Brown's Spring Weekend - the traditional four-day extravaganza of music, food and drink - will take place from April 10 to 13 this year, a week earlier than usual. This spring, the start of the Jewish holiday Passover falls during the third weekend of April, which is when the University usually schedules Spring Weekend, said Ricky Gresh, director of student activities.
"We try to schedule (Spring Weekend) several years in advance," Gresh said, but this year's conflict was not discovered until the summer. "We discovered that the calendar that was consulted a few years ago had an error in it," he said.
Changing the dates was not difficult, Gresh said. There were no conflicts, since the problem was discovered before the Scheduling Office began booking the use of public spaces for the academic year.
Spring Weekend coincided with Passover in 2005 and with Eastern Orthodox Easter in 2006, and some students had to choose between attending religious services or Spring Weekend events, said Megan Nesbitt, assistant director of Hillel.
"Since then, the Office of Student Activities has been in touch with religious communities to find out the dates of Eastern Orthodox Easter, Easter and Passover in an attempt to avoid overlapping Spring Weekend with any of those," Nesbitt said. She said she provided the SAO with those dates.
The University and student groups "want to be really respectful" of all religious holidays, Nesbitt said.
Gresh said that, in past years, conflicts were noticed only after many of the arrangements for events had been made, making a change in date impossible. In those circumstances, the Student Union - a collection of the major programming groups on campus such as the Special Events Committee, Brown Key Society, Brown Concert Agency and Greek Council - and the SAO worked with religious leaders to accommodate religious services and include some in the Spring Weekend schedule.
"The important thing is to maximize the number of people who can participate," Gresh said. "It's really... about what kind of community do we want to be and what is Spring Weekend all about."
The change in date is a logistical challenge for BCA, which organizes the two large concerts usually held on Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon during Spring Weekend.
"From our standpoint, the biggest challenge that we face for Spring Weekend is the unpredictability of the weather," said David Horn '08, booking chair for BCA. "April is already a volatile month, and the (earlier) we are into April, the more likely we are to have bad weather," he said.
With this year's earlier date, Horn said, there is a higher chance of poor weather forcing Saturday's concert indoors. As a result, BCA is making an effort to ensure that at least some events can be held outdoors. "I'd say being outdoors is really the essence of a Brown Spring Weekend," Horn said.
The rain location for Saturday's concert is Meehan Auditorium, the venue where the Thursday show is typically held. But because of complaints about the auditorium's acoustics and atmosphere, BCA is trying to find other options, Horn said.
One option is to hold an event outside, rain or shine - "a Woodstock-style event," Horn said, but there are potential issues with damage to the Main Green and whether students would be willing to attend a concert in the rain.
The other option, Horn said, is to schedule both concerts for outdoor venues. "The major thing that we're trying to do is we're trying to plan to have both concerts outside so in the case there is bad weather, there's a higher probability that at least one of the concerts is held outside," Horn said.
Horn said the availability of bands and higher booking fees in early April could also be obstacles. "In most cases, it's less expensive to book a band if they're already on tour and planning around your date," he said, citing the Flaming Lips, who performed during last year's Spring Weekend as part of their tour. "Most bands have a spring tour, but that starts in late April, not early April," Horn said.
BCA will hold a MyCourses survey next week to assess student opinion regarding Spring Weekend and gauge what students would like to see. "We're primarily focused this year on how important the location and venue is, because that's a fundamental issue we're dealing with," Horn said.
Greek Council organizes the two other concerts during Spring Weekend - Rage on Wriston and Dave Binder's Sunday concert. Rage on Wriston, a concert on the Friday of Spring Weekend featuring local and student bands, should be unaffected by the change of date, said Greek Council Chair Steven Beckoff '08.
"It shouldn't make a difference to the student concert, because students are always willing to perform," Beckoff said. But, he added, "It would affect Dave Binder if he is booked. Usually we have him for the weekend of the 20th."
Beckoff said he plans to contact Binder soon to make sure he can perform on the new date, but Beckoff said he thinks the ability to include the entire student body in Spring Weekend festivities outweighs any possible inconvenience of the date shift. "My freshman year, Spring Weekend was during Passover, and (a lot of people on campus are) Jewish, so that's a big deal. It's nice that the administration is taking that into consideration," he said.
Ultimately, Horn said, Spring Weekend will still be enjoyed by students, despite any potential difficulties. "The bands we are going to bring are going to be so much fun that it won't make a difference," he said.
