Cal Poly announces acts for St. Fratty’s alternative — and tickets were gone in 3 minutes
Cal Poly announced its headlining acts for an early morning music festival as an alternative to the raucous St. Fratty’s Day celebration — and all the tickets were snapped up within minutes.
Swedish EDM artist Galantis will open for American EDM artist Zhu at the “Morning on the Green” event, the university said in a news release on Wednesday.
The tickets went live at noon — and all 5,000 were claimed within three minutes, according to university spokesperson Matt Lazier.
The free, 18-and-older event will run from 4 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Saturday, March 15, on the Lower Sports Complex field.
The university will also offer a standby line for those who were not able to get tickets. Event organizers will begin letting in people from the line at 6 a.m., depending on how much space is available based on the number of ticketholders who actually show up.
The music festival will kick off with student DJs before the opener and headliner take the stage between 6:30 a.m. and 9 a.m., according to Lazier.
The university will also provide a beer garden for students 21 and older.
Tickets to the festival were free and available to students with a Cal Poly email address through the university ticketing website. Students were able to book up to two tickets — one for them and one for a guest. Guests do not need to be Cal Poly students.
Some students posted on Cal Poly’s Reddit page, angry that the tickets sold out so quickly — but reflecting excitement for the event.
“Someone send me their morning on the green ticket,” read one post, which later appeared to have been deleted. “I’ll pay.”
Students who weren’t able to get a ticket can wait in a standby line the morning of the event, according to Lazier. At 7 a.m., more students may be let in as capacity allows.
The music festival is the university’s latest attempt to prevent illegal street partying during Cal Poly students’ annual St. Fratty’s Day celebration.
The unsanctioned neighborhood party drew a crowd of over 6,000 people to the residential streets near the university last year. It also resulted in scattered vandalism off campus and in the dorms, warranting a scathing email from Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong.
This year, the music festival is coupled with additional efforts from the city of San Luis Obispo and SLO police, including safety enhancement zones, increased fines and a no-warning policy for students who choose to break the law.
City and university officials are urging students to attend the on-campus event as an alternative to the neighborhood block party.
“We’re really serious that we don’t want illegal street parties,” Armstrong told The Tribune in an interview Friday. “We’re committed to work hard to eliminate that.”
The cost of the event was not immediately available. Armstrong told The Tribune the money spent did not come from the state or from student tuition and fees.
This story was originally published March 5, 2025 at 1:09 PM.
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