The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve the license for a music festival scheduled for the same weekend as Deltopia.
The Isla Vista Community Services District is calling the upcoming festival “Soltopia.”
Supervisor Laura Capps said the board's hope is for a safer, sanctioned spring festival in Isla Vista away from the bluffs near Del Playa Drive, where students have fallen and died during past Deltopia parties.
“So many different entities came together with a compromise to try to make this spring festival a cultural festival with music and art,” Capps said. “The energy is palpable.”
Deltopia is a large, unsanctioned festival held during UC Santa Barbara’s spring break. The county’s Board of Supervisors has tried to limit Deltopia by planning a 72-hour amplified music ban.
Isla Vista has held music festivals before, but this will be the biggest one yet, with six different planned stages. Funding for the event comes both from the district as well as the Associated Students Program Board at UC Santa Barbara.
Jonathan Abboud, the General Manager for the district, told the county board the idea for an alternative event was inspired by the 2014 Deltopia riots.
He said they’re investing in security guards, first aid tents and public bathrooms, and his goal for the festival is zero emergency medical calls and zero arrests.
During a public comment period, community member Sarah Erickson criticized the spring festival as “really Deltopia by another name.”
“It’s giving mixed messages,” Erickson said, mentioning the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office’s “zero tolerance” enforcement policy planned for Deltopia weekend.
Myah Mashhadialireza, the Community Programs and Engagement Director at the district, told the supervisors that the event was “not a new Deltopia.”
“This event is a demonstration of how public safety and community celebration do not need to be mutually exclusive,” Mashhadialireza said.
She compared the Isla Vista Community Services District’s approach to spring break-partying to healthy eating.
“I'll use fad dieting as an example: the more you restrict, the more you binge,” she said. “If you make a lifestyle shift and support yourself along the way, you'll see change that lasts the test of time.”
Isla Vista Foot Patrol Lieutenant Joe Schmidt told the Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors that this year will be a learning experience for the entire community.
“If we see substantially lower crowds this year, then we could start scaling our staffing back,” Schmidt said.
He said that the Sheriff’s Office will have the same amount of deputies working during Deltopia weekend as previous years, with most stationed away from Soltopia, which will have private security.
Deputies will be concentrated by the cliffs near Del Playa Drive to discourage partying and noise ordinance violations, Schmidt told the board.
Soltopia is scheduled for April 4, from noon to 6 p.m.
The Isla Vista Community Services District is holding a launch party for Soltopia on March 4 at the Isla Vista Community Center, with multiple bands and DJs performing.
