Sun God Festival

The Sun God Festival is an annual campus festival at the University of California San Diego that takes place every spring quarter. The daytime festival is produced by the AS Concerts & Events office and paid for by the student body activity fee. The festival has featured a vast variety of entertaining elements since its inception, including a cross-campus fair, lounge areas, and multiple stages which have featured art performances, live comedy, student talent, DJ sets, and a mix of underground and commercially successful musical performers. All of this occurs on RIMAC Field. The main stage is traditionally opened by the winner of the Battle of the Bands, a competition that UCSD student musicians perform in leading up to the festival.

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. The festival's original location was adjacent to the statue, but it has since grown and moved numerous times, from Price Center to the now-demolished Mile High Field, eventually finding a more permanent home at its current location on RIMAC field.

The festival provides an opportunity for students to enjoy themselves and relax before midterm examinations, and is regarded as an end-of-the-year experience that provides a sense of campus community and celebration. Many members of campus, including police, administrators, student planners, and University staff work throughout the year to support the event, as it presents unique challenges due to its scale and culture. In recent years, the Festival has often been used as a platform to promote safety initiatives such as bystander intervention peer workshops, alcohol and drug education, and sexual assault awareness.

Due to the number of students who were being hospitalized from alcohol and drug abuse at the festival, students and administrators opted to eliminate guest tickets and increase safety measures. The changes saw a decrease in hospitalizations from 48 to eight from 2013 to 2014. These measures have improved the safety of the festival, but the loss of guest tickets and the increased security measures have also been a severe detriment to the event budget.

During Spring Quarter of 2016, the Associated Students of UC San Diego ran a fee referendum to increase the student activity fee, which is the primary source of funding for the event. The new funding was meant to replace the festival's guest ticket revenue, which was lost when guests presented increased liabilities to student safety at the event. The student body overwhelmingly supported this fee increase in order to preserve the Sun God tradition, passing the referendum by a margin of nearly 40 percent.

In 2018, Associated Students replaced the headlining act, blackbear, with Roy Woods when blackbear cancelled on account of a series of pancreatic attacks. In 2020, the Sun God Festival was among the many public events cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, over concerns that the virus could spread quickly at large gatherings such as concerts.

In 2024, Sun God Festival was set to take place on Saturday, May 4, 2024, but was ultimately announced to be cancelled two days prior due to security concerns regarding a pro-Palestinian demonstration on campus. Some students remained skeptical as to the reasoning, speculating that the cancellation was an attempt by the administration to cause turmoil in the student population against the protestors.

