After the city reported record-high criminal offenses at last year’s St. Fratty’s Day block party, Cal Poly is attempting to move the notorious event off the streets and onto campus.
Cal Poly is planning a free music festival called ‘Morning On the Green – A Mustang Music Festival’ at the Lower Sports Complex with police enforcement and city supervision in the early hours of March 15.
Additionally, University Housing is banning guests from March 13-18 and charges for on-campus damages incurred during the six days will be doubled.
The crimes counted in the table include charges for unruly gatherings, public urination, noise control and possession or consumption of alcohol in public.
The music festival will feature a headliner and a supporting artist, according to a form sent to Inter Housing Council and RAs on Jan. 28. The form asked the RAs to rank their favorite artists for each category to gauge student interest.
According to records obtained by Mustang News, headliner options for the concert include The Kid Laroi, John Summit, Ice Spice and Sexyy Red. The supporting artists considered were Rico Nasty, Subtronics, Doechii, Ski Mask the Slump God, Big Sean, A Boogie, NLE Choppa and Denzel Curry.
The event will be open to students 18 and older, with food and drinks available. According to Allison Baird-James, Senior Vice President of Administration & Finance, alcohol will be available for purchase at the event, possibly in the form of a beer garden.
St. Fratty’s Day will remain under a Safety Enhancement Zone, resulting in doubled fines for public urination, open containers, unruly gatherings and noise. This means any individual who receives a first-offense fine will be charged $700. The Safety Enhancement Zone will take place from March 7-9 and March 14-17.
The university and city also presented to Greek life organizations, the Inter Housing Council and ASI to create state-wide paid social media ads and contact other universities to discourage outside-student attendance.
“Our strategy looking forward shall not be on containment, it shall be on prevention,” San Luis Obispo Police Chief Rick Scott said in a post-St. Fratty’s Day city council meeting last March.
Since then, Cal Poly developed a St. Patrick’s Day Task Force in Oct. 2024, according to Mayor Erica A. Stewart. While the city and university’s end goal is to completely cancel the event, San Luis Obispo Deputy Chief Fred Mickel said this event plan reflects a realistic timeline to shut the event down in a few years.
“We were really reactive…that was not effective,” he said, adding, “We didn’t anticipate the growing number of people that were attending the event.”
Other challenges mentioned were the number of out-of-town attendees, “pregame” damage to campus housing, rooftop gatherings, and pole climbing.
“We are not waiting for it to happen,” Mickel said. In the month leading up to the event, there will be “low to no tolerance” for similar behaviors.
This is an ongoing story. Mustang News will publish updates as more information becomes available.
Rocco Brichler contributed to the reporting of this story. Jeremy Garza contributed to the reporting of this story and requested the public records data for the graph.
UPDATE: This article was updated at 2:35 p.m. to include reporting from Rocco Brichler.