As the 45th annual Spring Fair approaches, students are anticipating the additions to the weekend’s festivities.
Co-chairs Amelia Gavurin and Jordan Scharf elaborated on the many ways they think this year’s fair will improve.
“Every year we try to one-up what we did last year,” Scharf said.
The food at Spring Fair has always been one of its most popular attractions. Sophomore Rohith Bhethanabotla recalls some of his favorite dishes from past years.
“You always want to make sure you get the chicken on a stick. There are fried oreos, alligators, all kinds of heart-stopping nachos and a fill-your-own soda station,” he said. “It’s a weekend when you gladly just kill your whole diet or workout routine.” Based on student feedback from last year, the Spring Fair Food Committee is bringing in a wider range of vendors.
Based on student feedback from last year, the Spring Fair Food Committee is bringing in a wider range of vendors.
“Usually it’s just fried food, but they’re bringing in some organic green vendors and some Puerto Rican vendors,” Scharf said.
The inclusion of student responses from previous years is one of the many ways Spring Fair incorporates input from Hopkins students and their groups.
Spring Fair collaborated with The Hop to organize the three headliner acts: The Chainsmokers, Shawyze and Marian Hill.
“It’s kind of hard because we also bring in outside businesses, but the headliner is a collaboration with The Hop,” Gavurin said. “We work very closely with them, and it’s essentially equal parts theirs and ours.”
The Tunnel Party is one of the most exciting new additions to Spring Fair this year.
“Our Night Committee came up with the idea for a Tunnel Party,” Gavurin said.
“It’s going to be in Gilman Tunnel. There’s going to be a Beer Paddy on Latrobe, and a DJ in the tunnel. It’s going to be a total dance party.”
Scharf added that the Tunnel Party was designed to be convenient for students to participate in.
“It’s hard to get people to go to off-campus things, especially because all of the Fair is all on campus. So our Night Time Committee thought, ‘Why not do it on campus,’” Scharf said. “It’s going to be so easy. It’s just silly if you don’t go.”
Spring Fair’s collaboration extends to partnerships with organizations outside of Hopkins, as well. This year, they are introducing the Twinkie Run, which supports the Living Classroom Foundation and the Chariot Race, sponsored by Red Bull. Gavurin elaborated on the details of the event:
“It’s essentially a lap around a building six times and after each lap you have to shove your face with a Twinkie,” she said. “So it’s like a beer mile but without alcohol.”
Scharf explained that the Chariot Race is a revamping of a previous event.
“The Chariot Race we had done a few years ago,” she said. “It’s sponsored by Red Bull, so everyone is amped about it. People have to build their own chariots out of whatever they can find, essentially, and race around.”
To prepare for such a large event, Gavurin explained that planning began early last summer.
“It’s run like a business. Nine-to-five, Monday to Friday, everyone has office hours,” Gavurin said. “Over the summer, we encourage the old members to go to different fairs, look at different vendors and see what they have. Every committee picks what they want to do for that year and tries to make it happen throughout the year... It’s a very long process.”
Scharf spoke to some budgetary difficulties the organization had to deal with along the way.
“It’s hard when we want to give so much to the students, and we only have limited funds to do so,” Scharf said. “But our staff was really awesome with it and were really conscious of our spending.”
Operational logistics proved to be another difficulty, which required working with other divisions of the University.
“We had some trouble with where we can put vendors and who is allowed to drive where and things like that. So we worked really closely with the University’s Plan Operations team,” Scharf said. “We [also] have our own Plan Operations team and they worked really hard to figure everything out.”
Gavurin said that the goal of Spring Fair is to make the event a memorable tradition for all students.
“I like to see that we get to be a state school for a weekend,” Gavurin said. “Really, you go onto the Freshman Quad or Gilman Quad, and it’s not just that you’re walking through it to another building.”
Sravya Kurapati, a recent graduate of the Bloomberg School of Public Health, enjoys what Spring Fair brings to the campus every year.
“I’ve really liked it [for the] past two years that I’ve attended,” she said. “I run into some of friends of mine I haven’t seen in a while every time it happens. So it’s a good time to hang out.”
Sophomore Rohith Bhethanabotla echoed Kurapati’s excitement.
“I think Spring Fair is the best time to make memories, whether it be going out to frats at night and everyone comes back to spend the rest of the night talking about life or going to concerts or eating all the fried foods they have to offer,” he said. “There’s no excuse to not have fun during Spring Fair.”
