Russell Faibisch (born July 7, 1977) is an American music festival producer and concert promoter. He is the co-founder of the

Ultra Music Festival Ultra Music Festival (UMF) is an annual outdoor electronic music festival that takes place during March in Miami, Florida, United States. The festival was founded in 1999 by Russell Faibisch and Alex Omes. It was first held on Miami Beach, ...

, an outdoor

electronic music festival The following is an incomplete list of music festivals that feature electronic music, which encapsulates music featuring electronic instruments such as electric guitar and keyboards, as well as recent genres such as electronic dance music (ED ...

in Miami, and creator with Andrés Cisneros of the Ultra Worldwide brand. He is CEO, President, and Executive producer of the Ultra organization, and is also the chairman of the board, upon which and Adam Russakoff serve. Currently, Faibisch presides over an international chain of branded music festivals,

concert A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variet ...

s, and events, which include editions spanning across

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, Australia,

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, South, and North America, plus globally syndicated

radio broadcasts Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

, an online

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

channel, music films, and premieres. In April 2016, Ultra Music Festival won the

DJ Mag ''DJ Magazine'' (also known as ''DJ Mag'') is a British monthly magazine dedicated to electronic dance music and DJs. Founded in 1991, the magazine is adapted for distribution in the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Lat ...

award for “World’s Number 1 Festival,” which was voted on by over 500,000 fans worldwide. In 2008, Ultra was also given the

DJ Award DJ Awards is a celebration of electronic music, and aims to recognise and honour DJs and individuals who have influenced electronic dance music worldwide. Held annually in Ibiza at the end of the summer season, DJ Awards has retained the same et ...

for “International Dance Music Festival." In 2014, Faibisch was ranked #6 on

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

’s “Most Important People in EDM List." Later that year, Billboard named Faibisch and business partner Adam Russakoff on the “EDM Power Players - Executives List. In 2016 and 2017, both Faibisch and Russakoff were again named on ''Billboard''’s annual “Power List of DJs and Executives." In 2017, Magnetic Magazine named Faibisch the "Industry Person of the Year."

Early life and education

Russell Faibisch was born in Miami Beach, Florida and majored in business at

Florida International University Florida International University (FIU) is a public research university with its main campus in Miami-Dade County. Founded in 1965, the school opened its doors to students in 1972. FIU has grown to become the third-largest university in Florid ...

Career

Creation of Ultra

In 1997, Faibisch created the Ultra brand in relation to event productions when he formed ''Ultra Productions'', and began producing electronic music warehouse events and rave parties in Miami, including Amoeba in 1998 and Magical Maydaze. Both events were co-produced with then business associate, Ray Navarro. After placing an ad in a local music magazine for one of his events, Faibisch met

Alex Omes Alejandro "Alex" Omes (c. 1971 – January 12, 2015) was an Argentina, Argentine-born United States, American nightlife impresario and concert promoter. In 1999, Omes and Russell Faibisch, his then-business partner, co-founded the Ultra Music Festiv ...

, publisher of D'VOX magazine. Faibisch and Omes quickly became friends and business partners, together co-founding the Ultra Music Festival. Ultra Music Festival paved the way and built the modern dance festival foundation. Since its founding, Ultra Music Festival has grown into one of the world's largest electronic dance music festivals. An estimated 400,000 people attended Ultra Music Festival over the course of two weekends in 2013, the highest number of attendees to date. The international festival, founded by Faibisch and Omes, has taken place every March since its inception in 1999 at Collins Park, Miami. The festival celebrated its nineteenth anniversary from 24–26 March 2017 by bringing over 165,000 people to the sold out event at

Bayfront Park Bayfront Park is a public, urban park in Downtown Miami, Florida on Biscayne Bay. The Chairman to the trust is Ary Shaeban. Located in the park is a bronze statue of Christopher Columbus sculpted by Count Vittorio di Colbertaldo of Verona, one ...

located in

downtown Miami Downtown Miami is the urban city center of Miami, Florida. The city's greater downtown region consists of the Central Business District, Brickell, the Historic District, Government Center, the Arts & Entertainment District, and Park West. It ...

. Ultra Music Festival returns to Bayfront Park for its twentieth anniversary, 23–25 March 2018.

Expansion

The Ultra and Ultra Worldwide brands represent the world's biggest and most successful remaining independent electronic music festival brand. The Ultra Worldwide brand, created by Faibisch, has established festivals and events in twenty countries internationally across five continents—including

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, Bali,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, Chile, Croatia, Ibiza, Japan, Korea, South Africa, Bolivia, Colombia, Hong Kong, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and of course Miami. In 2017 Ultra Mexico first edition in Mexico took place in Foro Pegaso located 30min away from Mexico City. The biggest stage of Ultra history took place here with headliners like

Dash Berlin Dash Berlin is a Dutch electronic music duo started in 2007 in The Hague by Eelke Kalberg and Sebastiaan Molijn. Dash Berlin were voted the seventh most popular DJs in the world according to ''DJ Mag'' in 2012; Kalberg and Molijn were record pro ...

, Alesso, Armin van Buuren,

Afrojack Nick Leonardus van de Wall (; born 9 September 1987), better known as Afrojack, is a Dutch DJ, music producer and remixer from Spijkenisse, South Holland. In 2007, he founded the record label Wall Recordings; his debut album '' Forget the Worl ...

and

Martin Garrix Martijn Gerard Garritsen (; born 14 May 1996), known professionally as Martin Garrix and also as Ytram and GRX, is a Dutch disc jockey and music producer who was ranked number one on ''DJ Mag''s Top 100 DJs list for three consecutive years—201 ...

among others. Additionally, Faibisch and the Ultra brands pioneered the live stream experience, ''Ultra Live'', where the festival is brought online to over 20 million viewers globally and the audio broadcasting platform ''UMF Radio'', which was winner of

Mixcloud Mixcloud is a popular British online music streaming service that allows for the listening and distribution of radio shows, DJ mixes and podcasts, which are crowdsourced by its registered users. In April 2018, Mixcloud announced that it raised ...

's 2015 "Best EDM Radio Show" and is now syndicated to FM Radio in over 93 countries. In 2012, Faibisch and Ultra Worldwide also launched ''UMF Films'', a collaboration with Amsterdam-based film company Final Kid, which has gone on to produce many of Ultra's after movies—including a feature-length documentary exploring the rise of dance music, entitled "Can U Feel It" which premiered on 21 March 2012 at the Klipsch Amphitheater in Bayfront Park. "Can U Feel It" was also released in select theaters across the United States for one night only, on 22 March 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Faibisch, Russell Music promoters Florida International University alumni People from Miami Beach, Florida American chief executives Music festival founders Living people 1977 births es:Andrés A. Cisneros Phelps

Early life and education

Career

Creation of Ultra

Expansion

See also

References