By A. Gabriela Garcia, August 25, 2026
Hair tinsel, face painting and snow cones dominated BroncoFusion Aug. 21, as students gathered for Cal Poly Pomona’s annual end-of-summer concert.
The event area was filled to the brim by 7:45 p.m., forcing event staff to usher students into lines for each booth. Vendors were putting final touches on their food trucks and booths up until doors opened.
“We’ve been doing this event for about three or four years now,” said Tacos Chicanx owner Edwin Sanchez. “Seeing the kids enjoy their time is fun.”
Students were still ordering from their truck at 10:30 p.m. Sanchez said their most popular item is their burrito, loaded with a choice of protein, tater tots, pico de gallo, spicy aioli, guacamole and crispy cheese.
Other vendors included Austyn’s Burger, which offered an assortment of beverages alongside their grassfed burgers, Love Bird Fried Chicken’s combos and sandwiches, Wetzel’s Pretzels classics and the CPP Poly Trolley’s assortment of snacks, drinks and candies.
Activities had lines snaked around each other. The hair tinsel and airbrush tattoo lines began merging with the three snow cone lines that began to form as students rushed to get something to cool down. The snow cone line took roughly 10 minutes to get through as workers cycled through large groups of students.
“I think our most popular designs are any food items,” said airbrush tattoo artist Tiffany Raughton. “And for tonight I think the Bronco kids love to show school spirit.”
These were just a few of the activities students, whether freshman, transfers or returning, visited throughout the night before headliner DJ Mustard brought back the 2010s with songs like “Rack City” and “Party in the U.S.A.”
“I’m just here for the vibes,” said Vanessa Hernandez, a hospitality transfer student, while waiting in line for hair tinsel. “I want to get involved on campus.”
This year’s student performers were tablefish. and CORNELIUS. tablefish. played a 30-minute set full of original songs and covers, amping up the crowd for La Gabi’s performance at 9 p.m.
Members Jacob Lazarte, rhythm guitarist and editor, Nathan Tang, drummer and producer, Matthew Kwong, lead guitarist and graphic designer and lastly, Caleb Premyodhin, their lead singer and manager, said they were excited to play at BroncoFusion. The other two members are Lina Kang, the bassist and Brad Kim, their saxophonist.
“I grew up performing on stage but never in front of a crowd this big,” Premyodhin said. “I’m really excited to perform some of our own music, creating our own energy, our own vibe, and it’s definitely a personal accomplishment for me.”
Made up of current students and alumni, tablefish. is an independent band and does everything from producing to marketing in-house. The group surprised the crowd with special guest Seb Padilla on stage, another student artist.
Their performance featured both covers and originals, including unreleased song “Salt of the Earth.”
“I think it’s important to put out music in the world that people can relate to,” Tang said. “So even though our songs might have sadder topics, we have an upbeat tone instrumentally, which perpetuates this idea of pushing on and trying to appear OK.”
CORNELIUS kept the vibes high during his intermission sets with a mix of 2010s nostalgia and classic electronic dance music hits. Dominican singer La Gabi opened for DJ Mustard and despite a five-minute technical difficulty a few minutes into her set, she interacted with the crowd to keep the energy high.
DJ Mustard drew the crowd away from the event area as soon as the lights went down. Spinning 2010s rap mixes like “Don’t Tell ‘Em” and “My Neck, My Back (Lick it)” had the crowd jumping up and down with their phones in the air recording. By the end of his set, he had played mixes from artists like Kendrick Lamar to Bad Bunny’s “DtMF.”
Toward the end of his set, he mixed Lamar’s “tv off” to bring attention to his stage name.
“Who did y’all come out to see tonight?” Mustard asked, addressing the crowd before playing the few seconds of the song that emphasized his identity.
