Party city: St. Fratty’s Day and Deltopia test local public safety services and long-term residents

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If San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara know anything, it’s how to have a good time with decades of history to back it up.

Yearly events like St. Fratty’s Day and Deltopia are household names, whether perceived as famous or infamous. If you consider them famous, you’ve likely been one of the thousands of people who filled SLO’s streets in a sea of green. Maybe you’ve stormed Santa Barbara’s beaches to drunkenly float ocean waves or bike topless through the Isla Vista neighborhoods blasting EDM beats.

If, on the other hand, infamous is the term you prefer, maybe you’ve been a perturbed neighbor trapped in your driveway by droves of drunk, noisy college students, or you’ve experienced property damage or watched in fear as your local fraternity bro scaled a utility pole.

For more than 40 years, the Central Coast has hosted these street parties with attendees in the thousands. Law enforcement contends that such revelry is both illegal and a public safety issue.

While many residents, students, and out-of-towners have come to look forward to St. Fratty’s and Deltopia every year, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office Cmdr. Garrett Te Slaa said these events are a “significant drain” on local resources.

“It damages private property, and it’s this amorphous event with no particular leader,” Te Slaa told New Times. “And so it makes it very difficult to police as a result of that, and also very, very expensive.”

Te Slaa said that police want to foster and encourage public parties because throwing such events is residents’ right under the First Amendment. But when parties grow to thousands of people in local neighborhoods like current day St. Fratty’s and Deltopia celebrations, that’s when law enforcement has to become a party pooper.

Early days

Isla Vista’s Deltopia hasn’t always been that—it actually started as “Floatopia” in 2009, Te Slaa said, as a way for residents to celebrate the week back after spring break. Students and residents alike would gather on the beach to party, drink, and be merry. But it quickly turned problematic after celebrations left significant environmental damage to the beaches, forcing Santa Barbara County Parks to close them and deter further partying and damage.

“And so, it went from Floatopia to moving up to Del Playa becoming ‘Deltopia,'” Te Slaa said. “They close the beaches every year, so that’s why it’s on the public street.”

Floatopia grew out of control so quickly, thanks at least in part to its proximity to UC Santa Barbara, Te Slaa said. UCSB has a reputation, ranked as the No. 2 party school in the nation by Playboy in 2006.

“It is a badge of honor for many of the residents that they go to UCSB because of its party reputation,” he said. “The nature of Isla Vista, being an unincorporated area right next to campus and right on the beach, fosters a lot of that community participation in the party culture.”

Before Floatopia, Halloween put Isla Vista on the party map, Te Slaa said.

“Halloween, for decades, was a major event where people from all over the country would come in and essentially do the same thing [as Deltopia]. They would dress up, and they would party in the streets, and they’d go house to house party-hopping in costume. And it took us decades to get that under control,” he said.

Halloween would see nearly 50,000 people in the streets of Isla Vista, Te Slaa said.

“It wasn’t until close to 2014 that really, we finally put a nail in the coffin of Halloween,” he said.

SLO also quashed a raging public party that started in the 1970s. During the holiday of Mardi Gras, each February the downtown streets would be filled with thousands of revelers.

According to 2003 New Times reporting, two residents would travel Monterey Street in the early days and throw beads at pedestrians. Eventually, the event grew into one of SLO’s largest recorded celebrations, once hitting a crowd of 30,000, resulting in at least 120 arrests.

Current SLO Police Department Deputy Chief Fred Mickel was relatively new in SLO when Mardi Gras peaked in the early 2000s.

“At the time, we were the biggest Mardi Gras parade outside of New Orleans. It was really, actually a pretty festive event,” he said.

As a public-run event, the parade was permitted by the city to close the downtown streets.

“Thousands upon thousands of people would show up. And it was really a good event for a while, but what eventually started happening is it started rolling into … the neighborhoods,” Mickel said. “So that’s where it started to change the dynamics of what was going on, … spilling into the streets and having illegal street parties.”

As law enforcement worked to clear up the neighborhoods, partiers turned violent in 2004, throwing rocks and bottles at police and nearby property. Mickel said the media dubbed this event the “Mardi Gras riot,” and it led to the end of the Mardi Gras parade.

“We had max deployment officers, and we just went to zero tolerance on just parties and illegal behaviors and things like that. And then also the organization that was having the parade no longer was doing the parade, so that didn’t draw crowds,” Mickel said.

He called it an “eye-opening” experience in his career.

“This is not what I expected from San Luis Obispo. And so, yeah, I agree with what the papers coined it as. It turned into pretty much a riot when they’re throwing rocks and bottles and vandalizing,” he said.