Past Lineups



 * 1983 – Sparks
 * 1985 – Los Lobos
 * 1990 – The Call
 * 1991 – The Beat Farmers, The Untouchables
 * 1992 – Blur, Senseless Things, Food For Fleet, Flatten Manhattan
 * 1993 – Blues Traveler, Gin Blossoms, Blacksmith Union
 * 1994 – They Might Be Giants, No Doubt, Frente!, Brian Dewan
 * 1995 – The Pharcyde, 311, B-Side Players, DJ Greyboy, Oversoul
 * 1996 – Rocket from the Crypt, Souls of Mischief, Buck-O-Nine
 * 1997 – De La Soul, Save Ferris, Clyde's Ride, Switchfoot, DJ DIEM
 * 1998 – Social Distortion, The Roots, d.f. Rost
 * 1999 – Cypress Hill, Reel Big Fish, Black Eyed Peas
 * 2000 – Dishwalla, Rahzel, The Aquabats, F.o.N.
 * 2001 – Naughty By Nature, Face To Face, XZIBIT
 * 2002 – Cake, No Use For A Name
 * 2003 – Mos Def, Bad Religion, Kinky, White Starr, Maxeen
 * 2004 – Busta Rhymes, Goldfinger, The Dandy Warhols, Stellastarr, Moving Units, The Bronx
 * 2005 – Ludacris, Phantom Planet, Damian Marley with Stephen Marley, Pretty Girls Make Graves, The Walkmen, Rufio
 * 2006 – My Chemical Romance, Cypress Hill, Talib Kweli, No Use For A Name, Bedouin Soundclash, Ozma, Boy Sets Fire, The Fully Down, Versus The Mirror
 * 2007 – T.I., Ozomatli, Third Eye Blind, Ben Kweller, Fifty On Their Heels, High Tide, Busdriver, Self Against City, Meho Plaza
 * 2008 – Coheed and Cambria, Sean Kingston, Matt Costa, Say Anything, Living Legends, Richard Vission, The Aquabats, Little Brother, Sleepercar, Lady Dottie & The Diamonds, The Muslims, DJ Artistic, The Drowning Men, The Modlins, Bill Magee Blues Band, Radio Racer, Neon Trees, The Frantic Romantic, Masterpiece
 * 2009 – N*E*R*D, Iron & Wine, Girl Talk, Motion City Soundtrack, Sara Bareilles, Augustana, The Cool Kids, Grand Ole Party, Rootbeer, DJ Nu-Mark, Nosaj Thing, Anavan; Nooners: Iglu & Hartly, Rob Crow, Dear And The Headlights, Lady Dottie & The Diamonds, The Shys, The Pheromones, Crash Kings, Wizard Wolves
 * 2010 – Drake, Michelle Branch, Z-Trip, Relient K, Thrice, B.o.B, Crash Kings, The Parson Red Heads, Designer Drugs, Skeet Skeet, Robbed By Robots
 * 2011 – Wiz Khalifa, Jimmy Eat World, Mike Posner, Crystal Castles, JFK of MSTRKRFT, Best Coast, Big Sean, LA Riots, Kill The Noise, Ocelot
 * 2012 – Silversun Pickups, Paul Van Dyk, Chiddy Bang, Ra Ra Riot, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Tommy Trash, Dia Frampton, Murs, Tokimonsta, Clockwork, Oliver, Yacek
 * 2013 – Kendrick Lamar, Porter Robinson, Portugal. The Man, Andrew McMahon, Danny Brown, Adrian Lux, Youngblood Hawke, RAC, DJ Geo-D, IndO
 * 2014 – Diplo, Young the Giant, Juicy J, New Politics, The Colourist, Joey Bada$, Ty Dolla $ign, Audien, Torro Torro, 2ToneDisco, Jhameel
 * 2015 – Snoop Dogg, STRFKR, Jhené Aiko, OK Go, Mike Czech, DJ Demon
 * 2016 – Miguel, Nico & Vinz, Louis the Child, Great Good Fine Ok, Paradise
 * 2017 – ScHoolboy Q, DJ Mustard, Bad Suns, Khalid, Manila Killa, Mild High Club, Kinjaz, 220 Second to None, Choreo Cookies, Mark Johns
 * 2018 - Roy Woods, MadeinTYO, Sir Sly, Cuco, Robotaki, Ashe, Temporex, Sorah Yang, The GOOD Project, Choreo Cookies, Femme Fatale, 220 Second to None, Stay For the Fireworks, Headliner Blackbear canceled due to medical emergency
 * 2019 - Vince Staples, Joji, Hayley Kiyoko, Whipped Cream, HUNNY
 * 2020 - Festival cancelled due to COVID-19
 * 2021 - Festival cancelled due to COVID-19, replaced by Sunny Days Virtual Festival Gryffin, Omar Apollo, Eric Nam, Chloe x Halle, Aubrey Plaza, Hasan Minhaj
 * 2022 - Iann Dior, Keshi, Umi, Peach Tree Rascals, Berhana
 * 2023 - Smino, Knock2, Dayglow, Khai Dreams, Boys World, Podcast But Outside
 * 2024 - Festival cancelled due to security concerns caused by the 2024 university pro-Palestinian demonstrations, originally JPEGMafia, Fousheé, William Black, Grentperez, Frex