This post was updated April 27 at 8:46 p.m.

This year, the Coastalong Music and Sustainability Festival took attendees along for a fun-filled bike ride.

The annual festival was held Saturday 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Drake Stadium, centering sustainability and environmental awareness while also creating an engaging atmosphere for music lovers. Coastalong hosted food vendors, student clubs and engineering projects, all of which were organized by the event’s various student committees.

Although the festival has been held at Sunset Canyon Recreation Center in recent years, Hannah Freedman, executive director of Coastalong, said the event was moved to Drake Stadium because the center was under construction this year. Freedman, a fourth-year environmental studies and geography student, said she was excited to be in a larger venue, and although it was difficult to change some logistics, Coastalong’s UCLA community partners were invaluable in facilitating the shift alongside the festival’s team.

[Related: ‘Climate Notes’ event plans to showcase connections of music, science]

One of the largest sustainability measures Coastalong employs is bikes, which can be pedaled by those at the festival to power the entire event. Nikki Aviv, a fourth-year communication student and co-director of Coastalong’s music committee, said the biking system is one of the most unique parts of the festival as a whole.

“A bike-powered music festival is a crazy statement. … Every time I say ‘a bike-powered music festival,’ people are like, ‘Wait, what is that?’” Aviv said. “What makes it so exciting is that you’re really engaging the listeners and the audience and the fans. You’re not just passively listening, you’re actively biking, which is making you a part of the production process.”

Beyond the bikes, Coastalong takes a holistic approach to sustainability, bringing in various vendors who advocate for different methods of being environmentally conscious. One of the most popular food carts at the event belonged to Yoga-urt and was run by the business’s founder and president Melissa Schulman, as well as alumnus Andrea Castillo, the owner of its Granada Hills location. Yoga-urt is an all-organic, vegan frozen yogurt chain in Los Angeles, and both Schumann and Castillo said they were excited to support Coastalong’s mission of sustainability. Castillo added that Yoga-urt similarly aims to be sustainable in every aspect of their business, ensuring all products are compostable, biodegradable or recyclable when possible.

“When I opened the first store 10 years ago, from the beginning, it (sustainability) was a really important thing,” Schumann said. “So we definitely feel like we have like-minded people here at Coastalong, and … a lot of people going here today care about that, so we’re glad to represent that.”

Another draw of the festival was the engineer stands. Jade Semaan, a fourth-year civil engineering student, is a co-director of the engineering committee at Coastalong and oversaw the production and implementation of the interactive installations. Semaan said this year’s committee chose to include a spin art bike, a bubble bike and a generator bike, which all showcased how pedal power can run daily appliances. Semaan said she joined the committee because it was a welcoming, comfortable environment to get engineering experience outside of the classroom.

Marianna Stanley, a third-year environmental science student who is also part of Coastalong’s engineering committee, said she was also drawn to join because of its inviting and inclusive nature. She added that she appreciated the fellow organization members who gave her a way to explore new opportunities without prior engineering experience.

Attendees at Coastalong brought a jovial vibe that matched the energy of the festival’s organizers. Samantha Fried, a fourth-year psychology student, said she has come to Coastalong every single year she has been at UCLA and described it as the best day of the year for her.

Even first-time visitors to Coastalong said they had just as much fun. Jai Kollu, a third-year political science student, said he came to the festival because he was curious about the sustainability focus and what that looked like in practice.

“Having the bikes here and having people ride the bikes and see the electricity they’re producing … it really puts into practice how much energy we use on a casual basis, and what goes into producing that energy,” Kollu said. “It just makes us all more aware of how much we use.”

[Related: Coachella 2025 Q&A: Musician Seun Kuti on the intersection between art, social justice]

For many, the main draw of the festival was the music. Fried said she was most enthusiastic to hear student band Max Wright and the Wrongs after seeing them perform at a previous campus event.

The first of the festival’s musical acts was Jericho, a band composed of UCLA students. They performed an upbeat set that included covers of “Real Love Baby” by Father John Misty and “Sedona” by Houndmouth. Amir Tariverdi, the lead vocalist, said he was excited to play for Coastalong because he thought it was a great cause, adding that he was inspired to audition because one of his bandmates was part of the organization. Tariverdi, a third-year mechanical engineering student, said he had never performed on a grass field like the one at Drake Stadium, but found excitement in its different vibe.

“It’s a sunny day, and I feel like UCLA doesn’t do a lot of stuff like this,” Tariverdi said. “It feels like a mini festival, and it’s cool that it is student-run and put on for us.”

Overall, Coastalong brought together a wide range of vendors, students and artists to enjoy a music adventure that prioritized sustainability. The festival’s interactive experiences allowed attendees to engage directly with the mission of the event, highlighting how Bruins can be more eco-friendly in their everyday lives. To Aviv, Coastalong is a powerful way to offer a platform to UCLA bands while promoting climate change awareness, she said.

“It is challenging the standards of sustainability in the music industry,” Aviv said. “We are trailblazers, and I think the concept of a sustainable music festival is going to become more standard, but it’s so exciting that we’re getting the ball rolling.”