Spring Fest sends off semester with week of festivities

Pancakes, calligraphy, and Shakespeare – the common denominator among these was their presence at Eastern’s annual “Spring Fest” celebration. Hundreds of Warriors said their goodbyes to the academic year through an eclectic mix of activities from April 28 to May 3.

The week of pre-finals partying is organized each year by the Campus Activity Board (CAB). Graduate intern Gracie Manushi was pivotal in organizing this year’s festivities.

"As someone who has never attended an Eastern Spring Fest, it's been super exciting to be able to see behind the scenes and eventually the final product,” she said.

Spring Fest kicked off with a cultured afternoon of calligraphy and Shakespeare on Webb Lawn on April 28. A Warrior parody of the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” took place April 29 and was followed by a music bingo event at the Knight House Multifaith Center’s Pancake Night on April 30.

May 1 saw the annual CAB carnival in the Fine Arts Instructional Center parking lot, where students gorged on fried Oreos, braved high-flying rides, and tested their strength on an arcade boxing machine set up by local National Guard recruiters.

Spring Fest concluded with food trucks lined up at the Mansfield Athletic Complex on May 2. Students lucky enough to procure tickets went on a CAB-sponsored trip to see “Heathers: The Musical” on Broadway on May 3.

Manushi credited CAB Special Events Coordinator Amanda Wrobel ‘25, Associate Director of Student Activities Nathan Emery, and Graduate Intern Makayla Jackson as the engine behind 2026 Spring Fest.

Wrobel reflected on her motivation for making this year’s Spring Fest especially engaging, as her office faced adversity along the way. “As someone who has been working with CAB for the past three years, what I’ve always loved most about the organization is our goal to provide a welcoming and exciting campus environment to every student,” she said.

“With the circumstances of this year's Spring Fest and the concert being canceled, we knew a lot of students were going to be upset," said Wrobel. "Nevertheless, we still had a job to do, and it was my goal to make each event as successful as it possibly could be.”

She continued: “It was so fun to experiment with events I had always wanted to plan but never had the opportunity to execute, and I couldn't have asked for a better staff or better supervisors to help get the job done.”