Local authorities hope to once again sink “Floatopia,” an unsanctioned beach party near the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Santa Barbara County says the beaches at Isla Vista will be closed Saturday and Sunday to prevent a repeat of what happened at the 2009 Floatopia.
Thousands of people turned out that year, leading to numerous alcohol-related citations, arrests, injuries and beaches strewn with trash and human waste.
The annual spring celebration began about five years earlier, with several hundred people drinking offshore on rafts and inner tubes. Social media fueled its explosion.
With the beach closures since 2009, it evolved into “Deltopia,” a raucous street party named after a road. Restrictions on parking and dorm guests try to tame it by keeping out-of-towners away.