Extravaganza is a music festival organized by UCSB’s Associated Students Program Board. The festival has been held annually since 1989. (Maddy Fangio / Daily Nexus)
Extravaganza is a free, student-only campus music festival organized by UC Santa Barbara’s Associated Students Program Board. Since its creation in 1979, Extravaganza has drawn crowds upwards of 12,000, with students flocking to watch artists from Snoop Dogg to Steve Aoki on the Harder Stadium stage to close out the academic school year.
With the 45th iteration of the festival taking place on May 18, the Daily Nexus looked at all Extravaganza lineups from 2000-2025, finding a prominent lack of female performers and a shift in genre presence from rock to electronic dance music (EDM).
Extravaganza background
Associated Students Program Board (ASPB) is an entity within UCSB’s Associated Students (A.S.). ASPB’s mission statement is to coordinate fun and educational events for the UCSB community, through hosting concerts, screenings and other entertainment-based activities.
ASPB is funded through student lock-in fees, which are voted on and reaffirmed every two years. Lock-in fees are included in students’ tuition and make ASPB programming and events possible, including Extravaganza. ASPB did not respond to requests from the Daily Nexus to see their spending breakdown.
In the early years of the festival, Extravaganza had a total of 10 performers on the lineup and two stages — a mix of about five headlining performers on the main stage and five local performers on a second stage. This practice continued until 2005, when ASPB moved to having only one stage, with about four or five big-name performers and one local performer as an opening act performing (typically the winner of Battle of the Bands or Battle of the DJs in The Hub).
Headliners are the main draw of the festival, bringing in popular artists like rapper Kendrick Lamar in 2013 and DJ Galantis in 2023. There are two to four support acts leading up to the headlining performance, which closes the festival. Support act assignment is based on popularity and prominence — smaller artists (such as Peach Pit in 2019 and Briston Maroney in 2024) claim the third or fourth support act slot at the beginning of the festival. More popular artists (such as Rae Sremmurd in 2016 and Charli XCX in 2018) perform right before the headliner and are labelled as “first support act.”
Extravaganza has been held annually since 1989, with the exception of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Tyler Janous / Daily Nexus)
According to ASPB Special Events Coordinator and fourth-year communication major Grace Freese, lineup selection begins by reaching out to college booking agents (agents specializing in the college market) attached to major talent agencies in Los Angeles and inquiring about the asking price and availability of a list of potential performers. Once the list is narrowed down, ASPB researches certain performers, looking at overall music trends, Spotify artist data and campus interests.
Using this research, ASPB presents the list of potential performers to the entire program board, where all members have the opportunity to vote on artists they want to perform. From there, ASPB and A.S. begin the negotiation process with potential artists. Lineups are typically announced a week before the festival through a public lineup reveal event on campus.
In 2011, Extravaganza became exclusive to only UCSB students due to concerns over crowd control. Graduate students, extension students and faculty members are not allowed to attend, as they do not pay the same student lock-in fees.
The festival has been held annually since 1989, with the exception of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, ASPB hosted a virtual two-day version of the festival in lieu of an in-person event.
Gender
Male performers dominate Extravaganza lineups. From 2000-2025, all Extravaganza headliners have been male.
Since 2000, 12 female acts (including those in bands or musical groups) have performed at Extravaganza. Only eight of those are solo female performers.
Majority of Extravaganza performers since 2000 have been male. (Lance Sanchez / Daily Nexus)
Moreover, in 2000, 2003-2013 and 2024, no female performers were included on the lineup. 2025 marks the first time in 25 years with more than one female performer at Extravaganza — R&B singer Ravyn Lenae and EDM duo Snow Strippers, which features one female member (Tatiana Schwaninger).
Four female acts have been first support acts — punk rock band Save Ferris in 2000 with sole female lead singer Monique Powell, female-led alternative rock band The Breeders in 2002, pop artists Charli XCX in 2018 and Remi Wolf in 2023.
Female performers are primarily second or third support acts. R&B artist Jhené Aiko was the third support act in 2014, marking it the first time in 12 years a female artist performed on the Extravaganza stage.
2025 marks the first time in 25 years that two female performers have appeared on the lineup. Extravaganza did not take place in 2020 due to COVID-19. (Lance Sanchez / Daily Nexus)
When asked to comment on this, Freese said that the lack of female performers is due to the difficulty of smaller female artists in the music industry to be recognized.
“They have to be the best of the best … that means when they reach success or notoriety, it normally means they have become so famous that they’re out of our budget,” Freese said.
“Men in this industry get more of a pass for being more affordable mid-tier and still being recognizable and satisfying a larger population of people with less pushback,” she continued. “Which is a reflection of problems in the industry, and it’s a reflection of probably a listener problem as well.”
Freese expressed hope for future lineups in terms of representation, highlighting 2025 for featuring two female artists.
“Last year, we didn’t have any women on the lineup. This year we did. We had two, with Snow Strippers and Ravyn Lenae,” Freese said. “I was really, really happy to see that turnaround.”
Genre
For the past 25 years, lineups have tended to feature an overwhelming amount of hip-hop/rap and EDM performers in comparison to other genres.
Hip-hop/rap, rock and EDM are the most represented genres on Extravaganza lineups. (Lance Sanchez / Daily Nexus)
Early 2000s lineups were predominantly rock artists with hip-hop/rap headliners, bringing in popular alternative rock bands such as The Breeders and Eve 6. However, since 2005, rock as a genre has become increasingly sparse in festival lineups, and absent since 2015. This is due to a purposeful departure from rock in an effort by ASPB to bring in more diverse genres and cater to a wider audience.
The majority of headliners and performers from 2000-2025 fall under the hip-hop/rap genre. Since 2000, 34 hip-hop/rap artists have performed at Extravaganza, with 14 being headlining acts. Popular artists such as Busta Rhymes in 2005, Drake in 2010, Playboi Carti in 2019 are among those 14.
EDM and DJ artists were introduced in 2010, with performances by Chromeo and Super Mash Bros. Since 2010, at least one EDM artist has been included on the lineup (barring 2021, due to the virtual nature of the festival). Diplo was the first DJ headliner in 2014, setting the stage for a rise of electronic music on the Harder Stadium stage. In the last three years, ASPB has selected only DJ performers to headline the festival — Galantis in 2023, Steve Aoki in 2024 and Chris Lake in 2025.
An increase of R&B artists began with headliner CeeLo Green in 2011. Additionally, pop (which was absent from festival lineups from 2000-2017) emerged in 2018, with Charli XCX and Coast Modern as supporting acts for EDM headliner Dillon Francis.
Rock has become increasingly sparse in festival lineups, and absent since 2015. From 2023-2025, ASPB has selected only EDM performers to headline. (Lance Sanchez / Daily Nexus)
Freese stated that, while ASPB tries to best represent student interests in terms of genres, certain elements in the booking process are “completely out of our control.”
“We really try our best to meet and honor student needs, because we understand that not everyone likes electronic music and that’s not everyone’s preferred genre of music,” Freese said.
“We do everything we can to work with the puzzle that we’re given to meet student needs, and sometimes, unfortunately, the circumstances are out of our control, and we work with the best that we have,” she continued.
Extravaganza lineups 2000-2025
Lineup history color-coded by genre and gender can be found here.
Lauren Chiou / Daily NexusLineup information was collected using Daily Nexus archives, ASPB website and promotional materials and articles by the Santa Barbara Independent. Genres are based on Spotify artist data.
Second stage lineups from 2000-2001 and 2003-2004 were not included in the data collection, as performers were local/student groups.
This article appeared in the May 22 print edition of the Daily Nexus.
