Landon Block is a political science junior and the Opinion Editor at Mustang News. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang Media Group.
This year’s St. Fratty’s celebrations looked unmistakably different from last year’s. The sea of rowdy celebrators decked in green was transplanted from the streets to an on-campus concert. Sure, there were hiccups, but I’ll be the first to admit that it seems to have worked.
There are a lot of moving pieces in this shift, so let’s start with the obvious one: the Morning on the Green was fun and did its job of giving students a new place to go.
While the headliner wasn’t one of the A-listers like Doechii, Ice Spice or John Summit that the University initially released in a survey to RAs, Galantis and Zhu capitalized on their opportunity to bring students in and deliver a good time. Factor in free drinks, food and a beer garden (which, granted, was shut down partway through), and this event was really coming together.
In my last column — published before St. Fratty’s Day — I expressed my frustration that the Morning on the Green had potential if it could let enough people in. Unfortunately, only 5,000 tickets were offered, and 2,174 were reserved as “guest tickets.”
The standby line, which began admitting students at 6 a.m., quickly filled the H-12 parking. By just 6:10 a.m., the crowd overwhelmed the event staff and surged into the concert. In an email sent out this morning, President Amstrong announced this caused minor injuries to some volunteers and staff. I’m glad these injuries were not serious and want to highlight that the standby system used simply isn’t good enough to keep back thousands of impatient students.
Security briefly closed the entrance before crowds overpowered them again. Mustang News estimated the concert exceeded its 5,000-person capacity by 6:45. Still, the venue was not physically packed by any means; there was plenty of room away from the stage for attendees to take space away from the crowds.
By the time I arrived at the fields around 7 a.m., anybody could freely enter the festival. I walked past Hathaway Ave., the typical spot for the block party, on my way to the fields. To my surprise, there weren’t any major gatherings of students. It seems like the block party peaked with a few hundred students, but police were able to disperse the crowd relatively peacefully,
The Morning on the Green concert finished before 9 a.m., and the block party was effectively cleared around the same time.
Police announced they made only four arrests at the block party, all for public intoxication. This is far less than the five unruly gatherings, 99 open containers, nine public urinations, five public intoxications, 24 minors in possession, four climbing a utilities pole and three DUIs issued last year.
So, what made this all work? I would argue two things: the accessibility of the concert and effective law enforcement strategies.
I have repeatedly emphasized that I believe the Morning on the Green would only really work if it was both compelling and big enough for a substantial portion of students to enjoy it. We knew big name headliners, a beer garden, and the novelty of a concert would cover the first point. But I didn’t think 5,000 tickets and a long standby line would be enough for the second.
While I acknowledge the security and logistical concerns of an event like this, the event staff made the right call by eventually letting anybody in. There are certainly logistical consequences for this decision, but it made it so students knew they had a safe space to celebrate with a large group of people. There is a big difference between a small house party and a 5,000-person mosh pit, and the former just might not cut it for everyone.
I would encourage the City and University to keep a more relaxed policy like this for next year. I think limiting the concert to only Cal Poly students is perfectly fine, but this proved that putting a ceiling much lower than that isn’t going to work. In an email sent out this morning, President Jeffrey Armstrong agreed with this, saying the Morning on the Green needs a larger venue next year.
Furthermore, I can’t stress enough that City and University leadership have to give students the resources necessary to prepare for this event (an announcement 10 minutes before tickets go up, and immediately sell out, isn’t enough).
As for the police, it appears they mostly succeeded in using the minimum amount of force to deter a block party. That said, I certainly wasn’t happy to see the way many police officers were yelling at seemingly calm celebrators.
Law enforcement did not need to use riot gear or similar control methods as I had feared. It seems their presence alone was enough to deter celebrators from serious disobedience.
After the celebrations have come and gone, one question still lingers in my mind: how long can we keep this up?
While we don’t know the exact cost yet, we can assume Cal Poly and the City of San Luis Obispo poured a hefty sum of money into Saturday’s logistics. We do know, however, that it did not come from the state or student tuition & fees. Setting up a premiere stage and booking renowned headliners for an early morning show isn’t cheap. Neither is staffing hundreds of police officers from as far north as San Francisco and south as Oxnard.
I’m hopeful we can continue to shift our St. Fratty’s tradition away from unruly public crowds into contained festivals. I know I would be over the moon to see more big-name artists come to our tiny college town.
It’s going to take several years to root out students’ desires to form a block party. That means more years of heavy investment from the City and University to shift the culture. I don’t know how long the City and University would be willing to do this, especially if the investment costs significantly more than the damages we previously endured.
Prior to the event, Mayor Erica Stewart told Mustang News that she would like to continue to partner with Cal Poly on the festival in the future, and President Armstrong added that changing timelines with the adoption of the semester system in 2026 might remove the issue entirely.
Here’s what I do know: This year was a promising start to change and there’s still work to do. Students need to reframe their thinking away from unruly and illegal celebrations. Local leadership needs to seek common ground, not just scold and punish unwanted behavior.
I look forward to seeing both sides continue to grow throughout the next few years. And who knows, maybe the Morning on the Green could turn into Cal Poly’s next big thing.