Event security collapsed before sunrise as thousands of students overran checkpoints and barricades at Cal Poly’s Morning on the Green – A Mustang Music Festival.
What began as a highly anticipated, university-organized music festival quickly unraveled into a morning of security failures, crowd surges and multiple off-campus block parties — demonstrating the ongoing challenge of controlling St. Patrick’s Day weekend festivities.
The festival, pitched as a safe, university-sanctioned alternative to past years’ illegal street parties, sold out in three minutes on March 5. However, by 6:15 a.m., security had lost control as thousands of attendees toppled fences and bypassed security checkpoints.
As opener Galantis took the stage in the Lower Sports Complex, hundreds of students left outside chanted ‘Let us in,’ forcing security to turn on field lights and stop the music to regain control of the situation.
By 6:35 a.m., Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong appeared on-site. Police briefly closed event entrances and about 15 minutes later, most festival security had abandoned pat-downs altogether, allowing students to pour in unchecked.
Despite surging festival crowds, hundreds of students also gathered off campus, forming several block parties in multiple streets near Hathway Avenue by 7 a.m.
Law enforcement responded with force, threatening arrests and demanding students to disperse.
There were four arrests made, all for public intoxication, according to the City of San Luis Obispo’s Neighborhood Party Enforcement Update.
As Galantis finished his set, waves of students left the festival in the direction of the off-campus block parties. The festival beer garden for students 21 and older ran out of alcohol, and by the time headliner ZHU took the stage, most of the crowd was gone.
The off-campus block parties grew until police shut them down around 8:45 a.m. Around the same time, ZHU left the stage early due to technical sound issues, marking an abrupt end to the morning’s events.
Reporters RJ Pollock, Dylan White and Seth Pintar contributed to the reporting of this story.
UPDATE: This article was updated at 5:11 p.m. to include information about arrests at the block party.
