Spring Weekend Stream of Consciousness
May 1, 2019
After a chaotic Spring Weekend, The Observer sent one senior to attend the day long concert and asked him to record all of his thoughts into a voice memo. This is the unedited transcription of his experience.
i’m currently riding uptown on the d train
with some of my friends and roommates
en route to rose hill for spring weekend
i’m not sure what to expect after
both soulja boy and sean kingston were cancelled
sean kingston was so last minute too
they cancelled him just a few days ago
and i’m not sure if they’re just planning on having
bryce vine and whethan fill his slot
or if they’ve found someone else
i saw “avengers: endgame” last night
the movie started at 11:30 and
i was anticipating it being two hours long and
i’d be home by 1:30
but no,
there were 30 minutes of previews and
then the movie itself was close to three hours so
i went to bed a little later than expected
around 3 or 3:30 a.m
then i had to wake up early for spring weekend
so i’m running on short sleep for this concert
at the fordham road subway station
we normally get off at the exit
right outside the “best italian pizza” shop but
today we exited from a different place
near a deli so we’re a little disoriented
luckily one of my roommates usually lives
at rose hill during the summer so
he knew where to go
i think most lincoln center students travel
to rose hill on the ram van
for spring weekend
but we’ve always taken the subway
we just got to the rose hill campus and
my first impression is that
the grass looks really luscious and green
like it’s just been replanted
it looks like it’s ready for graduation
in a few weeks’ time
passing through the entrance tent
on martyrs’ lawn, the crowd is shockingly small,
there’s a crowd of approximately 100 students
huddled around the main stage and
the band is playing cover songs
including “old town road” and
“psycho killer” by the talking heads
maybe it’ll get more crowded as
the afternoon progresses
spring weekend is certainly known
for its food and this year they have seemingly
the same selection from last year
it’s a cookout-themed menu
and there’s coleslaw
mac and cheese
potatoes
sausages and peppers
hot dogs and
grilled chicken
the lines this year are much shorter than last year
i remember waiting for what felt like
at least 30 minutes last year
but today there’s no line at all
they’re now setting up for the next group and
there are more and more students flowing in
the crowd in front of the stage has at least doubled in size and
the back of the lawn is filling up with students
the next act is about to come on
he may or may not be bryce vine
no one’s really sure
people are saying it’s probably him
but they’re looking him up on their phones
to see what he looks like
update:
it is bryce vine currently performing
people are saying he looks like a
“discount bruno mars”
i can kind of see it
he’s wearing a blue button-down shirt and sunglasses
a bunch of students who live in the
martyrs’ court dormitories have opened their
windows so they can hear the
sounds of spring weekend from the
comfort of their own homes
apparently there is a rather strict
swearing restriction imposed on
spring weekend performers
bryce vine keeps censoring himself and
every time he does
he points it out and/or laughs
bryce vine just called spring weekend
“the most lit day party i’ve ever seen for a group of sober people”
i’m not sure exactly how many students here
are actually sober
but it’s good that bryce likes the crowd
somebody in the crowd threw bryce a
nip of fireball whiskey and
he responded by noting that
spring weekend is an alcohol-free event
“it’s not very godly to have alcohol on you,”
he said
one student in the crowd
just took his shirt off and
now all of his friends are slapping him on
the torso area, both chest and back
it seemed to be in jest but
they were slapping him fairly hard
he ran away in what looked like
fear, cowered off
and then put his shirt back on
you can tell bryce vine really
wants to crowd surf
he’s standing up right on the edge of
the stage with his foot on the barrier that
separates the stage from the crowd
i wouldn’t be surprised if he crowd
surfs at some point in the afternoon
bryce didn’t end up crowd surfing
but during his last song one student did
“crowd surf” is a relative term as
he didn’t really move that much
some of his friends just hoisted him up and
then he hovered there for a little while
like a piece of driftwood, a heavy piece of driftwood
it’s actually cooled off considerably
the sun has gone behind the clouds and
the temperature seems to have
dropped
students sitting in the rear of martyrs’ lawn are actually
using their picnic blankets now as
actual blankets to keep warm
the area around the food tables
has been
completely ravaged
there are small liquor bottles, whole chocolate chip cookies and entire chicken breasts
littered all over the ground
the chicken has been subsequently
stomped over by countless students
and currently also looks like pieces of wood
in between
bryce vine
and whethan’s sets
the crowd is getting rather rowdy
there’s lots of pushing and shoving and
i can see people drinking
either from flasks or nips and
smoking both pot and cigarettes
one student looks like she got hit or kicked
in the face
she came out of the crowd holding what
appeared to be her nose and
looked like she was in a
considerable amount of pain
some of her friends came over to help her
with concerned looks on their faces and
they walked away towards the bathroom area
whethan has actually
garnered quite a crowd
students have gotten so
rowdy that public safety officers
are now walking through the crowd
to
break
up
pushing and shoving and
to prevents students from crowd surfing
the same group of students who were
slapping each other earlier
are currently wrestling
one has another’s arm in a lock and
was trying to
pull him to the ground
he was unsuccessful and now
they’re kicking and trying to tackle each other
one student has someone in a
chokehold
it’s now 3 p.m.
when
we first arrived
there couldn’t have been
more than 100 people in front
of the stage and
now students stretch all the
way back to the sound engineer’s tent
in the rear of the lawn
security is still tight
it’s now 3:30 p.m. and
whethan is still playing
there is
however
a steady stream of
students
exiting
martyrs’ lawn
one student is limping
down the path that leads to the exit
she must have fallen or injured her foot in the mosh pit
the crowd at this time
has a noticeably
lower energy level
there’s
not as much jumping
not as many hands in the air and
not as much crowd surfing
you can tell people are starting to get fatigued
whethan asks where the after party was going to be
and told the crowd to
“hit him up on instagram”
to tell him
after whethan’s
nearly hour-long set was over
i caught one of the t-shirts
that spring weekend staff members
were throwing into the crowd
on the front the shirt said “sw19”
on the back an illustration of
a pink keating hall
in front of a blue
new york city
skyline