Can you guess what this weekend is? Well if the big yellow and white tents don’t give it away, the bug flags hanging off of Smith Hall should.  That’s right! It’s time for the annual Spring Fest event!

This year Spring Fest will take place Saturday and Sunday, April 9-10 from 10a.m. to 4p.m.

Spring Fest is a fun event that all of us “South of State Streeters” always look forward to each spring.  The College of Ag is very proud to present our unique activities and teach the visitors something new about agriculture.

But even though many of the activities are centered on agriculture, this really is an even t for the whole campus to get involved. We have several other schools participating as well. Some of these include: College of Health and Human Sciences; College of Education; Krannert School of Management; College of Liberal Arts; College of Pharmacy; College of Science and the College of Technology.

Spring Fest Coordinator Danica Kirkpatrick mentioned in a Purdue News Service Press release that Spring Fest is an event for families to visit campus and enjoy educational activities from more than 30 colleges, departments and units at Purdue.

“We have something for every age, including toddlers, students considering where to attend college, and the parents and grandparents of them all,”said Kirkpatrick.

This year at Spring Fest we are very excited to be introducing some new events to the program. The News Service also introduced some of those in their press release, and I wanted to make sure to pass them along to you so you don’t miss all the fun this weekend!

New Events at Spring Fest:

1.     “Sidewinder”

• This sculpture is a collaboration between the College of Agriculture’s Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture and the College of Liberal Arts’ Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual Arts.
• Visitors to “Sidewinder” can take guided tours of the walk-through sculpture. Children can also try willow-weaving at stations staffed by students who helped with its construction.

2.    “The Insecta Class Yearbook”

• Student actors under the direction of Tom Turpin, professor of entomology, will help audiences better understand the classification of insects and their differing roles in nature.
• Performances will take place in Lilly Hall, Room 1-104, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on both days.

3.   “Over-the-Counter Medication Jeopardy”

• The College of Pharmacy joins the Spring Fest lineup. Among its activities is the game show at 2 p.m. April 9 in the Pharmacy Building.

4.    Puppet Show to Discourage Bullying

• This will be part of the School of Nursing’s Health Fair. It will be presented each day at 10:15 a.m., 12:15 p.m. and 2:15 p.m. at the school’s tent.

I am really looking forward to checking these out when I’m at Spring Fest this weekend, even though I will be a pretty busy bee myself.

One thing I also wanted to mention was that if you come out, you should make sure to stop by the ACT (Ag Communicators of Tomorrow) booth to get your Official Spring Fest T-shit!

We will be selling those along with Purdue Agriculture playing cards and giving out free temporary tattoos!

This is one of our major fundraiser events for the year so I encourage everyone to come out and help support our club and the other College of Ag student organizations!

If you’d like to know more about Spring Fest, you can visit their website and check out this YouTube video as well.

Hope to see everyone this weekend! And side note: I’d bring your umbrella just in case—it always seems to rain at least one day of Spring Fest, but we will be there rain or shine!