Thousands Attend First Soltopia Festival in Isla Vista

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This article was underwritten in part by the Mickey Flacks Journalism Fund for Social Justice, a proud, innovative supporter of local news. To make a contribution go to sbcan.org/journalism_fund.

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The sun and about 11,000 people turned out for the first-ever Soltopia Festival in Isla Vista on Saturday. Throngs of people meandered through the festival grounds, which spanned the Embarcadero Loop area. They gathered around stages to cheer on live bands (at least one person crowd-surfed at the Roadhouse Stage on Madrid Road), danced to deejay sets, shopped for thrifted clothes, got face paint and temporary tattoos, and waited in stretching lines for food. 

The Isla Vista Community Services District organized the event on the heels of the 72-hour noise ban that effectively canceled Deltopia, the massive unsanctioned block party on Del Playa Drive. In years past, Deltopia resulted in hundreds of citations and medical calls, as well as dozens of arrests, according to data from Santa Barbara County. 

Students and other community members had largely positive things to say about Soltopia.  

“I’m enjoying it,” one student said for a social media interview. “I’ve had a couple not great Deltopia experiences in the past and [for] this at least I get to do something.” 

A few Isla Vistans said they had low expectations for the event — several students had opposed the noise ban that passed in mid-January — but that it turned out fun and they enjoyed people-watching. Along with folks dancing and running from friend-group to friend-group, one man rode a horse around the loop and an out-of-state Christian group circled the perimeter of the festival with a six-foot cross. 

The festival’s free food was a clear draw but resulted in long waits with lines snaking around corners. Many people ended up buying food from local restaurants, which served a steady stream of customers through the day. The beer garden was also popular; it served pints from M. Special for $4.20 each. Proceeds went to STESA, an organization that helps survivors of sexual assault. The Isla Vista Community Services District said all-told, the garden made more than $3,600.

Myah Mashhadialireza, the community service district’s programs and engagement director, led the organization’s efforts for the event. She said Soltopia was a success overall. Along with good attendance, she said, Isla Vista had a significant drop in medical calls compared to 2025. 

Mashhadialireza said that on April 4 this year, there were seven emergency services calls — four in wider Isla Vista, and three in the Soltopia area — and four visits to the medical tent set up for the weekend; medical services transported two of those patients to the hospital. In 2025, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office reported 135 EMS medical calls over Deltopia weekend; 57 people were treated in the emergency medical tent and 12 were transported directly to the hospital that year. It is unclear how many medical calls occurred on the Saturday of that weekend. 

Last year, the Sheriff’s Office reported that they issued 485 citations and made 84 arrests. While the Sheriff’s Office did not publish arrest and citation numbers in time for publication, in a press release, the community services said preliminary information indicates arrests and citations were in the single digits. 

Mashhadialireza said her favorite part of the festival was watching its seven different sections come alive. She recalled the bowl section of Anisq’oyo Park, the site for one of the festival’s three live music stages, filled to the brim. 

The idea for a sanctioned festival in I.V. is not new, said the community services district’s general manager, Jonathan Abboud. 

Abboud was associate student president at UCSB in 2014, when tension between law enforcement officers and Isla Vistans escalated into a riot during Deltopia.

Abboud said that after the 2014 riot, people began discussing what it would take to host a sanctioned spring festival — they had a lot of the same ideas as what Soltopia realized. The community services district, which was formed three years later, provided the infrastructure to make those goals a reality. 

Soltopia, he said, was a proof of concept that Isla Vista could solve its own problems on its own terms. 

Outside of the festival area, Isla Vista’s streets were empty and silent. Law enforcement officers from Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, as well as the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, patrolled the community, with officers and their vehicles lining Del Playa Drive. A few clusters of Isla Vistans relaxed in their yards or in their doorways, but no major parties blared outside the loop.