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As most UC Santa Barbara students and Isla Vista residents are well aware of by now, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors passed a noise ordinance for the first weekend of spring quarter, effectively canceling Deltopia.
THE RISE OF DELTOPIA
The university’s most notorious block party of the year has a history that makes it unique to the community of Isla Vista and UCSB students, dating back to around 2004 when it began as “Floatopia.” As attendance increased over the years, drawing students from schools all over the country, the event evolved into the better-known “Deltopia,” which has persisted as a tradition to unofficially kickoff the spring quarter for the past 25 years.
However, because it was always an unsanctioned event that grew to cause arrests, safety concerns, and environmental implications, efforts have been consistently made over the years to extinguish the event entirely — leading to the approval of the 72-hour ordinance in January, which prevented any possibility of it occurring this year.
As a compromise for banning this beloved annual event, the Isla Vista Community Services District (IVCSD) proposed an event named “Soltopia” alongside UCSB Associated Students. Held on Saturday, April 4, this sanctioned, heavily supervised event aimed to mimic the lively, celebratory ambiance of Deltopia that made the event so widely adored. Through their online promotion of the festival, IVCSD promised attendees with free wristbands an abundance of live music, free food from local restaurants, vendors, and more.
FIRST YEAR EXPECTATIONS VS. REALITY
When I committed to UCSB nearly a year ago, one of the many reasons I was excited to come to UCSB was that I was looking forward to Deltopia. Even though I rarely went to parties in high school, I was undeniably excited to experience what I had heard from past attendees of Deltopia — old and new, UCSB students and not — and revel in the joy of partying all together by the beach, celebrating the beginning of the spring season in Santa Barbara.
So when I caught news of the ban’s confirmation and what that meant for the event as a whole, I shared my fellow first-year students’ feelings of disappointment, mourning the unfortunate timing of the loss of something I hadn’t ever been to, yet longed to experience.
However, I couldn’t help but be intrigued by Soltopia and the question of its potential in essentially replacing Deltopia. I knew the two would be very different from each other, considering that one was student-started and the other was government-run, so naturally my expectations were reduced to be relatively low.
Before attending, I mentally prepared myself to witness an overall low-energy scene, knowing that half the people I knew did not have plans of making an appearance, and that much of those who did were driven by curiosity over interest, much like me.
With this in mind, I went into the event planning to hit all of the stops so that I could form a well-rounded opinion of it and minimize any bias resulting from bitter first-year FOMO.
A NEW KIND OF FESTIVAL
My friend group and I started off towards the center of the Loop, where the attractions were located, and made our way around the whole festival over the course of around three hours. Upon first stepping into the event just after it started at noon, my first impression matched at least one of my predictions, that people would maintain classic UCSB dayge fashion, including bikinis, skirts, and sunglasses.
Using the interactive map that IVCSD provided, we continued our tour around the area and found where most of the people there had congregated: the food lines. Despite there being 5 apparent taco stands on the map, the one near the IV Community Center boasted a line spanning at least a few blocks long.
My friends and I decided that the lines weren’t worth it and also learned that both bagel places had already stopped serving free food at 11AM, so we ultimately decided to go get something to eat at the IV Food Co-Op. Unfortunately for me and other vegetarians, they did not have any meat-free options available, so I instead had to settle for a coffee.
After stopping for food, we wandered around the different live music performances, stopping to see a few bands and a DJ set. While none of them were particularly outstanding, I would say that we still had a fun time together as a group.
Additionally, we stopped by the thrift markets, which was nice to look through and had good photo ops. But eventually, we came to the conclusion as a group that we had given pretty much everything at Soltopia a chance, leading us to walk over to the beach at around 3:30 PM.
Even though the festivities were scheduled to end at 6 PM, I noticed people filing out starting before we left. This coincided with another one of my expectations, that attendees would leave early out of boredom and lack of entertainment when compared with the bustle of Deltopia, as well as partying deterrents like an unprecedentedly heavy police presence. Isla Vista Foot Patrol (IVFP) made a verbal promise to operate at the “lowest level possible,” yet there was a large number of law enforcement officials stationed throughout the festival.
CAN SOLTOPIA GROW INTO SOMETHING MORE?
I didn’t exactly know what to expect going into Soltopia, especially not having the experience of Deltopia to compare it to. What I can say is that I think it would be a correct guess that the two are drastically different from each other, based solely on my experience at Soltopia. I don’t think it was necessarily a bad event, but it just didn’t feel like an event meant for college students to me.
Needless to say, I still had a great time with my friends enjoying the sunshine, live music, and being in Isla Vista. I recognize that it’s important to consider that the organizers only had three months to plan the entire festival, after the ordinance was passed in January, and that this was their best effort to give students an opportunity to at least embrace Deltopia’s tradition of celebrating the community.
With more time for organization and less law enforcement, I see the potential that Soltopia had, but I can also see how it lamely measured up with upperclassmen’s exposure to Deltopia from previous years.
It was certainly an unexpected turn of events this year for the most anticipated party weekend at the #1 party school in the country. Even though I still dream of going back in time to Deltopia at its prime, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to have some form of it this year.
The turnout of students and their efforts to give it a shot proved to me that even when faced with obstruction, the spirit of UCSB students and Isla Vista lives on, and I have renewed hope that the power of our community will bring back our cherished tradition in the future.