IN
TOWN
"We might not have won on the
field, but we won at the bars."
Waka Kickball League offers twenty
somethings a new kind of competition.
WAKA kickball is real fun for real people. The average
WAKA Kickball player is a young professional (21+).
Leagues are co-ed adults and play is like the elementary
school game you remember – the one with the big
red playground ball. It's an easy game that is open to
all skill levels. (Even you can be a kickball superstar!)
A WAKA kickball season generally consists of eight regular
season games and a league championship tournament.
The leagues are made up of 4-16 co-ed teams. (That means
TONS of new people to meet and party with!) Qualifying
teams from each league are eligible to compete in the annual
Founders Cup World Kickball Championship held in Las Vegas.
MEET NEW PEople
There are about 15 teams on average that
play in the WAKA league comprised of men
and women ages 21-35. Make a team with
your friends or join on your own.
Beer. Vodka. Gin. Whiskey. Wine.
Pick your poison. But whatever you do choose, don’t
forget to bring your drink in the outfield. It improves
your playing...we promise.
AFTER PARTIES
@ MR. FROGS AND SANDBAR
SANDBAR
VEGAS
Founder’s Cup Tourney.
GRAND AVE.
MR. FROG’S
PEACOCK PARK
The qualifying regional teams will be
invited to play in a national WAKA
kickball championship in Las Vegas. In
addition to the tournament, WAKA
sets up several fun social events for
the teams to mix and mingle. It will be
a weekend packed with fun events and
healthy competition.
Featured on media outlets such as CNN and ESPN, and named
one of Inc. Magazine’s fastest growing private companies in
America in September 2010, WAKA is recognized widely as the
nation’s premier kickball organization.
WAKA continually works to maintain and enhance the player
experience, through rules updates and enhancements in both the
athletic and social aspects to support the all-important interaction
among players both on and off the field. The organization
continues to invest in its ideas, employees and players to
guarantee that the leagues runs as smoothly as possible. WAKA
also works with dozens of outside organizations and charities,
and plans numerous events to help even more people enjoy the
unique WAKA Kickball experience.
FLOAT ON
On Saturday, September 8, adventurous souls will
take to the waters of South Pointe Park on flotation
devices far more interesting than your average airplane
cushion. Started in 2004 in Santa Barbara, California,
Floatopia has been growing in popularity amongst
fun-lovers nationwide. Basically, people in various
cities gather en masse to float on rafts, home-made
contraptions, and anything else that doesn't sink. Then
the action concludes with a beach party.
One of the organizers for the Miami event told us
she had the idea after experiencing a similar party in
Virginia Beach over July 4th. "It's something fun and
different. Miami has a lot of bouncers, clubs, etc., but
nothing like this."
Floatopias go down in cities as diverse as San Diego,
Honolulu, and Las Vegas, but Miami still hadn't
popped its cherry -- until now. Popular with college
students and not so popular with some of those
cities' local residents (and police), this beach bash is
traditionally free and non-discriminating. That's the
plan for Miami Floatopia, too.
Attendees can bring anything they choose to float
on, but the bigger, the better, as the larger floats can
be strung together to create one giant party barge.
Frankly, we can't believe it took this long for the
party to arrive. Floating the waters of South Beach
with friends, new acquaintances, and a handy-dandy
cupholder? That's right up Miami's alley.