Sparty's Spring Party
Partying It Up Spartan Style

Lane Blackmer

Rock wall, human bowling and jousting arena package: $2,400. Stage and stage crew: $8,000. Hellogoodbye performance: $20,000. Enjoying a beautiful outdoor Spartan frenzy: priceless.
      
For seven years Sparty’s Spring Party has been an end-of-the-year bash thrown for students and the public alike. Complete with these activities, Sparty’s Spring Party also hosted an ultimate Frisbee tournament, Guitar Hero tournament, Taste of East Lansing, performances by several bands and a Zeke the Wonderdog (and friends) appearance, along with providing free merchandise.

Armed with $40,000 to plan the event, UAB director of special events, Rachel Shapiro set to work in November.

“[The best perk of my job is] to see the final turnout [after] all of my efforts,” said Shapiro, who is a communications and advertising senior here at MSU.
      
How exactly did Shapiro execute her plan? Not alone. It took a set-up crew somewhere near five hours to put together the stage the night before and around two hours to complete sound check for the bands.
    
Additionally, the rock climbing wall required a group of hired individuals. Those involved in partnerships provided the rest of the help for SSP – groups making this event possible included Go Greek, UAB, ASMSU, RHA and SAF. At any given time, there were around 10-15 volunteers on the site.
     
“We got here at 7 this morning and started setting up tables, and we blocked off traffic. [Everything] on the field had to be set up,” said Jessica Eisenbeis, volunteer for UAB.
      
Volunteers were present at Demonstration Field, where the party was held, setting up, helping out with events and taking down attractions from 7 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. the next day.
      
“I went into it thinking it was going to be another low budget college concert, but by the time the main act came on, the size and atmosphere of the crowd gave it the feel of a real big-time professional concert,” said communications freshman Matt Muscat.
      
Arising from this huge crowd was the problem of crowd surfing and concert goers trying to tip the barricade in front of the band. Hellogoodbye had to make an announcement for people to stop crowd surfing, which turned out to be surprisingly effective.
      
Professional security was hired as well as MSU’s student security, and about two MSU police officers were present most of the time during the event to help keep things safe.
      
“[During the concert,] there was a streaker who tripped while running away and was arrested,” said Shapiro.
      
Winding down the school year, the goal of Sparty’s Spring Party was to help students have a good time before finals week with free entertainment and activities.
      
“The end result was amazing,” said Shapiro. “It was the highest attended Sparty’s Spring Party ever, with an attendance of at least 7,000.”

Questions? Comments? Contact Lane Blackmer at blackm43@msu.edu

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