In just a few days, Lot 37 on the University of Minnesota campus will transform into a scene of music, games and more. But for festival organizers, plans have been in the works since November.
The Spring Jam festival is the University’s annual April festival, featuring live music, food trucks, carnival games and other activities. This year, Spring Jam will take place on April 26.
The festival is planned through Student Unions and Activities with the help of student-workers.
Lead student planner Jenna Johnson said this year’s focus was to make the event zero-waste, aiming to make everything reusable, recyclable and compostable.
“We have partnered with the waste recovery team to make this goal more attainable,” Johnson said. “So at Spring Jam, there are only two trash cans, and instead we have waste receptacles that involve recycling, compost and then cans and bottles.”
Johnson also helped coordinate what student groups will be at the festival to lead activities for students to participate in during the event.
Groups like the Mahjong club, which will teach students how to play the infamously difficult game, and music group Sentimental Sounds, who will lead a painting activity, are just some of the groups there to recognize student involvement, Johnson said.
“We want to allow for students to interact with groups that kind of represent them in a way,” Johnson said. “So we want people to interact with these groups in hopes that they find a new group to be involved in, or they see something that just reminds them of them in a way.”
According to Johnson, another goal this year was to make the event inclusive, diverse and different from festivals in the past. One of the ways they plan to do this is offer a free vendor, The Coffee Cart Minneapolis from 6-9 p.m.
“Students can just walk up and grab a free coffee, tea or hot chocolate and it’s paid for by the University,” Johnson said. “That’s just something that I’m really excited for.”
Sydney Amundson, a student event planner in charge of festival entry, security and carnival rides and games, said she started planning at the end of December.
Once they were able to gauge vendor availability, it was easier to decide what exactly organizers wanted at the festival this year, Amundson said. For a lot of the carnival games, most planning involved deciding what vendors to feature.
One of Amundson’s personal goals for the festival was to achieve record attendance, she said.
“I just want people to show up and have fun, because I think Spring Jam can kind of have some strange expectations, like students aren’t exactly sure what it is,” Amundson said. “I’m just excited for them to show up and have a good time and see that there are a lot of free things for students and that your education also has benefits.”
