Sun God (Festival)
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The Sun God Festival is an annual campus festival at the University of California, San Diego that usually takes place the sixth or seventh week of the spring quarter. Put on by the Associated Students Programming office and paid for by the students with an "activity fee" assessed to tuition, the festival is marked by a festival/fair during the day and a large concert at night on RIMAC field, usually featuring a mix of underground/indie bands and one or two headlining mainstream groups.[1] The concert is traditionally kicked off by the winner of the Battle of the Bands at UCSD.[2]
In recent years the concert has become the dominant event of the festival, and has grown popular enough to headline groups such as Ludacris, Busta Rhymes, Social Distortion, Gwen Stefani, and My Chemical Romance. The 2007 concert, held on May 18, was headlined by T.I. and Third Eye Blind.[3]
The festival's name references the Sun God, an on-campus statue by French artist Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002). The Sun God was the first contribution to the famous Stuart Collection. The first Sun God Festival coincided with the one year anniversary of the statue's arrival in 1984.[4][5] The festival's original location was adjacent to the statue, but it has since moved numerous times, from Price Center to the now-demolished Mile High Field, to its current location on the RIMAC field.
The festival and concert provide an excuse for students on what many consider a socially dead campus[6] to finally let loose following their midterms with binge drinking, psychoactive substance abuse, and public displays of affection.[7] Campus police, reinforced by other San Diego Police Department precincts, step up enforcement with plain clothes officers and random open-container checks.[8]
The festival/fair portion of Sun God consists of booths made for the most part by student organizations. Booths are organized into food, information, game, etc. In addition to the booths the festival/fair portions of Sun God holds the traditional Junkyard Derby down hill race, where students, faculty, and any combination of the two can form groups to create downhill racers made from old/junkyard parts.[2]
Concert Performers
- 1990 - The Call
- 1991 - The Untouchables
- 1992 - Blur and Dileep
- 1993 - Blues Traveler and Gin Blossoms
- 1994 - They Might Be Giants and No Doubt
- 1995 - The Pharcyde and 311
- 1996 - Rocket from the Crypt and Souls of Mischief
- 1997 - De La Soul, Save Ferris, and Clyde's Ride
- 2004 - Busta Rhymes and Goldfinger
- 2005 - Ludacris, Damien Marley, and Phantom Planet
- 2006 - My Chemical Romance, Cypress Hill, and Talib Kweli
- 2007 - T.I., Third Eye Blind, and Ozomatli
- 2008 - Coheed and Cambria, Sean Kingston, Say Anything, Living Legends, Matt Costa, and The Aquabats
References
- ^ Coddon, David. "Get ready to partaaaaay!", San Diego Union Tribune, November 8, 2001. Retrieved on 2007-04-29.
- ^ a b @UCSD: Celebrating Our Sun God
- ^ Wilson, Simone. "Sun God 2007", UCSD Guardian, May 3, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-05-03.
- ^ Pincus, Robert. "The 20th anniversary of UCSD's Stuart Collection celebrates a grand experiment in public art", San Diego Union Tribune, October 28, 2001. Retrieved on 2007-04-29.
- ^ Williams, Jack. "James DeSilva; visionary collector of art for UCSD", San Diego Union Tribune, September 14, 2002. Retrieved on 2007-04-29.
- ^ http://regionalworkbench.org/sprofiles/sp_detail.php?id=405
- ^ http://www.ucsdguardian.org/cgi-bin/news?art=2006_05_22_06
- ^ http://ucsdguardian.org/viewarticle.php?story=opinion02&year=2007&month=05&day=24
