Purdue News
Purdue News
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March 27, 1998
Purdue's Spring Fest fun for the entire familyWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Purdue University's Spring Fest, a fun and educational event for the entire family, will take place Saturday and Sunday, April 18 and 19, on the Purdue campus.Sponsored by the schools of Agriculture, Veterinary Medicine, and Consumer and Family Sciences, Spring Fest offers a schedule that includes nearly 100 different events, activities, demonstrations and seminars. Perennial attractions such as Bug Bowl, the horticulture show and a veterinary medicine open house will be joined by several new events this year. Other events on campus for Mother's Weekend are the University Sing choral competition, a lacrosse tournament, a free Symphonic Band concert and the Jahari Dance Troupe Spring Revue. "Spring Fest will be a lot of fun, but there will be some learning going on as well," said Dana Neary, special events coordinator for Purdue Agriculture. "You can shake hands with Purdue Pete, attend a seminar on water gardening, compete in a pedal-powered tractor pull, enter a coloring contest or pet a farm animal. There literally is something for everyone." A good place to start your visit is the information tent, Neary said, where you can pick up a Spring Fest map or find out more about the various activities. The information tent will be next to the Agricultural Administration Building, which is on State Street. You also can plan your visit in advance by calling 1-888-EXT-INFO toll free for more information or visiting the Spring Fest Web site at www.anr.ces.purdue.edu/anr/sfest/sfest98.html. All events are free and open to the public. Parking also is free in Purdue parking garages and lots. Spring Fest hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Always a crowd-pleaser, Bug Bowl returns for both days with its insect lineup -- a cricket-spitting contest, cockroach races and an insect petting zoo are among the events. Create a confectionery insect for the cake-decorating contest, which has a category for everyone from kids to professional bakers. Call the Department of Entomology, (765) 494-4554, for entry information. "A new feature of Bug Bowl this year is an art exhibit of insects in drawings, photography, sculpture and jewelry," Neary said. The exhibit will be in the Krannert Building Drawing Room. All other Bug Bowl events will be in and around Entomology Hall. One of Purdue's longest-running traditions, the Horticulture Show, will show off a formal garden built especially for the 85th annual edition of the event, in addition to its popular plant sale. There also will be seminars on water gardening, house plants and roses. The show runs both days in and around the Horticulture Building. The School of Consumer and Family Sciences tent also will be open both days, offering exhibits of ice carving and sessions on personal finances, how to keep your food safe, surfing the 'Net and how to really wash your hands. A fitness assessment booth will measure your blood pressure, upper body strength and flexibility. Kids of all ages will enjoy the Boiler Barnyard. Live farm animals, children's games, sheep-shearing demonstrations, prizes and a coloring contest are among the activities both days at this site, sponsored by the Department of Animal Sciences. The Departments of Agronomy and Botany and Plant Pathology have created exhibits for both days that teach about soils, weather, erosion, Indiana crops, genetic disease and pest resistance, microbes, weeds, pesticide safety, diagnosing plant problems and much more. There will be plenty of free giveaways and prizes, too. Visitors can quality for prize drawings by having a special passbook stamped at each of the event sites. During the weekend, the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering will build two children's playhouses, which will be raffled off -- including free delivery. Tickets cost $1. How many 8-ounce glasses of milk does a typical dairy cow produce each year? What is the most common disease in the green iguana? Can plastic pesticide containers be recycled? One of Spring Fest's new events is a scavenger hunt, a series of questions and answers that can found at the various event sites. This activity is being promoted in area schools as a class project; teachers can access the questions via the World Wide Web at http://anr.ces.purdue.edu/anr/sfest/scav.html. The list also will be available at the information tent. Saturday-only Spring Fest events include the School of Veterinary Medicine open house, the Boiler Brick Bowl and activities sponsored by the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources. The veterinary open house at Lynn Hall will offer greyhound demonstrations, a petting zoo, horse treadmill demonstrations, exotic animal exhibits, a milking contest and an oxen team demonstration. The forestry and natural resources exhibits will include a mini zoo, courtesy of the Columbian Park Zoo; a raptor rehabilitation demonstration; tree climbing demonstrations; Smokey Bear; a portable sawmill in action, plus a contest to win the lumber cut by the sawmill; and furniture undergoing performance testing in the Wood Lab. The Brick Bowl challenges teams of Purdue landscape architecture and landscape horticulture students to build brick garden walls that they have designed. A demonstration of bricklaying begins at 10 a.m. Saturday. The contest begins at 10:30 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m. The winners will be announced at 3:30 p.m. The finished products will be on display for two weeks following the contest. Other campus events April 18 and 19 include: SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
Source: Dana Neary, (765) 494-9113; e-mail,
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