By Renee Wright
An old proverb says, “No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.” Sure enough, the long awaited warmth and sunshine is finally here. This means Springfest is quickly approaching.
Springfest is the annual music concert sponsored by the Counsel for University Programs (CUP). For years, the festival has brought big name acts to perform outdoors. Past performances have included The Roots and They Might Be Giants, just to name a few. This year’s performers, courtesy of CUP, will be The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
On May 17, the band will be taking the stage on the Centennial Commons to play for Northeastern students.
According to Alex Hussain, the Springfest chair of CUP, Northeastern got lucky this year.
“There are a lot of bands that we were trying to get,” Hussain said, “but the Bosstones were our first choice.”
Some of the other bands that rounded out CUP’s top five were Jurassic 5, the Dropkick Murphys and the Black Eyed Peas.
“We worked hard to get a well known band to perform that would attract a lot of people,” CUP President Lauren LaRoche said.
The Bosstones aren’t the only musical act to be heard this year at Springfest. Opening for the band will be Avoid One Thing, a band that hails from Boston and tours with bands like Flogging Molly, The Casualties and The Suicide Machines. There will also be several Northeastern-based bands from various musical genres performing on Krentzman Quad.
In the past, Springfest has taken place over the period of a week. This year, however, the festivities have been concentrated to take place over the course of a weekend, beginning Thursday, May 15, and wrapping up on Saturday the 17th with the festival’s main events on Centennial Commons.
“We’re doing really well, planning wise,” said LaRoche, “I just think that it’s going to be a really great event.”
This year’s Springfest will be jam-packed with other events, containing a little something for everyone to enjoy. A few of these events include outdoor concerts, pie-eating contests, a rock climbing wall co-sponsored by NuHoc, a DJ freestyle battle, a step show put on by fraternities and sororities around campus and various other competitions.
“We’ll be giving away some great prizes,” Hussain said, “We’re going to have a few $75 gift certificates to the CambridgeSide Galleria, and some DVD’s [to give away].”
All of the activities taking place during Springfest weekend are free of charge and sponsored by CUP and several other student-run organizations. These groups include Class Council, NuBiLaGa, LASO, and WRBB. CUP is also looking for involvement by more student groups.
“We’re looking for all interested student organizations who want to help us out,” said Hussain. “The more people out there, the better.”
If students plan on going to see the Mighty Mighty Bosstones perform on campus, it’s recommended that you head out early. The May 17 show begins on at four o’clock, and, according to CUP, they expect a large turnout for this year’s main event.
“Last year’s turnout [to see The Roots] was over a thousand, even with the bad weather,” Said Hussain, “This year we expect 1,500 at least.”
For more information about Springfest, contact Alex Hussain at [email protected], call the CUP office at ext. 4336, or visit their Web site at www.cup.neu.edu.