The party, he said, shouldn’t have moved into residential neighborhoods.

“It really was a great, neat downtown event. You know, that’s kind of the difference between the events that are happening up in the neighborhoods versus a downtown event. Downtown is where you’re supposed to do this stuff, right?” Mickel said. “Downtown is built to have parades. Downtown is built to have large amounts of people going to bars, but the neighborhoods aren’t made for that.”

Present chaos

As Deltopia and St. Fratty’s have grown, so have the number of arrests and injuries.

Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office Cmdr. Te Slaa called this a “draining” of public resources across the Central Coast, as surrounding areas send mutual aid to help assist local authorities.

“I want to emphasize that this is truly, Deltopia specifically, is truly a medical emergency event that looks like a law enforcement problem because the amount of medical calls, and the strain on our medical resources in the county is significant and overwhelming,” he said.

According to statistics provided by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, this year’s Deltopia, held April 4 to 6, reported 135 emergency medical services contacts, which was a 27 percent increase from 2024’s 106 contacts. Of those contacts, 12 patients were transported directly to hospitals and 57 patients were treated in the EMS tent, with 13 requiring a transfer to the hospital. Most cases involved alcohol intoxication, minor injuries, or anxiety.

“We actually have to have a triage tent staffed by ER physicians on-site to deal with the amount of medical calls,” he said, “and that’s because if we don’t, we will completely overrun the medical hospital system countywide and probably tri-county wide by mid-afternoon.”

Law enforcement also issued 485 citations and made 84 arrests, the Sheriff’s Office reported, compared to 256 citations and 32 arrests in 2024, and 151 citations and 23 arrests in 2023.

“Just to describe what Deltopia is like, we can’t send the ambulances into the area of Del Playa because they can’t drive down the street. It’s too densely crowded with people to send foot teams of medics, paramedics in to addresses to retrieve people who have overdosed or are suffering a medical emergency,” he said.

“Those paramedics have to be accompanied by law enforcement, because if they’re not, they end up being sometimes assaulted. They have people interfering with the medical treatment, and so we have to dedicate law enforcement just to protect the paramedics so they can do their job of treating the patient.”

SLO faces similar challenges over St. Fratty’s weekend, said Te Slaa, who helped SLOPD with St. Fratty’s Day enforcement. Each March around St. Patrick’s Day, thousands spill into the neighborhoods near Cal Poly and on campus.

The St. Fratty’s celebration started in 2009. In 2015, a roof collapsed with 30 people atop it, sending 10 to the hospital. In 2024, partying students caused damage to multiple structures at Cal Poly, including freshman dorm Muir Hall, which experienced damages so severe that around 300 student residents were evacuated so the school could repair and restore fire suppression and alarm systems.

The party peaked with 7,000 attendees in 2024, according to previous New Times reporting—double the attendance from 2023. SLOPD issued 165 citations for open containers, public urination, and climbing utility poles, among others.

This year’s celebration was tamer than last after new policies from SLO and Cal Poly, resulting in about 70 citations.

SLO City Councilmember Jan Marx has been around for both Mardi Gras and St. Fratty’s and said the primary difference between the two is that St. Fratty’s is illegal and much more difficult for city officials to manage because it doesn’t have a designated “leader.”

“There’s a kind of a group-mind organization,” she said. “Unlike the Mardi Gras, [St. Fratty’s] didn’t have a permit to do it. They just invade—they just invade the city streets.”

When the roof collapsed in 2015, Marx said neither the city nor police were prepared to handle such an event or crowd.

“Because of the unorganized and unpermitted nature of the event, for the people to receive medical attention was almost impossible,” she said. “Also, the police force was not really geared up to handle the crowd at that time in that the organizers are kind of shadow organizers of St. Fratty’s, but not one person actually steps up and says, ‘I’m organizing it.'”

As a former homeowner in the neighborhood where students swarmed the streets, Marx said such events create a sense of fear for residents as “sneaky” unplanned parties trap people in their homes.

“There were thousands of people all of a sudden at this one house that happened to be on the block where my husband and I lived for many years, on Albert Drive, so we couldn’t get out of the driveway. We couldn’t leave our house,” she said. “The longer term residents in those areas, or throughout the city—also the police; also the fire; also the campus police; also people who work in that area—it just brings everything to a standstill, and then there’s this element of fear and uncertainty, like, what are they going to do? What are all these people going to do? When are they going to leave?”

Party parameters

After years of property damage and medical emergencies, cities, counties, and law enforcement have implemented policies to prevent further chaos and injury.

