Back in the day when Hopkins was daring, the free-loving Spring Fair was a way for the campus and community to let loose and go crazy. The disco queens of the '70s, new wavers of the '80s and grunge rockers of the '90s made the student-run, three-day festival the talk of the town - for better or for worse. While the fair is still a Hopkins and Baltimore staple, its fabulously freakish frenzy has somehow gotten lost in chicken-on-a-stick and big-name bands.
Certain Fair fixtures have remained the same, including the overall spirit of combining the Hopkins community with the Baltimore community - but the fairs of yesterday were wild in their own way, beckoning committees to reinstate the old fair flare with each coming year.
Hopkins' Student Council first came up with the idea for a fine arts festival during the '71 - '72 school year, but before the proposal was approved for the following year, the festival had already grown to fair proportions. Christened "3400 on Stage" after the 3400 N. Charles St. address of the school, the administration used the event as a way to reach out to the community.
As former co-chairman Bobbi Nuttle explained in an April 1972 issue of the News-Letter, "The philosophy behind the festival is to present Johns Hopkins to the surrounding neighborhoods by bringing members of the community on campus for three days that we hope will provide fun and active social contact."
While the activities planned with the $2,000 from the Student Council and additional grants from such fine establishments as the National Brewing Company may not be crowd-pleasers now, the April '72 fairgoers were excited. Scientific exhibits and book displays adorned the campus while a helicopter swooped in during the half-time show of the Army-Hopkins lacrosse game.
The addition of a ferris wheel livened up the crowd, as did numerous musical performances throughout the three-day fest and a ride on the Baltimore Zoo's Safari-Train ride.Due to the enormous success of the fair - despite gray clouds and rainy afternoons, more than 6,000 attended - the next year's fair was bigger and incorporated more of the community.
More than 150 arts and crafts vendors put their work on display, and magician Mark Skinner, supposedly one of the world's finest entertainers, was the highlight. Record crowds and multiple food vendors were in place by the second year and remained high for the coming years.
"It always started out being a pretty big fair," said Jane Rhyner, Spring Fair co-director since 1985.
The fair was also student-run since the first year, and planners made sure some events were specific to the Hopkins crowd. Administration-Student Council softball and basketball games were planned - in '73, all players donned handlebar moustaches to symbolize the "Contemporary Nostalgia" theme.
Rides also dotted the campus since the first few Fairs. Shaw Amusements, the company who currently supplies the rides, remembers being involved as early as 1973.
Nighttime entertainment extended into the early morning hours. Levering Hall became a crowded nightclub, with local rock groups performing in the Glass Pavilion in the Great Hall, sometimes starting sets at midnight or later.
"You couldn't even get through the Hall [between the two concerts], it was so crowded," Rhyner said. "The partying theme has always been there."
While Fair never had a problem getting crowds, controlling them proved challenging. With more fairgoers each year and a change in the music scene during the late '70s and early '80s, the administration began to associate the increase in violence with the quality of entertainment.
After security failed to prevent minor incidents of violence and a reported knife-point threat was made on a student by a teenage boy during 1981's "Renaissance Festival," numerous complaints were issued by faculty members, who also cited that Fair activities made it impossible to work during that weekend.
The Student Council decided to ban rock music at the '82 festivities, although the lead performer, Jr. Cline and the Recliners, was considered a rock band by some. But their decision was not well-supported among the students. In an editorial by Joe Levine in the April 9, 1982 News-Letter, he said, "At one point this fall, the Fair was in real danger of becoming a two day, non-musical event held only on the baseball field. [...] Both sides [the students and faculty] have brought into question the character of the Fair - what should it be, who is it for and who should control it?"
The clientele of the Fair also troubled the administration, with visitors extending beyond the controllable members of the Hopkins and surrounding community.
"It grew so fast, and it got a little out of hand," Rhyner said. "Motorcycles came in and camped on the quad - they parked and started sleeping there."
In addition to limiting rock music to only nighttime entertainment for "Odyssey '83," the availability of alcohol also was severely reduced. Previously, beer was sold around every corner.
"They had beer booths all over the campus," Rhyner said.
Rather than continuing the widespread sale of alcohol, a Beer Garden was formed that year in the President's Garden to help monitor consumption.
The Beer Garden remains the only venue serving alcohol now, but the ban on rock music died quickly, and bigger and better groups performed every year. Another way Fair chairs brought fun to the festival was through their themes.
Spring Fair also usually opened with a parade through the local streets in the spirit of each year's theme. Later, the parade was replaced by an equally exciting opening ceremony at noon on the Friday of the beginning of the fair.
Committee members conjured up such titles as Wild West ('79), Space Odyssey ('83), and Yodel-ay-he-hu ('96), and incorporated them into campus-wide events and decorations. According to Rhyner, the MSE library was literally transformed into a barn for Hoe Down '92, and straw was strewn everywhere. For Luau '95, hula dancers performed during the opening ceremonies, and Spring Fair committee members donned hula skirts.
After Jackpot '99, the administration and students made a decision to stop assigning new themes each year. One reason was because most of the ideas had already been done, and another was because those involved in the planning felt that too much effort was put into picking out and carrying through themes.
"The theme was too much of a distraction," said James Almond, financial advisor to the Spring Fair committee.
Rhyner agrees.
"We were getting too caught up with it," she said. "Fair is Fair. Sometimes we would forget all the logistics going on."
Rhyner also felt that themes started to take attention away from the point of the event.
"They [the students who started Fair] wanted to do something for the community," she said. "That was the whole idea behind Fair. It's always our underlying theme."
Though the Fair is sure to be transformed in the coming years, it will always be Hopkins' richest tradition.
