The developments have sparked discourse around the new prices and the ASUCD’s potential role in creating them
By SAIRAKSHA THIRUNAVUKKARASU — campus@theaggie.org
For the first time in the concert’s history, the ASUCD Entertainment Council (EC) began charging for this year’s Lawntopia tickets. The decision has been criticized by students, with many taking to the comment sections on the EC’s social media account, resulting in conversations between the unit and the student government in charge of their oversight.
The event, which is on May 8, features Don Toliver as the headliner with DJ Odd Mob as direct support and singer Umi as opener. Ticket offerings began with a 48-hour presale followed by a general onsale; presale offered upper and floor general admission tickets at $16 and $31, respectively, while the general onsale raised each tier’s prices by $5 to $21 and $36.
In a FAQ post on their Instagram, the EC claimed that the reason why tickets were not free this year was due to constraints placed on them by the ASUCD Senate, who is responsible for approving their annual budget.
“The ASUCD Senate has decided that we would not receive a workable budget unless we met certain financial goals,” the comment reads.
Jonathan Ng, a third-year political science major and the EC’s unit director, said that his unit’s budget had faced cuts in the past and that ticketing proved one solution to address the problem.
“The EC’s budget had been absolutely decimated,” Ng said. “The senators [were] more comfortable in giving EC a larger budget if they just charged for one of their concerts.”
In the 2023-24 academic year, the ASUCD Executive Office proposed a budget for EC factors in a sold-out show held at the University Credit Union Center (U Center). Currently facing a roughly $200,000 deficit, ASUCD has already cut funding for this year’s budget for many of its units, including EC.
ASUCD Senator Amrita Julka expressed her thoughts on the EC’s claim regarding the Senate’s involvement in ticket price increases.
“It wasn’t the whole truth,” Julka said in a statement to The California Aggie. “I do find it discouraging that they were very quick to blame Senate for the tickets, just because it wasn’t even our current Senate table that decided [the budget], it’s actually theirs. And they knew that.”
Ng was an ASUCD Senator at the time the EC budget was approved.
Julka also noted that because the EC used many of its funds earlier in the year for Sunset Fest, which was free, they faced further financial constraints going into Lawntopia.
“Because they blew through their budget, they are not able to afford security for their event if it were to be on the Quad or on an actual lawn,” Julka said.
EC Assistant Unit Director Binh Do, a fourth-year economics and history double major and former ASUCD Senator, confirmed that both he and Ng voted in favor of the current budget at the end of last year. He also acknowledged that compromises had been made in the process and that Don Toliver’s platform and profile are a step above previous headliners, which results in higher operating costs.
“This is the largest talent by monthly listener [record] that has ever come to UC Davis at the time of performance,” Do said. “A mid-sized artist was getting charged around $20 for a ticket [at UC Santa Barbara]. Despite Don Toliver being three times [larger] in monthly listeners, we were able to keep the price as low as possible.”
UC Davis’ EC has the smallest budget of any of the similar entertainment units in the University of California system, despite the university having the largest student government, according to Ng. He explained that the EC looked to other UC schools for inspiration to model Lawntopia but was never able to hold the concert on the same scale as their contemporaries.
“The U Center was not only the predetermined destination but also the best possible security option and production option that we have,” Ng said.
The expected revenue from ticket sales is $137,500; The EC has a total projected expenditure of some $676,000, according to the ASUCD 2024-25 operating budget.
Marking another change, this year’s Lawntopia is planned to take place at the University Credit Union Center, a deviation from previous years in which it was held outside. Past venues have included the Memorial Union Quad and Dairy Field. Concerns over the availability of tickets due to capacity constraints have also been raised. Capacity at the U Center is 5,500; Last year’s capacity at the Quad was some 6,000.
Lawntopia tickets sold out in less than five minutes during both presale and general sale this year, meeting maximum capacity within the U Center as well as the income requirement the EC needed to meet, according to Ng.
ASUCD Controller Mostafa Rasheed, a fourth-year managerial economics major who acts as a chief financial officer of the ASUCD, explained how the money generated from tickets is distributed.
“Any money that [EC makes] doesn’t go [back] to that unit,” Rasheed said. “It goes to general reserves, and then from there, that money is reallocated for everyone else.”
Rasheed also said that the distribution of income generated from the tickets and sponsorships secured for the event will be finalized at the next budget hearing for the 2025-26 school year.
“ASUCD as a whole is not getting much money from external sources,” Rasheed said. “This was kind of like our trial period. Now we know that we can sell out quickly [but] with bigger venues comes bigger costs — with bigger costs comes higher ticket sales.”
Rasheed, Julka and both EC directors all emphasized their commitment to carrying out the student body’s demands amidst budget concerns.
“If they wanted to make Lawntopia free, they would have just had to have a different artist,” Julka said. “We would have to lessen our expectations on the artists for sure, so I don’t fully blame them.”
A fee referendum, which would implement a compulsory student fee of $10 per quarter to help fund campus events, was introduced earlier this year to be voted on during the ASUCD spring 2025 elections. Ng, inspired by similar referendums at other UC campuses, heavily advocated for the fee because it would help the EC run as a self-sufficient unit without having to rely on the Senate for money. It was later rejected by the vice chancellor and the Council of Student Affairs before it would be placed on the ballot. Because the EC already falls under the ASUCD Basic Needs Referendum, the separate referendum solely for itself was vetoed, according to Do.
While he expressed frustration with having to charge students, Ng is optimistic of the event’s success and remains thankful for everyone who has had a role in making the event happen.
“I couldn’t be more proud of [my team who] has taken all the nuances and challenges […] and played such an amazing role in helping Lawntopia come to life,” Ng said.
The EC leadership told The Aggie that they plan to release a statement to the public after Lawntopia acknowledging students’ disappointment in the changes, further explaining the reasons as to why it was structured differently and whether this format will remain the same in the following years.
Written by: Sairaksha Thirunavukkarasu – campus@theaggie.org
