The first mentions of Halloween celebrations getting out of hand were in 1962 and 1963 when water balloons and mud clots were exchanged between dorms. It was during this time that the residents began to dress in costume and attend keg parties on Del Playa Drive.¹
Not much was reported on Halloween again until the late 70’s when students were cited claiming that Halloween was an opportunity to defy authority. In 1978, a spontaneous riot broke out in this spirit after the tension had been building since the creation of the Isla Vista Foot Patrol in 1970. A party of 600 people became violent when bottles were thrown at officers. The following year, area high schoolers began attending and the party spread from the street that hangs over the cliff, Del Playa, to as far inland as Abrego Road. Another riot broke out, but unlike the one in the previous year, this one had been staged. Flyers were distributed at Santa Barbara City College and the local high schools announcing the staged riot; police were able to plan and shut down the protest quickly.¹
While it was not in the news for the majority of the 80’s, the number of people who attended Isla Vista Halloween increased every year by a few thousand. This is most likely due to increased interest in the town after hearing about the riots in the late 70’s, and when Playboy magazine apparently named UCSB a top party school in the country. In 1986, the usual increase of about a thousand jumped from about 10,000 attendees in 1985, to an unprecedented 30,000 that year. Thousands from all over the state came in chartered buses looking for the famous party scene. The town was so out of control that there were over 1,000 arrests that Halloween night, with nearly three-fourths of these arrests being students from San Diego State University.¹ Reports of stabbings, shootings, and people falling off the cliff were all documented. It was later discovered that there is no record of Playboy ever mentioning Isla Vista or Halloween from 1985 to 1992. Essentially, someone created one of the biggest rumors in the history of college partying, that eventually became truth.⁴
In response to the mass attendance, UC officials started their “Don’t Come to IV” campaign at other California campuses the following Halloween discouraging the students from traveling to Isla Vista. Additionally, traffic control was set up and the town was sealed off by 8 p.m. to all out-of-towners. Despite these cautionary steps, 35,000 people managed to find their way in, and 1,096 were arrested– the most ever recorded for Halloween weekend in IV. This was a turning point for the celebration: the event began as a way for locals to rebel against the police they saw as unjust, and had become a tourist destination where the out-of-towners can trash the town and not worry about the aftermath because they leave the next day.¹
People were still falling from the cliffs every year, countless injuries were being reported, and nothing the county or university initially did was slowing the event. The party continued, amounting to 40,000 attendees and 1,090 arrests in 1992.¹ Over 70 colleges were represented in the arrest reports, and it was typical for over 80% of the arrests to be tourists. It was not until 1993 when police started their “no tolerance policy”, which included a festival ordinance that forbids music after 6 p.m., traffic control at every entrance to the city, parking restrictions, stricter open container laws, increased I.D. checks to ensure those with alcohol were over the legal age of 21 and higher fines for infractions. Combined with the fact that the holiday landed during the week, the policy was effective: the number of attendees drastically fell from 25,000 in 1993 to only 1,750 in 1995.²
When Halloween fell on a Friday however in 2003, the numbers jumped back up to 40,000.³ Part of this increase was attributed to modern social media, such as MySpace and Facebook, expanding the attention to the area. A new campaign, “Keep It Safe, Keep It Local”, spurred out of this repeat that is still in effect to some degree. The university’s new approach was not to try to end the party, but instead to encourage to keep the party local.
In 2004, Maxim magazine did in fact name Isla Vista a top party spot for Halloween, only about 20 years after the rumor about Playboy began. The following years attendance remained around 25,000 with hundreds of arrests annually.¹
2014 saw a drop in attendance, despite the holiday falling on a Friday. Many factors contributed to this, including rain, a “Gauchos Only” campaign, and probably the most important being that the city was still in a state of recovery after six students were murdered the previous spring.
Sources:
- The Daily Nexus, The Biggest College Party in California. 25 October 2010.
- LA Times, Holiday: Sheriff’s Department braces for Halloween revelry in Isla Vista, a party magnet for the day. 22 October 2000.
- LA Times, Rain and UC Santa Barbara’s effort to tone down the revelry don’t deter 50,000 partygoers. 2 November 2003.
- MacIain, Adrienne. Playing on the Edge: Performance, Youth Culture, and the U.S. Carnivalesque. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Dramatic Arts, University of California, Santa Barbara.
The Isla Vista Experience 