SPRONCERT: Spring Term Celebrations
Aidan recounts his Sproncert experience!
Aidan recounts his Sproncert experience!
Spring term is a bit of a whirlwind. Every day a new event, a new celebration. The campus feels like a completely different place where it’s warm outside! People sit and study on the bald spot. If you’re like me, you dance on the Bald Spot—picture attached below. If you’re like me you’re probably also playing a ton of IM sand volleyball and taking ten-mile-long walks in the Arb. But my favorite part of spring term is the amount of music! All of these music-oriented events culminate in Sponcert, a day filled with music, friendship, and lots of dancing.
What is it really though?
Sproncert is, perhaps obviously, our spring concert. For an extremely brief explanation, each year Carleton has about seven bands perform for students late in our spring term—at this point the weather is thankfully nice and warm. Carleton also brings in some food trucks and various other forms of entertainment. It makes for a really lovely day where there is no chance for boredom even if you’re just content to sit on the ground.
But let’s get to the main event: the performers! Some are local Minneapolis artists. Some are up-and-coming. Some are pretty big already (this year we have 24kGoldn). But the coolest part for me is that some are student bands! Student bands are able to perform if they win our Battle of the Bands competition held earlier on in the spring. I personally have never competed, but who knows, maybe next year you’ll see me up there on that stage!
Live my Sproncert This Year with me!
The Prep
It’s Saturday morning and I wake up at 11:30—much later than usual. I’ll need the extra energy to spend all day dancing. After showering, I head to the dining hall for brunch with some friends and wolf down the usual veggie sausages and scrambled eggs— I need this energy for dancing too. I head back to my room, to prepare. Regrettably, I didn’t pick out an outfit in advance so I go for a classic combination: jeans and a T-shirt. Inventive, I know. I lather up on sunscreen, meet up with my friends, listen to some music from the artists playing, and then we embark. Off to the Rec center fields!
At Sproncert
My friends and I arrive, ready to see our friends perform in one of the student bands, Paranoid Fiction. There are not too many people there yet— it’s still early on. But with fewer people, we get to pick out our prime spot with a great view of the stage. We set down our picnic blankets, drop our bags, and then get in there to dance!
After about thirty minutes, I’m tired. My friends’ set is over, so I thankfully get a break. I return to my blanket to drink some water and sit down. I watch the next set from the safety of my blanket. Of course, all this sitting around makes me hungry. I grab some dinner from the food truck and refuel.
When I spot a familiar face out in the dancing crowd, I rush back out to the dance floor. My friends soon join me, and we dance for hours. During this time the sun sets and soon it’s night. The lights of the stage (and people’s phone screens) illuminate the crowd. My phone is unfortunately not one of those phones. I had forgotten to charge it the night before. Eventually, I reach the barricade for our headliner, 24kGoldn. With no phone to distract me, I let the music take over. When the music stops, I finally realize just how tired I am.
The Aftermath
Feeling fatigued, I decided to just head home instead of hanging out with my friends. I enjoy a big bowl of ramen and then entomb myself in my bed, attempting to forget about the homework I have to do tomorrow. It is tomorrow’s issue after all! With that decided, I fall asleep content with my day of dancing, music, and fun.
Closing Thoughts
I hope my experience this year is enlightening for everyone! I really love Sproncert and am looking forward to my last one next year as well. It’s my favorite event of the entire year. You get so much time with friends to just have fun!
Aidan (he/him) is a junior from Batavia, IL coming back to Northfield after a semester off-campus in Paris. He is a Religion and French and Francophone Studies double major with a passion for ceramics. Outside of class, he enjoys spending his time cooking, hanging out with his housemates in the Culinary Interest House, and performing in Carleton’s sketch comedy group. You can often find him at the campuses’ two dining halls chatting with other students while working as a student dining hall manager.