ITHACA, N.Y.—Pulsing bass and rowdy college students during a Steve Aoki concert prompted multiple calls to police last Thursday night.
Aoki, a popular electronic dance music DJ, made a stop in Ithaca to play at a homecoming event hosted by Cornell University’s chapter of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity. Social media posts show hundreds of students dancing in front of an elaborate stage set-up, complete with smoke machines, strobe lights and a large projector screen.
Ithaca Police Department (IPD) Acting Chief Ted Schwartz said the department received several calls about the concert, including one about an alleged altercation between students and the resident of a nearby home.
The resident called the police around 11 p.m., alleging a group of students had assaulted him after he confronted them for trespassing and damaging his property, according to police scanner audio.
Schwartz said he was not aware of any serious injuries, but IPD is still looking into the matter. As of Friday afternoon, Schwartz said IPD had not made any arrests or given any citations in connection with the event.
Schwartz said the City of Ithaca had issued the concert organizers a conditional permit to hold the event.
Police scanner audio indicates several IPD officers arrived at the concert around midnight to assist the fraternity’s hired security guards in shutting down the party.
A Cornell spokesperson said in an email the Cornell University Police Department did not assist IPD respond to any of the calls. The spokesperson said the event had also been registered with the Office of Sorority and Fraternity Life and had followed city event protocols.
Zeta Beta Tau’s Cornell chapter did not respond to a request for comment ahead of publication.
Concertgoers paid as much as $162 for tickets to the sold-out event. The DJ donned a Zeta Beta Tau shirt midway through the concert before throwing a sheet cake at an audience member—a staple of Aoki’s shows.