Ticket scams, treacherous cliffs: Officials warn of danger at 'Deltopia' spring break rager
As the end of spring break nears, officials brace for the return of Deltopia — Santa Barbara County's massive unsanctioned street party, where thousands of college students flood Isla Vista for a raucous weekend of revelry that typically culminates in chaos and arrests.
Deltopia's dangers are manifold and include steep coastal bluffs, drug overdoses, excessive drinking and outbreaks of violence, according to a warning issued by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office. In 2023, a UC Santa Barbara junior died of a fentanyl overdose at Deltopia, and in 2013 a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student tumbled off a cliff to her death.
Now, the Sheriff's Office is warning of a new risk at this weekend's upcoming festival: ticket scams targeting college students.
Local ordinances do not allow entry fees at any events within the Deltopia footprint, and the Sheriff's Office says it intends on shutting down any parties that violate this rule.
But to make matters worse, the department also has identified several fraudulent online event listings, where scammers are advertising fake parties at the homes of unsuspecting residents. The Sheriff's Office says it is working to track down those responsible for the phony events and will be monitoring the advertised locations throughout the weekend.
In another effort to deter bad behavior, the department will be suspending, throughout the course of the festivities, a diversion program that allows for certain citations to be dismissed by attending a class and completing community service. This means all citations issued this weekend will be addressed through the court process, and violations that are sustained will go on students' permanent records.
Last year, law enforcement agencies issued 256 citations and made 32 arrests during Deltopia. This marks a significant uptick from the 151 citations and 23 arrests in 2023 and and an even bigger jump from 2022, when 34 people were cited and four were arrested.
Read more: Santa Barbara County tried to shut down Deltopia parties. Crowds and arrests at Isla Vista spiked anyway
In 2024, officials shut down 13 illegal parties on rooftops and bluffs due to noise ordinance violations and because tickets were being charged, according to reporting from the Santa Barbara Independent. There were also two reports of sexual assaults and one DUI arrest made after an adult driver collided into the car in front of him while in line at a DUI checkpoint, the local paper reported.
Fortunately, there were no fatal overdoses reported in 2024, which marked one year from the death of 21-year-old Jude Quirinale.
Quirinale overdosed on a fentanyl-laced pill he took at a Deltopia party, according to a GoFundMe post by his family. He was resuscitated by emergency services and transported to a local hospital where he was on life support for a couple of days before being taken off the respirator, according to the post.
As the notorious weekend approaches, officials remind party-goers of California's Good Samaritan law, which exempts anyone who seeks help for someone overdosing from punishment for drug possession or being under the influence.
"This law was created to encourage bystanders to assist in emergencies and is one of the community's most powerful tools during Deltopia weekend," said the Sheriff's Office in a statement.
As an additional safety precaution, the beaches in Isla Vista will be closed from 8 a.m. Friday to 8 a.m. Monday, the county of Santa Barbara announced.
The county said the closure is intended to prevent a reoccurrence of the "destructive and dangerous conditions" that resulted from the 2009 Floatopia fiasco, where more than 12,000 party-goers swarmed the beach and left behind massive piles of trash.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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