‘Don’t Call It A Comeback’: Miami’s III Points Kicks Off 2019 Festival Season With a Bang
III Points made its sixth incursion into Miami’s Mana Wynwood arts district for three consecutive days of nonstop innovative music and visuals. The festival pushed the envelope at every turn this year, featuring 21 multi-sensory art installations and its strongest lineup to date.
After facing many obstacles with location and date change because of Hurricanes Matthew and Irma, III Points came out of the gates swinging this year, proving they are an unstoppable force. The entire nature of this festival is intended to be futuristic and out-of-the-box. The new location only further enhances that aesthetic. They’ve utilized the massive art compound to its fullest potential. This year they featured an array of installs such as a light-portal walkway as an entryway into the festival, a bar set up inside of an old Gravitron amusement ride, a stage surrounded by a roller-skating rink, and video projections inside of shipping containers. The surrounding area outside of the festival is full of world-class street art, helping to make the vibe of this festival as authentic as it gets.
This year’s lineup showcased an array of genres and featured headlining names such as Herbie Hancock, Erykah Badu, James Blake, SZA, Khruangbin, Tyler the Creator, Beach House, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and dozens more. In addition to this stack of high-profile artists, the festival carried on the tradition of booking countless local, underground, and niche acts that wouldn’t otherwise have a home at most mainstream festivals.
The festival was rewarded with an attendance average of 12k people each day. The III POINTS staff handled the considerable crowd like seasoned veterans. Each year they execute their cultivation with unerring accuracy. To say this festival is “on point” would be an understatement, and we hope they will continue to see growth in scope and size. Their place in the Florida music scene is refreshing and has set the bar sky-high for the rest of the festival season to come in 2019.
Stages
Skate Space: was a psychedelic roller-skating stage presented in partnership with Stillhouse and Faena Art. Festival goers were able to rent skates in the warehouse and cruise around listening to the sounds of local Dj’s spinning in a platform way above the crowd.
Mind Melt: was the main stage that featured an eclectic collection of most of the A-list acts of the festival. Looming over this stage was a 750lb moon-sized disco ball that is slightly terrifying to stand underneath, but really elevates the vibe as it’s white lights spin and beam on the faces of thousands.
Main Frame: was located inside of an expansive 10,000 square feet warehouse. This was another main stage where many of the larger acts performed. It seemed this area was intended for extensive visuals and laser light performances.
Boiler Room: Boiler Room TV is known as an online music streaming platform that broadcasts live music sessions globally. The standard setup of a Boiler Room event is a DJ facing a camera with an audience on stage behind the DJ stand and the Boiler Room Logo behind them as well. They travel all around the world, putting on approximately 30-35 concerts a month. They live-stream ALL of their shows for their viewers to see. They are notorious for pushing the boundaries in the electronic music world and bringing on niche artists. All weekend long they stayed true to form and had a plethora of mixed-genre DJs spinning day and night with an audience dancing nonstop. At any given time you could walk up to this stage and hear something entirely different than the act before it.
Isotropic: was a house-music based stage that was designed to mimic a greenhouse. It had a clear-roofed pavilion and plants hanging from the ceiling and all throughout the space.
