Although the campus was dampened by rain, the 34th annual Spring Fair was held this weekend on the Homewood campus.
Highlights included a concert by their headliner, hip-hop artist Talib Kweli, a performance by comic ANT, Casino Night, and the Beer Garden, a Hopkins tradition.
Spring Fair events began on Friday morning, with cloudy but dry weather that brought all the vendors out. Freshman Kate Szarama, who worked with co-chair Grace Hong to bring the food vendors to the fair, expressed her satisfaction with the food this year.
"I frequently noticed lines of fifteen or more people at any given moment for ice cream cones and deep fried Oreos," she said.
One of her aims for the fair was to bring a greater variety of food for students to enjoy. She said, "It was our expectation to acquire new vendors to bring more variety to the classification of fair food. One new vendor in particular was the 'Noir Cafe and Lounge,' which sold bubble tea, frozen coffee and panini sandwiches."
On Friday night, comic ANT, from the NBC series Last Comic Standing, performed in Shriver Hall in an event co-sponsored by DSAGA, as the concluding event of the Awareness Days 2005 program.
"I thought it was a good performance. I thought that Talib was a good balance between underground rap and mainstream rap, and was a good choice for a hip-hop artist," said sophomore Zorawar Noor.
Following the performance, Levering Hall featured casino games such as poker, blackjack and craps. Prizes were given out which included an iPod Mini, a happy hour at the Greene Turtle and gift certificates to local restaurants.
Freshman Toni-Marie Ferruccio attended the ANT show and then Casino night.
"Casino Night was a lot of fun. It was great to see so many people from the Hopkins community at the event. I think Spring Fair really helped to unify the campus before finals," Ferruccio said.
On Saturday, the rain hindered outdoor activity. Junior Rachelle Cruz, the co-chair of games and activities for the Fair, spoke about some of the difficulties that her section of the Fair encountered on Saturday.
"One of the biggest problems during the weekend was the rain, which did cause some issues with photos getting wet and blown over," she said, speaking about the photo contest held on the Breezeway all weekend.
"We had contracted a dunk tank, moon bounce and Sumo wrestling for Saturday, but due to the rain only the dunk tank could be set up," Cruz said.
The soccer game between Arts & Sciences and Engineering students, scheduled for Saturday, also had to be canceled.
The rain caused a number of problems throughout the fair. Fair visitors were disappointed to see that nearly all of the arts and crafts vendors had closed for the day, and many student groups did not to open their booths as well.
Nearly all of the carnival rides were closed as well on Saturday, with the exception of those rides that were enclosed and protected from the rain.
The Barnstormers' outdoor production of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, scheduled to take place on the upper quad on Saturday and Sunday, was also canceled on Saturday. It was then canceled again on Sunday due to a scheduling error.
One of the areas of the fair that remained functional on Saturday was the food vendors near Shriver Hall.
"While the weather did slow down our vendors, nobody left displeased," Szarama said.
"I was pleased to see so many students coming out Saturday in the rain to sample the fair food offered this year," she added.
The Beer Garden also operated on Saturday, opening at 2:30, instead of at noon, as had been scheduled and publicized in the Spring Fair Program.
The main event of Spring Fair was the performance by hip-hop artist Talib Kweli on Saturday night in the Rec Center.
Arielle Goren, the chair of HOP, which co-sponsored the event with the Spring Fair Committee, spoke about setting up the event, and about how it went.
"Due to the fact that the Spring Fair concert is typically in the Rec Center, it helps to have people experienced at building a stage and putting together a show from the ground up," Cohen said.
"As to the concert itself, I think the show was a resounding success. We had an excellent student turnout of which we were very proud," Goren said.
RAINation, an emerging hip-hop band from New York City, who has opened for The Roots and Kanye West, opened for Kweli on Saturday night.
Sunday brought nicer weather for the third annual Hopkins 5K Race for the Troops, which began at the Athletic Center and wound through the Homewood campus.
Proceeds went to troops overseas, and participants were encouraged to bring DVDs or CDs to donate to troops.
Events scheduled for Sunday went unaffected by the weather, bringing larger crowds than on Friday or Saturday.
The Car Show behind Garland went on as scheduled, and all vendors were open.
For the first time, Spring Fair held a bake-off. The competition was held on Sunday on the Upper Quad, and all entrants were required to includesome form of chocolate in their recipes.
Seniors Julie Ho and Karina Schumacher co-chaired the Spring Fair this year, and expressed their enthusiasm that this year was one of the most varied in recent Fair history.
"Although we maintained crowd favorites, we increased the number and variety of events, packing the schedule tightly to ensure that all Fair goers were more than satisfied," Schumacher said.
