Isla Vista Halloween, UCSB Activism, and the IV Riots of 1970: A History

🎙️🎃 Since the 1960s, the riotous communal Halloween celebrations in Isla Vista, the University of California, Santa Barbara’s college town, have been an iconic part of Santa Barbara culture. Love it or hate it, whether you participated yourself or believed the hype and stayed away, I.V. Halloween got in your way.
So how did I.V. Halloween start? What else was going on in the 1970s when the Halloween street party revels exploded? What was it like? Was it as dangerous as all the grownups said? How did it grow to legendary party status so fast? And is surviving Halloween in Isla Vista still a rite of passage for today’s UCSB students? We are going to find out on this episode of the Ghoul’s Guide to Santa Barbara. 👻🌴

Recommendations
---------------------
The People Under the Stairs (1991)
The Monkey's Uncle (1965) Opening song from the film, by the Beach Boys and Annette Funicello
Girl, Interrupted
Twin Peaks (1990)
My So-Called Life (1994)
Ohio by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

Sources
---------
Lexi Pandell, “The Biggest College Party in California”: A History of Isla Vista’s Halloween, Daily Nexus
...and other sources on our website, GhoulsGuideToSB.com