Lafayette’s spring festival tradition will be getting a makeover this year: students will be treated to a last-day-of-class celebration with the newly imagined Spring Fest.
Spring Fest will replace Lafchella, a post-COVID-19 springtime concert that featured local performers, student music groups and a headlining band. Members of the Lafayette Activities Forum, commonly known by the acronym LAF, hope the new tradition will keep the student-favorite elements of past events while expanding the variety of offerings.
“Our plan for Spring Fest is to reach more student interests, celebrate the last day of classes, and make it feel more of a bookend to Fall Fest,” Melissa Dalrymple, associate director of student involvement, wrote in an email. “It’s really just an expansion of Lafchella in hopes of creating a tradition that will last longer than a few years.”
Sarah Smith ’24, current president of LAF, added that the changes were made in response to extensive student ideas.
“A lot of the changes came from student feedback that Lafchella just wasn’t sustainable,” Smith said. “It was focusing on an artist and it wasn’t focusing on what students can do or maybe what’s interactive. It felt like it was really just about sitting there and listening to music, which is not everybody’s thing.”
Instead, Spring Fest will include a variety of activities for students of all interests.
“We’re going to have a lot of interactive things that people can take part in, whether that be crafts, inflatables or things people can do with friends,” Smith continued.
Dalrymple and Smith hope that Spring Fest has the potential to be a celebration that can bring the community together on the last day of classes.
“We want it to have the feel of a Fall Fest in terms of an event for the entire community, but still feel different and unique,” Dalrymple wrote of the festival. “We hope to have a little something for everyone.”
“We hope to move in the direction of mostly partnerships, so if a club wants to host a table doing a craft, or if the spikeball club wants to set up a match, I think the possibilities are endless,” Dalrymple wrote.
LAF will be collaborating with the Lafayette Interdisciplinary Music Society, commonly known as LIMS, to coordinate student performances.
“LIMS will work with our sound company and handle all of the music at the event including selecting the student performers,” Dalrymple wrote.
Benny Putnam, the president of LIMS, wants to see a wide range of student groups on stage for extended sets.
“We have a few established, well-known groups on campus that we’ve seen playing during our time — Sold Out Six, Pizza Delivery, the jazz quartet that plays at pretty much everything on campus — and I definitely see a few of those groups being up there, but we would love to see some newer faces,” Putnam said.
“Music is just one part of it, so there’s hopefully something for everybody,” Putnam continued. “If you’re excited about the music, then you can expect good live music.”
Emma Chen ’24 contributed reporting.
