C
al Poly’s open house, Poly Royal,
was held annually from 1933
to 1990. It was canceled in 1945
due to war rationing. It began as a
show-and-tell for students to display their projects. It traces its origins to the 1904 Farmer’s Institute
and Picnic Basket. By the 1980s,
as the college became “the most
popular...university in the 19-campus CSU system”, Poly Royal began
drawing over 100,000 people from
throughout the state, including
126,000 people in 1985. Concerts,
parties, and other entertainment
were added and it earned $3–4
million in revenue for the city every
year.
Following a “mini-riot” in 1989 at an
off-campus apartment during Poly
Royal, the events in 1990 would
cancel the event “indefinitely.” Two
nights of rioting on April 28–29 led
to 127 arrests, over 100 injuries and
14 police injuries on top of “several
hundred thousand dollars” worth of
damage. A liquor store near campus, Campus Bottle, was destroyed
by revelers demanding alcohol. The
second night was much larger than
the first as people were leaving
a concert on campus and parties
off-campus were broken up and
revelers flooded the streets.
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