Spring Fling, Tufts’ annual outdoor concert, will take place on April 20 this year. The prefinals celebration was first created in 1980 thanks to a surplus in the Tufts Community Union Senate budget that year. In its inaugural year, Spring Fling included a picnic, a concert, a 10k race and seminars. Since then, the annual event has evolved into a staple of campus life.
But while much of the student body excitedly looks forward to the concert, the vast amount of planning required to make the event a success largely goes unspoken. Spring Fling is organized by the Tufts University Social Collective, which also puts on storied campus events, including Senior Week, Battle of the Bands, the Winter Ball and Bingo.
According to Davis Kurepa-Peers, co-executive coordinator of TUSC, Spring Fling is the club’s largest event.
“Spring Fling is definitely the [event] that’s the most hyped up and the one that people are always looking forward to,” she explained. “This is the event that is the most attended each year.”
Due to Spring Fling’s significance to campus culture and the complexity its organization requires, planning for the iconic event starts as early as the summer beforehand.
“The process of acquiring artists begins in the summer. We brainstorm artists that we like and we receive a list from our talent buyer (Pretty Polly Productions) of some artists that are interested in doing college shows,” Gus Tringale, one of the concert coordinators, wrote in an email to the Daily.
It’s safe to say that booking the artists takes a considerable amount of time, money and effort. According to Jade Altschul Matushenko, co-executive coordinator of TUSC, working through the talent agency can extend the process as well.
“Most of the communication goes through the talent agency that we use,” she said. “We don’t really communicate with [artists] directly other than the day of, which makes it take a lot longer because we send an email to [the talent agency] and then they forward it to the artist’s team. … It takes quite a while to do all the back and forth.”
This year, TUSC was allocated a $120,000 budget for booking artists. But even with a generous budget, certain performers’ fees can skyrocket out of TUSC’s price range.
“It is surprising how much money it takes to get certain artists. Sometimes we inquire about artists we know we won’t be able to get just to see how expensive they are. For example, Snoop Dogg is listed as 1M,” Tringale wrote.
The rest of the budget goes toward other non-artist related fees, which include security, staging, lighting, sound systems, food and beverage and other features.
In creating the lineup of performers, TUSC also tries to cater to the wide variety of music tastes on campus. This included sending out an Instagram survey to better understand music trends among Tufts students and booking artists from different music genres.
“When choosing artists, we do try to get a variety of music [genres],” Kurepa-Peers said. “All three of our artists are catering towards different music tastes in the [hope that] there could be something for everyone.”
For TUSC coordinators, the day of Spring Fling looks different than most other Tufts students. All coordinators contribute two hours of volunteering throughout the day, and the concert coordinators, Tringale and Thomas Grant, work the entire day from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“In the morning, we have to make sure the artist has all their desired items on their rider and set up the green rooms. We coordinate with TEMS, [Green Dot], etc. to ensure everyone is on the same page … so many people are going to be working so that the event goes smoothly!” Tringale wrote. “This does not mean we don’t get to enjoy the event. We hop in and out of the crowd during the event to hear our favorite songs.”
In addition to providing concert-goers with quite the show, Spring Fling allows an opportunity for student bands to make an appearance on stage. In Tufts’ annual tradition, the student band that wins the Battle of the Bands is awarded the chance to open Spring Fling.
After the Beelzebubs performed the inaugural year in 1980, other Tufts bands and singers have also performed, including Ella Jane in 2022 and Fease last year.
Some Tufts bands even return to campus to headline at Spring Fling after graduation. One such band is Guster, the successful alternative-rock band that produced hits such as “Satellite” and “Amsterdam.”
The group, which met during Tufts Wilderness Orientation as first-year students, started writing and performing songs right away.
“Our first show was at Lewis Hall, it was in the lounge, and we were called Ryan, Brian, and Adam,” Guster drummer Brian Rosenworcel said.
Rosenworcel also reflected fondly on the rivalry between bands on campus and the lifelong friendships that they created as students.
“By the time we were upperclassmen, we had a rival in Papas Fritas who were so good and very different from us. … But we’re still really good friends with them, and Tony, the singer, he helped us write ‘Amsterdam,’” Rosenworcel shared. “Several years after we graduated, Tony came to us with some chords for a song that he thought was Guster-ish, and so that became ‘Amsterdam.’”
Since graduating from Tufts, Guster has performed at Spring Fling multiple times beginning in 2001.
“We all really loved Tufts. We had a great time, and we spent four years in Somerville after we graduated,” Rosenworcel said. “We really love and appreciate the community that launched us and supported us.”
Bringing together alumni, students and musicians, Spring Fling truly has a lasting legacy. Whether it be current student bands to past ones, we all get to enjoy the talent on campus.
As students look forward to celebrating on April 20, TUSC student volunteers continue to work to ensure that everything runs smoothly. All concert attendees are encouraged to take advantage of the amenities, such as the Chill Zone area, for students who need to take a step back from the crowds, and the available pizza and water.
Like the many Spring Flings that have taken place before this one, it is sure to be a memorable weekend for all. This event is created for Tufts students by Tufts students. It unites us across all majors, interests and even generations, for a brief period on the Academic Quad in a celebration of our community.
