Ultra Music Festival 2009, Miami Winter Music Conference Heats Up

Sure, the big DJs are all here: Tiesto, Paul van Dyk, David Guetta, Moby, Armin van Buuren, Erick Morillo, Deadmau5, Roni Size, to name just a few. And hip-hop hitmaker Timbaland has just been added to Saturday's lineup.

But the visionaries behind Ultra -- Russell Faibisch and Alex Omes, who founded the event 11 years ago -- saw the need for even more diversity.

''We always try to do new things and push it forward -- that's what got us here,'' said Faibisch, the festival's director. ``We're bringing in a lot of live elements, really cool indie-rock bands such as Crystal Castles, Simian Mobile Disco, Booka Shade, The Presets, Cut Copy, Pendulum, Bloc Party -- it's really an amazing live lineup, and an amazing selection of music.''

Miami Beach's population became temporarily paler, more European and much more red-eyed and sleepless. For those people in the business of spinning music made by others into nightclub gold, the WMC is the biggest event of the year, gathering DJs, remixers, label heads, producers and anyone else who lives to find new ways of making machines go bleep and blip for a host of workshops, panels and networking events.

For the rest of us, however, the WMC means one thing and one thing only: six nights of seemingly nonstop parties featuring some of the world's best-known house, techno, hip-hop and dance acts. Following is by no means a comprehensive list of the concerts and parties taking place through Sunday, as tickets to many of the week's events have already sold out and a number of other parties are invite-only.