On May 16th UC Santa Barbara’s Harder Stadium filled with thousands of college students for the annual free Extravaganza music festival. The festival, which began in 1979 as a way to showcase local talent, altered its format to celebrate its 30th anniversary, dropping its usual 11am- dusk schedule in favor of a 3pm start time that saw headline act Ludacris finishing his set at midnight.As well as Ludacris, the line-up featured Girl Talk, The Cold War Kids, The Cool Kids, Rebelution, Willy Northpole, Boombox Orchestra, and Deejay Raph. Festivalgoers were also treated by a short surprise set by Asher Roth, who came on after Girl Talk’s set to sing his college anthem “I Love College”.
The line-up provided a blend of rock, dance, reggae and hip-hop that the festival has built its reputation on, but unfortunately had too many hip-hop acts to cater to all tastes. The Cold War Kids provided a good break performing their hits “Hang me up to dry” and “Something is not right with me”. Girl Talk played a great set but to a much less enthusiastic audience than Coachella (the lightshow was also not quite as impressive, but this is to be expected as it was a free festival).
Asher Roth performed 4 songs, but the audience failed to show interest in any 
other than novelty song “I Love College”, the lyrics of which have been known to frequently appear on Facebook statuses America-wide after every weekend since its release earlier this year. Despite the downfalls, the festival was a great event and a good way to spend a night in Santa Barbara.
