True to tradition, the 25th annual Sun God festival proved to be a day of mingling crowds and intoxicated students, culminating in a record turnout of 17,000 for the nighttime concert.
Third Eye Blind rocks the crowd during the nighttime concert, which also featured a performance by rapper T.I. Above: Students get wet and trudge through the bubbly Price Center fountain as part of Sun God’s traditional class-ditching debauchery.
“”As far as turnout, there is no official number because after two hours, our scanning system was so overwhelmed and the lines were so long that we just stopped scanning and started visually scanning IDs,”” Associate Vice President of Programming Di Lam said in an e-mail. “”The capacity on RIMAC field is 20,000. I would say the attendance was about 17,000. It was agreed among all staff members that this was the biggest Sun God to date.””
Indicating the growing reputation the festival has achieved among UCSD nonaffiliates, the 4,000 reserve tickets, as well as the additional tickets that were put on sale later, sold out, Lam said.
“”This was the first time we had sold out of tickets the night before the show,”” Lam said. “”So we placed another 1,000 on sale at the box office at RIMAC, and that sold out within an hour, so we had to turn a lot of folks away.””
Students get wet and trudge through the bubbly Price Center fountain as part of Sun God’s traditional class-ditching debauchery.
Lines started forming at 4 p.m., but ID scanners malfunctioned at 7:30 p.m. Many people voiced frustration with their attempts to get into the concert.
“”The line needs to be more organized,”” concertgoer and non-UCSD student Josh Mein said. “”People were cutting out of control.””
The sold-out show encouraged scalping – people sold tickets for up to $50 outside. But, the increasing popularity of Sun God with nonaffiliates had its pitfalls for some UCSD students.
“”Most of the people there didn’t go to our school, so no one knew anyone,”” Sixth College junior Jennifer Wong said. “”You didn’t run into people you knew, like last year, which was half the excitement.””
Those fortunate enough to get onto RIMAC field had food stands and blow-up obstacle courses to entertain them until Battle of the Bands winner High Tide took the stage at 6 p.m.
The UCSD Police Department declined to give exact figures on arrests and citations during the festival, as the figures were not yet finalized.
The crowd during Third Eye Blind’s set was huge and wild, according to concertgoers.
“”I have bruises all over my body,”” Revelle College junior Katie Schaukowitch said. “”It wasn’t so much rowdy as a lot of people pushing, and then if one person fell, five others got pulled down with them.””
A fireworks show to the Verve’s “”Bittersweet Symphony”” divided the main stage sets between Third Eye Blind and T.I., pushing many students into embraces and sing alongs.
Immediately following the show, T.I. took the stage with an accompanying shotgun blast, pumping out hits such as “”My Love”” and “”Bring ‘Em Out.””
However, the Atlanta rapper referred to to UCSD as San Diego University, a fact that dampened many spirits.
“”I thought T.I. didn’t have good skills dealing with the crowd and relating to the fans,”” Revelle freshman Kaitlyn Spaulding said. “”He kept pausing the music and yelling at us that we weren’t crunk enough.””
Despite T.I.’s repeated pauses, Lam said that she was more than satisfied with this year’s festival.
“”It was an amazing show, and I’m extremely happy about the turnout,”” she said. “”The show went off perfectly – albeit, there were some troubles with the entrance, but it seemed like students had an amazing time.””
