Leading up to Ultra Music Festival 2018, it was painfully obvious that the special guest headliner for Sunday was Swedish House Mafia. It was the 20th anniversary of the festival, it was five years since SHM’s last performance, which was at that very festival.
Though the set was fraught with technical difficulties (or, at least, what we perceived to be errors), it was still a grand return to the stage and a performance that people in attendance likely won’t forget for the rest of their lives.
Former SHM manager Amy Thomson posted yesterday on Instagram, recounting when exactly a year ago, Ultra executive producer and talent buyer Adam Russakoff called her up to make it happen.
“Exactly a year ago today I was walking out my door to my car to the airport to fly to Sweden when @adamrussakoff called me and said come on Amy. It’s Time. And one week later it was agreed. Sat in a room where they had genuinely not seen each other for 5 years. Drinking coffee. 3 months later I was on that stage at 6am in a leather jacket testing lasers didn’t burn the back of them. We never got chance to test the fire would go that high except for one unit, but when it went off and those 3 friends who had not seen each other for 5 years were surrounded by fire which i think is the only photo which shows the booth was made from mirror. Which was symbolic for them and underneath it … it was engraved. (But what did it say) This picture came from that phone call which as always was from Adam too early in the morning 🙂 the fire idea came from a meeting where we all said for fucks sake. Let’s just burn the whole thing when no one could decide what to do. Turns out it was one of my favorite show moments ever.” [sic]
Thomson is no longer the group’s manager as of August, but her legacy is undeniable.
Photo via aLIVE Coverage for Ultra