Mustang News
Less than three minutes after going on sale, tickets sold out for Cal Poly’s Morning on the Green – A Mustang Music Festival. The event is intended to drive students away from the illegal street partying that has destroyed neighborhoods for over a decade.
The university limited the concert to 5,000 tickets, or roughly 22% of the university’s enrolled students. In addition, each Cal Poly student could buy a ticket for one guest over 18.
The free-of-charge tickets went on sale at noon on Wednesday and sold out before 12:03 p.m. Students were directed into a waiting room on the e-ticket site within 30 seconds of the sale opening.
For those unable to secure tickets, there will be a waitlist line at the concert that will begin letting students in at 7 a.m., according to the Dean of Student’s website.
The concert will be at the Cal Poly Sports Complex Lower Fields on Saturday, March 15, from 4 a.m. to 9 a.m. Swedish EDM act Galantis will be the opener, and American EDM artist Zhu will headline the festival.
The concert is a collaboration between Cal Poly and the City of San Luis Obispo to prevent city and campus damages from the illegal block parties that have defined the “St. Fratty’s” celebration and drawn college students to SLO annually. Ten years ago, a roof collapse that injured nine students made national headlines.
Officials are cracking down this year, with a city-wide shift from containment of the neighborhood partying to prevention. Mayor Erica Stewart told Mustang News that this is “not a year we’ll have warnings” from law enforcement.
As arrest numbers and destruction increased during recent years, local leaders see an increased urgency to shut down the event altogether — forcing them to consider alternative events, prompting the on-campus concert.
“Get out of the neighborhood as quickly as you can,” University President Jeffrey Armstrong said. “Make a B-line to the intramural fields because SLOPD, UPD — they’re going to be out.”
Read more about the changes to the city’s St. Patrick’s Day approach here.
Carly Heltzel is an Arts and Student Life reporter and a journalism major. She got involved in her high school newspaper her freshman year and has since worked at several papers. When she got to Cal Poly,… More by Carly Heltzel
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