UCSB’s WORD magazine will host its first annual “WORDSTOCK Music Festival” this Sunday, featuring a lineup of local bands and Los Angeles-based DJs.
The event will be held from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday at Sea Lookout Park, colloquially known as “Dog Shit Park.” Admission to the festival — which will include an art installation, face-painting booth, henna tattoo stand and food from the popular O Street Truck — is free.
According to Gerson Hernandez, a fourth-year film and media studies major and one of the event coordinators, the lineup will consist of two “disco-ish” DJs from “Funkmosphere” in L.A., as well as two neighborhood bands: Givers and Takers and Nuer.
“[The DJs] play all original vinyl — they play all original records from the early 80s,” Hernandez said. “The music is called boogie-funk. … It sounds like disco, but it is a continuation of disco [into] the 80s.”
Founded in 2008, WORD — dubbed the “Isla Vista Arts and Culture Magazine” — is a student-run publication that highlights local artists, musicians and businesses. Voted “Most Creative UCSB Organization,” WORD magazine publishes a roughly 60-page issue each quarter that explores current trends in Isla Vista.
WORD magazine is operated through the university as a class in the Interdisciplinary Humanities Dept. Lizzy Szabo, a fourth-year communications major and Managing Editor at WORD, said enrollment in INT 185st is limited to upper-division students by “luck of the draw,” but the publication welcomes “all majors and minds.”
“It is a quarterly publication about the arts and culture of Isla Vista and surrounding areas, so students can propose ‘pitches’ … to write about pretty much anything they want pertaining to I.V., or really anything we think our readers would find interesting,” Szabo said in an email.
Szabo said she finds the level of dedication shown by students in preparation for the event astounding, and she hopes the festival will become an annual tradition.
“The fact that these students have come together in less than a quarter to make this event happen, share so much of their time and energy, really says something about WORD,” Szabo said. “It is inspiring — especially when they have other classes, jobs, hobbies and even other work they’re doing for this class — that they are so motivated to make this happen. We are supporting local bands and introducing new music, all while trying to have a one-of-a-kind event where music and art meets the serene backdrop of the Pacific.”
Ginger Wojcik, a third-year global studies major and one of the event coordinators, said the art display will honor the publication’s mascot, Isla Vista’s infamous albino raccoon.
“A couple of our classmates have worked really hard in the last couple of weeks building this 10-foot tall albino raccoon out of cardboard,” Wojcik said. “I have not seen it yet; I have seen pictures and it looks awesome.”
According to Wojcik, the event is sponsored by the Organization of Student Life and the Associated Students Isla Vista Community Relations Committee.