Spring Weekend

Spring Weekend began in 1950, having evolved from the “All-Campus Weekend,” which had in 1948 replaced the longstanding Junior Week and Junior Prom, which had lapsed during World War II. The 1950 weekend began on Friday with the inter-fraternity sing and the Hilltoppers Ball with the tapping of the new Brown Key members, which had formerly been a feature of the junior prom. Assorted athletic contests were scheduled during the weekend, and on Saturday a buffet supper on the College Green was followed by dances at Faunce House and the fraternity houses. In the 1960s concerts by celebrities took the place of the dances, and the Brown Key tapping took place during the intermission. Among the Spring Weekend performers were Ella Fitzgerald and Bo Diddley in 1965 and Janis Joplin, whose concert was crashed by 50 persons with forged tickets, in 1969. In 1967 Peter, Paul and Mary sang, and Martin Luther King, coincidentally in Providence on other business, preached at the Sunday Protestant service in Sayles Hall. In 1970 the entertainment was provided by Jefferson Airplane, Ray Charles, and Judy Collins and the preaching by William Sloane Coffin. Spring Weekend, which extends from Thursday afternoon through Sunday eventually began to include, in addition to a number of different musical events, a continuing supply of food, including an all-you-can-eat ice cream trough on the campus and several charitable fund-raising activities, such as Alpha Delta Phi’s Bizarre Bazaar, and Phi Kappa Psi’s tricycle race. Drinking, always a traditional part of Spring Weekend, prompted the University in 1984 to provide an added service, off-duty state troopers who offered optional breathalyzer tests as a guide to responsible imbibing.