Students and visitors came out in droves to the streets of Isla Vista on Saturday to celebrate Deltopia. With growing crowds, a stronger social ordinance, the suspension of the Restorative Justice Program and increased police presence, student leaders shared their thoughts in the aftermath of the festival.
Students and visitors came out in droves to the streets of Isla Vista on Saturday to celebrate Deltopia. Alexa Lopez/ Daily Nexus
The annual unsanctioned street festival takes place each year on the first Saturday of spring quarter. This year, Del Playa Drive attracted around 25,000 people, with 485 citations and 84 arrests — nearly double the numbers from last year.
After an overwhelming number of medical emergencies last year, local authorities increased the number of officers patrolling I.V. during Deltopia. While students acknowledged the necessity of police to maintain order, many expressed dissent against the “punitive” and “discriminatory” approach they typically take.
Second-year writing & literature major Sydney Ryan recalled a past altercation with police in I.V. where an officer “grabbed” and questioned her about the contents of a red cup she was holding. Ryan said that despite it being water, the officer resorted to physically approaching her before confirming any details. In addition, Ryan noted feeling more “anti-Deltopia” due to experiences with “unsafe men” over the years.
“Cops are kind of scary to be around in general, and they’re everywhere, and they’re pretty intimidating,” Ryan said. “I feel like the cops in general are kind of intense, although I’m sure they’re also helpful for people that are dying.”
Açucar Pinto, a fourth-year art major and the Associated Students (A.S.) internal vice president, also had negative experiences with police on Deltopia. They specifically spoke on an incident where an officer questioned Pinto’s friend who was overdosing before ensuring he received necessary life-saving treatment.
“Even if [cops] are, quote, unquote, trained [in first aid] it’s still not their priority,” Pinto said. “Their priority is to be punitive. It’s to get those rates of incarceration up. It’s to continue to find students, to build more of a budget for their own unit. And I just think that’s absolutely disgusting.”
Pinto said their friend was targeted by police because he was a Black man. They said social trends are moving in a more “conservative” direction, in part as a result of the current presidential administration, which has created a more “outwardly homophobic, transphobic and racist” environment during Deltopia where marginalized communities feel “unsafe.”
“They put his arms behind his back, and he’s still overdosing. And I’m trying to administer the Narcan. And the police officer pushed me back and told me to stay back, and kept asking for his wallet, and kept asking him questions while he’s actively overdosing,” Pinto said.
Fourth-year political science major and A.S. Off-Campus Senator Paolo Brinderson said the trend of police disproportionately questioning people of color and carrying weapons contributes to partygoers feeling wary of police.
“The people who are stopped are obviously disproportionately Black and brown, and that’s really the issue that we need to address here. And of course, we need more safety personnel, not police officers with guns,” Brinderson said.
Another drawback to Deltopia, according to students, is its negative environmental impacts. This year around 800 pounds of trash were collected on April 6 by a group of over 60 Isla Vista Recreation & Park District (IVRPD) volunteers.
“The day after Deltopia, I was walking, the trash cans were just so overflowing, all across the sidewalk. It was pretty disgusting to be around. Yeah, so that’s definitely negative,” Ryan said.
Rebecca Williams, second-year environmental studies major and A.S. Environmental Affairs Board co-events chair, said the community should increase awareness on where to throw trash and how to decrease litter.
“I saw a lot of small pieces of plastic, like bits of water balloons that had been thrown and crushed plastic cups that were really hard to pick up,” Williams said. “there’s just small pieces of plastic that can easily be, like, washed out into our storm drains in the ocean that we’re so close to.”
This year, the Isla Vista Community Services District (IVCSD) and UC Santa Barbara organizations provided education and resources to the community to increase public health and safety. Among these efforts were the Spring Festival, which offered free food and entertainment to drive crowds away from Del Playa Drive, a sobering station at the Isla Vista Community Center and safety and water stations.
“I thought that [it] was a pleasure to see so many students and people in Isla Vista that are passionate about harm reduction — using this as a time to [reduce harm], instead of coming at it from the deficit approach of ‘Let’s try to stop people from partying,’” Gauchos for Recovery (GFR) peer intern and third-year psychological and brain sciences major Trey Murray said.
Murray said GFR tabled on campus during the week leading up to Deltopia. They handed out Narcan and hundreds of overdose prevention kits to students. Being in recovery himself, Murray said they wanted to offer an alternative to Deltopia and are focusing on National Collegiate Recovery Week events.
“It’s not that people were hiding or running from Deltopia, but it was cool for them to have a community, and it wasn’t something that we’re scared of or running away from, or it’s more so just like another day for those students,” Murray said. “We definitely recognize that Deltopia can be a challenging time for students in recovery, so we hold down our meetings as usual.”
According to Williams, the next necessary step is to increase medical services available in I.V. in order to offer students more protection.
“I would say I think, like, the biggest keys for safety would definitely be increased [Emergency Medical Technician] and medical services. I think a lot of people are scared to interact with the police in general, even when they probably need help, they just don’t want to get in trouble,” Williams said.
First-year computer science major Ryan Longacre said a mandatory educational presentation from his Resident Assistant (RA) at Santa Cruz Residence Hall was helpful in informing underclassmen.
“The RA met with our floor [and] gave us a rundown of how to stay safe and all that kind of stuff,” Longacre said. “With enough safety precautions and preemptive measures, [Deltopia] can be contained to the point where it’s just a fun thing for the community.”
Despite its dangers, most students agreed that Deltopia poses as a valuable, unifying event for members of the I.V. community. While IVCSD and other groups sent the overarching message to “keep it local,” many students believed that including others in the culture of UCSB and I.V. is positively impactful.
“It gives everyone kind of like a day where the whole purpose is just, get with friends and hang out with someone,” Longacre said. “It’s just a really cool thing to connect with everyone else.”
Pinto said in the face of discrimination, marginalized groups have been able to foster safe spaces for themselves to participate in Deltopia with their community.
“People within Greek life were very quick to bully me, essentially, and kind of mark me as not fitting their standard of attraction to be able to attend this party,” Pinto said. “I think in a way, it’s really exclusionary, especially of marginalized students [and] people of color. But I think that as the years have gone, a lot of queer people, a lot of people of color have created their own alternative spaces during Deltopia for students to be able to all come together as a greater community.”
Jacob Onia, a fourth-year political science major and president of Santa Barbara Student Housing Cooporative’s racial equality and social justice centered house Biko, said while they initially decided against hosting a party on Deltopia, messages from community members made them realize their importance to those people.
“A bunch of our community members [reached] out to us, asking us if we are throwing, if there’s going to be an event at Biko during Deltopia. This really made us rethink our decision to not throw,” Onia said. “Most events here in Isla Vista are more catered to people who are not like us … so we really thought that it would be really important for us to create a space for this community that we have.”
A version of this article appeared on p. 3 of the Apr. 10, 2025 edition of the Daily Nexus.
