Ultra Music Festival is aiming to make history at its 2026 edition from 26-28 March at Miami Bayfront Park by being the first major electronic music festival in America to power a large-scale stage without causing any onsite greenhouse gas emissions.
The festival’s sustainability program Mission: Home, will see the RESISTANCE Cove Stage powered by Showpower’s SmartGrid Battery System, which will be charged using existing grid infrastructure, creating no onsite emissions. The battery system is designed specifically for large-scale events and festivals to maintain high-quality audio, lighting, video, and stage production with full redundancy and reliability. Showpower recently helped Coldplay power 86 stadium shows in 16 countries with batteries on their latest world tour.
This initiative is part of REVERB’s Music Decarbonisation Project, which was part of the movement of major festivals and tours transitioning from diesel to battery-powered production in 2023. For more than two decades, REVERB has worked with artists and festivals to reduce environmental impact. Through its Music Decarbonisation Project, the nonprofit fast-tracks innovative climate solutions to directly eliminate carbon pollution from the music industry.
Showpower’s SmartGrid battery system’s deployment is being supported on-site by CES Power, a longtime Ultra production partner, which provides all temporary power distribution and cabling for the festival. The batteries will be integrated into the existing distribution system CES builds to power most of Ultra’s back of house production areas from the grid, ensuring a seamless implementation within the festival’s infrastructure. CES has also been a key collaborator in all previous stage transitions and several years of power efficiency data collection and planning, led by Showpower.
“For the past six years, Showpower‘s team has worked closely with Ultra and CES Power to develop intelligent and sustainable power solutions as part of Mission: Home,” said Paul Schurink, Co-Founder of Showpower. “A central focus has been measuring energy demand across the site to identify opportunities to reduce diesel consumption, fuel costs and carbon emissions. This year, Ultra’s RESISTANCE Cove Stage provides the greatest opportunity to do that, by replacing a generator with a battery system charged by grid power. We’re proud to deliver this milestone with REVERB — turning a long-standing ambition into reality for Ultra and the wider electronic music community.”
