Yardfest Countdown: Around the Ivies

Yardfest is almost here—count down with us! Check out our guides to Kid Cudi, Parick Park, and Wale, then watch for more Yardfest features to come. Tonight, we give you a roundup of Yardfest equivalents at other Ivies.

Today, April 16, the first of the Ivy League spring weekend events begins. Down in Philadelphia, Penn’s Spring Fling will feature performances by Snoop Dogg, Kid Cudi, and Shwayze at Franklin Field. According to The Daily Pennsylvanian, some teachers have even moved assignments due today until Monday, just so their students can go partake in the fun. Harvard professors: we can haz the same for Yardfest?

Next weekend, on April 24, students at Columbia will celebrate Bacchanal, their annual spring concert. Three star performers—Ghostface Killah, glam rockers of Montreal, and Wiz Khalifa—will team up on the campus’s Low Plaza in Morningside Heights to kick off the party. According to The Columbia Spectator, budget restrictions have not hampered plans for fun: this year, three artists are somehow performing instead of the usual two. Also, the event is slated for an evening start instead of its usual afternoon beginning.

Yale’s Spring Fling, to be held April 27, will feature a lineup of performers that includes Mike Posner, Matt & Kim, the Ying Yang Twins, and MGMT. For an April Fool’s joke, IvyGate reported April 1 that MGMT cancelled the Yale concert because of “misogynistic artists” like SnoopDog and the Yin Yang Twins...but, as far as we can tell, the Brooklyn-based rock duo is still on its way to New Haven.  According to The Yale Daily News, MGMT had been the planning committee’s first choice since they started planning in the fall.

MGMT will also be performing at Brown’s Spring Weekend, the annual celebration of the nearly completed academic year. This year’s festivities—to be held April 23-25—mark the 50th anniversary of Spring Weekend.  Other performers include Snoop Dogg, Major Lazer, the Black Keys, and Wale.

On May 7, Cornell will hold its annual Slope Day, originally conceived in 1901 as a celebration of warm weather and the end of the academic year. While the event has in the past included activities like mock bullfighting and circuses, this year, Slope Day will feature the R&B artist Drake and additional performances from musicians like synth pop band Francis & The Lights and Canadian rapper k-os.

At Dartmouth, another “Green Key Weekend” looms. The usual plan of attack for the three-day weekend includes a block party at Phi Delta Alpha fraternity and a lawn party at Alpha Delta. There used to be chariot races (just like in Ben-Hur!), but those were banned in the mid-1980s.