The first call of an alcohol overdose came in at 10:15 a.m. By 10:30 a.m. they were out of ambulances.
The day only got worse.
Emergency calls, citations, and arrests at the unsanctioned street party in Isla Vista known as Deltopia jumped dramatically in 2024.
In 2023, there were 60 emergency medical calls, 33 hospitalizations, 12 arrests, and 123 citations. In 2024, those numbers rose to 106 emergency medical calls, 35 hospitalizations, 31 arrests, and 244 citations were issued.
The crowd doubled from 15,000 people in 2023 to 30,000 this year, which took place on April 6, during the first weekend of UC Santa Barbara’s Spring Quarter.
“The pressure that this places on our emergency services countywide is so significant that this event is still a serious public safety threat and is still something that has to be contented with and it has to be seen as a medical emergency more than just a law enforcement event,” said Lt. Garrett TeSlaa at the Isla Vista Foot Patrol.
TeSlaa said they had roughly 150 law enforcement agents working throughout the weekend of Deltopia which included sheriff, Alcohol and Beverage Control, and six officers from the Santa Maria police department. The 150 law enforcement agents do not include officers from the campus police department.
TeSlaa said they hope to triple the amount of law enforcement and have more medical emergency personnel for next year.
“It’s a medical emergency and we are not the right tool for a medical emergency,” TeSlaa said. “For the last few years, we’ve had to utilize ourselves as a tool because fire and medics get overrun by the amount of calls that even this year we had to divert from our mission of public safety to the emergency medical stuff.”
This year the county was out of ambulances by 10:30 a.m. on the day of Deltopia. Officers put unconscious people into their patrol cars to transport them to the medical emergency tent, TeSlaa said.
Scott Safechuck, public information officer for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, said they will decide prior to next year’s Deltopia if they want to increase their medical emergency response and what resources they need.
“As we got closer to those dates, we’ll make decisions on how many resources we’re going to have out there,” Safechuck said. “The public needs to take responsibility out there as far as responsibly partying, that also helps.”
Safechuck said they had to call in ambulances from Ventura County.
“It affects the entire county when our ambulances and our paramedics are tied up in one geographical location,” Safechuck said. “It’s definitely impactful.”
This was the first Deltopia since the county amended the outdoor festival and social host ordinances. TeSlaa said they were pleased to see that a majority of residents were complying with the new ordinances and capping their parties at 250 people.
“That solved a lot of problems that we’ve seen in previous Deltopias just there,” TeSlaa said. “In 2023, when you didn’t have that cap, and you had two 3000 people on a property, you had no restrooms, you had a lot more fights and a lot more things like that come up with the density of those parties, but we didn’t see a lot of that this year.”
However, TeSlaa said there is still work to be done around educating residents about not letting people onto their rooftops, going over balconies and fences.
There was only one paid party this year, which became an issue during Deltopia in 2023 when Poppin, a party app, sold $35 tickets to events at four Isla Vista properties.
This year there was only one paid party that law enforcement had to shut down.
This year 145 citations were issued to people from outside of the county who came to Isla Vista specifically for Deltopia.
TeSlaa said they spoke to individuals from the East Coast, Washington, and Colorado who came to Deltopia because their friends in Isla Vista told them about the event. TeSlaa said he hopes that next year they can get the message out to residents to keep Deltopia an event for UCSB students and discourage them from inviting out-of-town guests.
“I think it’s clear we have a huge out of towner problem with the event,” said Spencer Brandt, board member on the IVCSD board of Directors. “I’m worried about the direction that we’re moving in. I worry that we’re sort of backsliding to where we were many years ago.”
In an effort to provide a safer alternative to Deltopia, the Isla Vista Community Services District hosted a Spring Festival in Little Acorn Park the same day as Deltopia.
This year the festival had 4,000 people in attendance, live music, free food, restrooms, and safety resources. Next year Brandt said IVCSD plans to expand the spring festival.
“We need to continue doubling down on what’s working which is things like the spring festival and expanding it because there are community festivals all over the country that have figured this out, that have figured out how to organize a festival that is fun for attendees to enjoy, that is for local residents, and that has safety measures in place,” Brandt said.
TeSlaa said he doesn’t think the festival stops people from going to Deltopia but that it does a good job at providing people with water and medical resources.
Brandt said that the unsanctioned nature of Deltopia means the event has a lack of organization and safety. Brandt said that it’s time to try something new and not revert to things that have been done in the past that haven’t succeeded.
He wants to see more coordination among the different agencies that respond to Deltopia and the groups that aim to make the event safer.
“There are so many different agencies that respond to Deltopia, but what if all these different agencies proactively planned for it, and planned for it in a way that would reduce the harm that would come,” Brandt said. “I think that that would be something that would really help folks communicate better and be able to have some of these tough conversations.”
