UCSB does it big for Halloween

By Jack Wagner

The ground was littered with red cups, beer cans and pieces of costume that had been left behind by the over 60,000 people that were walking the streets.

The sky was lit up by the red and blue lights coming from the countless police cars and ambulances, including some that came all the way from Los Angeles.

The rest of the space was filled with the bodies of thousands of intoxicated people dressed up in every type of costume imaginable.

"It was like walking in a parade of costumes. It was epic," said freshman Randi Vanible.

Now if you are not aware of what event could possibly have the above mentioned characteristics, you obviously haven't heard about the University of California Santa Barbara at Halloween.

Last year police made 220 arrests, 55 people were taken to the hospital and two people fell off cliffs in the Del Playa area, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Needless to say, it was quite a party.

This past Halloween, three friends and I decided to go and see what all the hype was about.

We left school at around 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and after four and a half hours of driving down the 101, we arrived at UCSB where we were promptly stopped at a road block and greeted by a man in an orange safety vest. He told us that if we wanted to go to the parties we needed to go to the Isla Vista, which is not on the Santa Barbara campus. We turned around and got off on the exit that he instructed us to take and it became instantly clear that we were in the right place.

As we slowly cruised down the road, trying not to hit any of the hundreds of people walking the streets, we passed numerous spectacles, including a drunken man dressed up in a kilt and running aimlessly.

It quickly became apparent that there wasn't going to be any parking near the main party area, so we turned around and parked about a mile away near a gas station.

Almost as soon as we pulled in, a shady white van appeared behind us and offered a ride to the main street for five dollars a person. Against our better judgement we got in, and were transported to the Del Playa, which is Santa Barbara's version of the Alameda and also the epicenter of the night's festivities.

The costumes people wore ranged from quite ingenious to those that left very little to the imagination.

"I was surprised by how many people were barely wearing clothing. It reminded me of a strip club on the streets," described freshman Amy Tamayo in reaction to those who chose to dress provocatively.

The most popular costume of the night seemed to be that of a police officer, making it difficult in some cases to tell the difference between a real cop and a fake one. Interestingly enough, the distinguishing feature was that the real police officers were not throwing up into the bushes.

After walking back to the car, we all agreed the mayhem was worth the drive. We piled in the car and four and a half hours later we were back in our own beds, our minds filled with the images of a city gone wild and somewhat thankful that Santa Clara was so peaceful in comparison.