Australian DJ Odd Mob and electronic dance music duo Walker & Royce will headline Cal Poly’s second annual St. Patrick’s Day music festival on Saturday, March 14. The concert will take place from 5 to 9 a.m., with gates opening at 4:45 a.m.
This year, Cal Poly will use a new layout for the event on the Lower Sports Complex to streamline entry and allow for 10,000 students, double the capacity of last year. The university will link tickets to students’ online portals and use RFID bracelets to allow for quicker entry.
READ MORE: Last year’s on-campus St. Patrick’s Day music festival overrun
These measures will also ensure that more Cal Poly students will have access to tickets. Last year, students could secure tickets for non-student plus ones — it is unclear if these will be offered this year.
No alcohol will be sold at this year’s event.
Previously, Cal Poly officials said the university would set up sobering stations and an alternative jail for intoxicated students at the event.
Last year, in an interview with Mustang News, Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong mentioned serving alcohol as one of the “ingredients” to a “successful alternative Cal Poly event” among a good headliner and inviting one additional guest.
WATCH HERE: What to know about last year’s St. Fratty’s crackdown
“We’re trying to set up the environment where people want to go there instead of the neighborhood,” Armstrong said last February, mentioning collaborations with student leaders to plan an alternative to the block party.
Cal Poly created “Morning on the Green — A Mustang Music Festival” last year to entice students away from the historically destructive street party that typically happens the weekend before winter quarter finals week. The university partnered with the City of San Luis Obispo to curb the block party through heavy law enforcement presence in the streets and providing this alternative event for students to attend.
Last year’s festival was overrun by students trying to break in, toppling fences and pushing past security barriers to gain entry. Tickets had sold out in less than three minutes and many students were left without access to the alternative event.
The headliners
Odd Mob is the alias of Harry Hope, a DJ and producer from Brisbane, Australia. More than five million people listen to his music every month on Spotify. He largely produces electronic dance music and house music, though in his Spotify bio he calls himself “genre-bending.”
The DJ played at Shabang Music & Arts Festival last year, the annual music festival in San Luis Obispo founded by Cal Poly students a decade ago.
Odd Mob has played at Coachella and large-scale EDM music festival Tomorrowland, according to his Spotify bio. His club remix of Sean Paul’s 2003 song “Get Busy” has surpassed 110 million streams on Spotify since its release in 2024.
The day before Odd Mob plays at Cal Poly, he will play in Las Vegas at 11 a.m. and Phoenix, Arizona at 8 p.m. Morning on the Green begins at 5 a.m. the next morning, then he will play in Portland, Oregon at 9 p.m. later that day. Tickets for those other events range from $25 to $73.
Sam Walker and Gavin Royce make up the EDM duo Walker & Royce, the second headliners. The duo has roughly 530,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. They produce music for clubs and festivals and tap into an “innate dance floor intuition,” their website reads.
The pair have worked together since 2011 and have collaborated with Chris Lake and other prominent EDM artists.
Walker & Royce’s upcoming concerts range from $28 to $37, with the latter price for a Santa Barbara show on Feb. 28. The duo will also play at the University of Idaho on April 18.
READ MORE: Last year’s music festival sold out in less than three minutes
City-wide prevention
Cal Poly is once again working with the City of San Luis Obispo to coordinate law enforcement to ensure the safety of the event, according to a Feb. 5 university email.
This includes a city-wide Safety Enhancement Zone over the weekend, doubling fines for party-related violations like noise disturbances, unruly gatherings and public intoxication. The enhancement zones will be in effect for the following times:
- 12 a.m. March 6 to 7 a.m. March 9
- 12 a.m. March 13 to 7 a.m. March 16
- 12 a.m. March 17 to 7 a.m. March 18
Fines start at $700 during the zones, with unruly gathering citations starting at $1,000. All student arrests and citations will be reported to Cal Poly for conduct review.
Last year, the first to have a Cal Poly music festival, there were decreased the amount of police citations, student conduct cases, medical transport and vandalism.
Cal Poly is partnering with ASI and the InterFraternity Council to bring Morning on the Green to students.