This post was updated May 5 at 11:40 p.m.
Students will vote on a referendum starting Friday that would raise the quarterly Bruin Bash fee, which has sparked debate over whether the annual welcome week concert is worth the price increase.
The Bruin Bash Referendum – which will appear on the Undergraduate Students Association Council election ballot – would more than double the current cost imposed on students to fund Bruin Bash, which is hosted by USAC’s Campus Events Commission. Currently, the student body pays at least $185,354.40 in fees to CEC each year, which would increase to at least $495,750 if the referendum passes.
The referendum would also help fund the Enormous Activities Fair – an event hosted by the CEC – which promotes hundreds of student organizations and clubs.
Referendums require a majority of voting students’ approval, and referendums that adjust student fees – such as the Bruin Bash Referendum – require at least 20% turnout from the undergraduate student body.
The initial Bruin Bash referendum passed in 2013 and introduced a fee of $1.33 per quarter, which has since been adjusted to $1.87 based on inflation. Rising costs of venues and artists have resulted in the existing fee covering approximately 40% of the event’s funding, according to the referendum language.
Salem Walsh, a current member of the CEC and the sole candidate for the next campus events commissioner, said during the 2026-27 USAC debates that the office relies on inconsistent supplemental funding to organize Bruin Bash. Walsh, a third-year applied linguistics and art history student, added during the debates – which the Daily Bruin co-hosted – that increased funding could help the commission secure better artists and venues, improving the attendee experience.
“This fee has failed to keep up,” Salem said at the debate.
[Related: USAC 2026-27 candidate debates: Campus Events commissioner]
This year’s Bruin Bash performers included artists Smino, BunnaB, Rob49 and DJ Rio Amor. Previous artist performers include The Cool Kids in 2008, as well as Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino and Major Lazer in 2011, and Charli xcx in 2018.
Daniel Leal, the current campus events commissioner, said the referendum’s main goal is to move the concert back to Pauley Pavilion forever. Bruin Bash has been hosted at the Los Angeles Tennis Center four times since 2019, except in 2024, when it was hosted in Pauley Pavilion.
“Bruin Bash itself is not something that is necessary, … but it is something that we want,” said Leal, a fourth-year neuroscience student. “If students want it to be better, this fee is what is going to make it better.”
Leal added that students feel disappointed when they are unable to attend the concert, and the CEC wants to mitigate that problem by using a bigger venue, but it does not currently have the funding to do so.
“It’s really awful that not everybody gets to go,” Leal said. “We’re trying to make it so that more people are able to go because everyone is paying for it.”
Santiago Santos Carrillo, a second-year ethnomusicology student, said while he would like to see Bruin Bash be made more accessible, he does not believe it is worth raising costs for students.
“When considering the monetary value of that event, it definitely ranks lower in importance,” he said.
Santos Carrillo added that he believes it would be unfair for the burden of paying for Bruin Bash to fall on students who may already be having a hard time making ends meet and might not even attend the concert.
“The payment increase is definitely going to be reflected on students who already struggle to pay tuition,” Santos Carrillo said.
Santos Carrillo added that he does not trust the council to use the new funding in a wise manner.
Basetsana Moje, a second-year financial actuarial mathematics student, said attending Bruin Bash is important for first-year students, adding that she met some of her closest friends at the event. She said she believes the fee increase would be justified if it resulted in a smoother ticketing process.
However, Moje said the proposed increase is too high and that the money could be used in a more productive manner. She added that a less drastic increase would be a better idea.
“Sometimes, extra dollars can help them get their basic groceries,” Santos Carrillo said.
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