Celebrating spring

Springfest this year bloomed into a bigger, better event that included the entire Harvard College community, thanks to co-sponsorship from President Lawrence H. Summers.

But Mother Nature was Springfest’s biggest benefactor this year, blessing the annual undergraduate party with sunglass-wearing, shoulder-baring, watermelon-seed-spitting weather on Saturday (April 27).

Co-sponsored by the Undergraduate Council, Springfest 2002 attracted an estimated 7,000 people, far more than other years. This year brought enhanced activities, drawing headliner band The Verve Pipe, and adding attractions like the “Harvard Mountain” climbing wall, human foosball, and a bouncy-boxing ring.

One wing of Lowell House separated kiddie rides from more collegiate food and frolic, but undergraduates and the families of faculty, teaching fellows, and staff mingled merrily. Was it end-of-semester pressure or just spring fever that inspired students to visit the face-painting booth and shake hands with Winnie the Pooh?