Spring Fling 2009: 90 years in the making

Long before the first batch of fried Oreos or tapped keg of Natty Light, Spring Fling was born.

While Spring Fling's history officially began in 1973, University Archives suggest a longer tradition behind the event - previous incarnations of the spring celebrationcan be traced back 90 years.

And although locations, attractions and names have changed over the years, the spirit stays the same: Whether students celebrate in the name of tradition or in the name of inebriation, the now-36-year-old Spring Fling continues to maintain Penn's reputation as the "Social Ivy."

According to the Women's Undergraduate Record, an event held in 1919 called "Pele Mele" resembled an early Spring Fling type of event as students celebrated the start of the season.

While "Pele Mele" eventually died out, other spring festivities soon replaced it.

Skimmer Day - which would not be associated with the Sophomore class until its 2005 reincarnation -- was once attributed to the crew team, before it eventually morphed into a campuswide party.

From its humble 1949 inception on the Schuylkill banks, the event grew to include jazz bands, refreshments and illegal alcohol consumption along the river, according ot University archives.

As the event grew larger and more out of control, marked by an increasing number of student arrests from 1955 to 1958, the administration decided to cancel the event in 1959.

Uncontrolled drinking in fraternities, however, continued over the weekend of Skimmer Day, Hey Day and Penn Relays in what had become dubbed "Skimmer Weekend".

To curb the growing problem, the administration began to host a series of concerts on the Saturday night of the celebratory weekend, inviting headliners such as Louis Armstrong to perform on campus, the archives say.

Over the next decade, Skimmer Weekend slowly died out until it was finally replaced in 1973 with the first official "Spring Fling," now one of the oldest and largest student-run carnivals in the Northeast.

Since then, Spring Fling has shifted away from the banks of the Schuylkill to the heart of campus.

While the traditional carnival aspect - including bands, performers, food and events - has historically been held in the Quadrangle, the centerpiece Spring Fling Concert has made its rounds on campus.

While the 1973 concert first featured no-name guitarist Dave Weinburg strumming in front of McClelland Hall in the Quad, the Social Planning and Events Committee, in charge of planning the two-day affair, has shuffled the concert around multiple campus locations.

In its early days, the venue shifted to Franklin Field, before being moving to Hill Field for a number of years. After a short stint in Wynn Commons between 2005 and 2007, the concert returned to Franklin Field in 2008.

Since then, the event has grown to include 15 to 20 vendors, performing arts groups and a concert known to feature major record label artists.

To coordinate such an event, SPEC invests a large portion of its budget to the festivities. Last year's concert alone - which included Ludacris, OK Go and Gym Class Heroes - exceeded $200,000.

While this year's headliners include musicians Akon and Guster, past concerts have included Run-DMC, Ben Folds Five, The Roots, Blues Traveler as well as a number of other well-known artists.

And as with its original roots, the festivities continue to spill out across campus in the week preceding the event.

Fraternities, sororities and performing-arts groups continue to hold events in conjunction with and in anticipation of the event.

Spring Fling - just as in its "Pele Mele" origins - continues to be a spring stress-reliever for students looking to celebrate the season and the end of the semester.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.