Fifteen Minutes: Where the Wild Things Are - Spring Weekend at Brown
Some Houses cancelled parties last Friday night to accommodate students studying for the MCATs. But an hour away in Providence, there was a lingering smell of hops, assemblages of students dancing - with rhythm no less - the discernable sound of revelry, good music and an abundance of alcohol. At Brown, where another Spring Weekend has come and gone. Multitudes of Harvard students flocked to the saturnalia for a fleeting glimpse of what other campuses call a good time.
Brown Spring Weekend 2000 kicked off last Wednesday night. The night abounded with festivities and parties which quickly launched Thursday's debauchery—a Bizarre Bazaar and a performance by Wyclef. Sunny skies on Thursday and Friday and the constant outpouring of free alcohol kept the campus smiling. The Samples and G Love stole the stage on Saturday, while many local and college bands filled the down time. But some students barely noticed the melodies. "Not many people were in any shape to listen to the music," Sang Lee, a senior at Brown, admits. Some of the blame falls on the dreary weather that rolled into town Saturday afternoon. "It was raining by the time G-Love went on Saturday so there weren't as many people as you might expect," Brown senior George Lui adds. Other students experienced a different aspect of the performers. "Guess who was in a limo with Wyclef for three hours?" another Brown student, Anita G., boasts.
The weekend-long party attracted students with more than good bands. "It's an excuse to get drunk," Lee says. "Every body goes out." All sorts come out of the woodwork, and the library, to enjoy the events. "People I have never seen before that look like they are 12 go out, and I am like ‘GO HOME!'" Lee remarks.
Public underage drunkenness forced a few Brown security guards to prevent alcohol from being consumed on the main green. But even when the uniformed patrol confiscated alcohol bottles and discarded them in area trash cans, Brown students were not discouraged - a small crowd of thirsty revelers fished their spirits out of the garbage and pushed the party forward
"Even if it is not fun by Saturday night, and you feel like crap, you are just obligated. Every body goes out," Dmitri Lemmerman, a Brown sophomore, comments on the staying power of his classmates. A senior and Spring Weekend veteran agreed. "Right now I am tired. I don't even want to be here but I feel like I should be," Moises Zamora laughs at three o'clock on Saturday night as the noise on campus is just beginning to wane. Forty miles away in Cambridge, bio and orgo books are finally shut for the night.
-A.C. Van Der Zee