Santa Barbara Cmdr. Te Slaa said in recent years police have had to rope off the coastal bluffs bordering Del Playa Drive to prevent people from falling, per the approval of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors.

The Sheriff’s Office also released a safety statement days before Deltopia this past April.

“The bluffs along Isla Vista’s coastline are dangerous, and falls occur nearly every year, sometimes with tragic results. Stay behind all fencing or railings near the edge to avoid injury. The bluffs are not a safe place to stand or gather,” it said.

Audible music of any kind is banned in Isla Vista from Friday to Sunday nights when it consists of music or a DJ and more than 250 attendees. Events are shut down immediately if they require paid entry, sell alcohol, or have any people on the roof.

“That has prevented the parties from growing throughout the night, and that was probably the most significant piece of legislation passed to address these issues,” Te Slaa said.

For St. Fratty’s Day weekend this year, Cal Poly and SLO discouraged out-of-towners from showing up and enacted a citywide Safety Enhancement Zone Response Plan ordinance with zero tolerance for party shenanigans. The ordinance increased fines for noise citations from the usual $350 to up to $1,000. Law enforcement issued almost 100 fewer citations than in 2024.

“I think the city and SLOPD did a phenomenal job this year of managing that event as best they can,” Te Slaa said.

According to city records, the additional enforcement, along with the help of neighboring police departments, cost almost $125,000 for the weekend, as opposed to the $40,000 spent in 2024.

Cal Poly joined efforts to rein in unruly students by hosting its first ever Morning on the Green musical festival with 5,000 free tickets available to students. On March 15 from 4 to 9 a.m. at the Sports Complex Lower Fields, the festival featured headliner Zhu and special guest Galantis.

According to the university’s “Don’t Test Your Luck” website, Cal Poly said it hoped to provide a space where students could “enjoy music, food, and fun, all while being at a lower risk of harming themselves or violating campus and city laws.”

Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong called the event a success, even though an additional 1,000 students broke the fencing around the venue and stormed the field.

According to Cal Poly Assistant Vice President for Communications and Media Relations Matt Lazier, the university spent about $1.2 million—the concert cost $700,000 and the rest went to campus police presence and overtime pay for staff volunteers who manned the concert, university, and dorms, he told New Times via email.

Lazier said the funds didn’t come from student fees. The school primarily spent revenue collected over time from procurement activities like rebates from previous purchases and credit card usage.

“With so many stakeholders on campus and off, a comprehensive review of these efforts will take time—and answers to many specific questions will come later,” Lazier said. “We are in the process of gathering feedback from those stakeholders, with the aim of providing programming and enforcement next year that improves on this year’s results and continues changing the culture of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in San Luis Obispo into the future.”

Party on?

It’s not like police and city officials don’t want the community to celebrate, it’s just that the gatherings need to stay under control.

“It’s a challenge because, you know, on private property, people are allowed to have parties, and we want to encourage and foster people’s First Amendment rights to gather and to express themselves and celebrate, and that’s completely appropriate,” Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office Cmdr. Te Slaa said.

SLO City Councilmember Marx said she doesn’t get why St. Fratty’s has reached the scale it has, requiring the city and university to make such efforts and spend so much money. While she understands it’s a First Amendment right, she sees the event as students wanting to overtake the city and not considering the rules and regulations that could keep things in order.

“I’m kind of sad that it seems like the students, student-age people, are more interested in taking over a part of the city,” she said. “I don’t know the purpose of St. Fratty’s Day except dressing up in green and getting drunk early in the morning and being with thousands of people. When I say I don’t know, I’m truly ignorant. So I would love it if someone could educate me about why it’s so much fun.”

Cmdr. Te Slaa said these events seem to have also lost consideration for the city resources it takes to manage such a party, but also the resources it takes away from neighboring places and people in need.

“When you look at its impacts on a macro level, how it impacts county emergency medical services, someone who is having a heart attack in Santa Maria may struggle to get an ambulance because of what’s happening with some people who’ve chosen to overindulge in alcohol in Isla Vista, right?” he said. “And so, that’s something we try to impress upon our population here, is that their actions have significant impact throughout the county. It’s a pretty big deal.”

And although both SLO and Isla Vista are working to enact stricter policies against unpermitted parties, Te Slaa said they can’t call this a “success” yet.

“I’m never going to call Deltopia a success because its very existence tells us that we haven’t been successful yet, right?” he said. “When nobody shows up for Deltopia, that’s when it’s been a success.” Δ

Reach Staff Writer Libbey Hanson at lhanson@newtimesslo.com.

This article appears in May 15-25, 2025.