Students ride the Ferris wheel while admiring the view of Pardall Road on Sunday.
Students ride the Ferris wheel while admiring the view of Pardall Road on Sunday. Credit: Pricila Flores / Noozhawk photo

It’s one of the biggest days in Isla Vista, the one day a year when a Ferris wheel looms over Pardall Road, and this year a mechanical bull tossed students around during the annual Pardall Carnival on Sunday.

While thousands attended the opening weekend of the Santa Barbara Fair and Expo, the Isla Vista community attended a free carnival. From 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., attendees rode attractions, played games, and enjoyed free food.

“It’s quite nice, I mean free food and I can’t wait to do the Ferris wheel,” UC Santa Barbara student Sabrina Sanchez Delope said. 

The carnival is an annual celebration hosted by the Isla Vista Community Relations Committee (IVCRC). The group hosts this event to bring students and families together in the community and promote Associated Students.  

A carnival-goer holds on tightly while the mechanical bull spins her around at Sunday's event.
A carnival-goer holds on tightly while the mechanical bull spins her around at Sunday’s event. Credit: Pricila Flores / Noozhawk photo

A selling point of the carnival was free food from local restaurants including Hummus Republic, Zócalo, Sams to Go and Kozy Coffee.

To get a free food voucher, students were required to talk to six UCSB Associated Student organizations tabling at the event and receive stamps on a card.

The line for a free food voucher extended from the Pardall Center to Blenders in the Grass, around three stores long, just half an hour into the carnival. 

Carnival volunteers spin free cotton candy to hand out.
Carnival volunteers spin free cotton candy to hand out. Credit: Pricila Flores / Noozhawk photo

“(I am going to) Kozy 100%, I go to Kozy almost every day and I don’t know what I would do without it,” Sanchez Delope said.

She completed talking to six organizations early on and excitedly waited in line for a free food voucher. She said she visited tables about sex, housing, the environment, comedy, and a radio station. 

“The sex one was very entertaining, they did not necessarily teach me anything but it was nice to know that there was a sex-positive organization, and they also had free condoms,” she said.

As students meandered around the different tables and waited for their food vouchers, Isla Vista bands rotated out every hour until 4 p.m. 

“It was such a blast, I loved watching the audience vibe with us,” said Jesse Macdonald, a UCSB student and drummer of the band After Party.

The Isla Vista band After Party performs in front of the Pardall Center on Sunday.
The Isla Vista band After Party performs in front of the Pardall Center on Sunday. Credit: Pricila Flores / Noozhawk photo

Student volunteers sporting Pardall Carnival T-shirts were responsible for running the free food and game stalls and answering questions about the carnival. 

UCSB student and event coordinator Kate Unger called herself a floater for the day, looking for anyone who might have questions. 

“Almost everyone here lives in this area so it is nice to see so many people from school,” she said.  

And as the hours went by, the lines for the free amenities only grew. Community favorites were the Ferris wheel, cotton candy, the caricature artists and the mechanical bull.

“I love the cotton candy, but also the music sets a nice vibe,” Unger said.

Eloisa Vargas and Salvador Lozano, both UCSB students, waited around 30 minutes to get their caricatures drawn.

They said they planned to get to the carnival earlier than they did last year to beat the lines. By 1 p.m. they had already talked to six organizations and received their free food from Zócalo. 

Both Vargas and Lozano said they like “the crowd and vibes.”

“Everyone is happy because it is sunny. It is a great day at UCSB,” Vargas said.