The University of Arizona class of 2024 will graduate without ever having experienced one of the university’s most iconic traditions: Spring Fling.
In fact, no one admitted to the University of Arizona since the class of 2019 has a clue about the week-long student-planned-and-run carnival that Associated Students of the University of Arizona and the Wildcat Events Board hosted on campus from 1974 until 2019.
On Monday, March 25, ASUA and the Wildcat Events Board made it official; Spring Fling is gone and in its place, the students are hosting a music festival.
The inaugural Bear Down Music Festival on April 12 will feature the Nashville pop band Coin, underground rapper Redveil and Tucson bands Desert Child and The Hawthorne Experience.
The festival will be held on the UA Mall on campus and admission is free, although for $7, you can get a wristband that will get you full festival access including rides and a free non-alcoholic beverage. (Details at asuatoday.arizona.edu.)
“Our goal is to give back to the student body with events that are free, fun, informative, educational and entertaining,” Events Board member and UA junior Maya Kostov said in a written release.
The festival also includes interactive mural painting, food trucks, photo booths, rides and inflatables, face-painting, henna art, airbrush tattoos and a drink tent sponsored by Coca-Cola and Arizona Student Unions.
The UA launched its first Spring Fling in 1974 as a single-day fundraising event at Bear Down Field north of Arizona Stadium. Over the years, it grew to become the largest student-run carnival in the country.
The 45th Annual Spring Fling on the University of Arizona mall in 2019 was the last time UA hosted the popular student-run carnival. The Bear Down Music Festival on April 12 replaces Spring Fling.
Spring Fling was canceled in 2020 courtesy the COVID-19 pandemic and every year since, there have been talks and quiet moves to resurrect it to no avail. Last year, student organizers strongly hinted that ASUA and the Events Board were moving beyond the carnival and into the music festival arena when they replaced Spring Fling with the one-day Bear Down Music Festival.
A UA spokesman said last year’s concert, featuring rappers 070 Shake and Tkay Maizda and Desert Child and The Hawthorne Experience, was a test run for the official festival launch on April 12.
The University of Arizona once had a live "Wildcat" mascot; however, the current mascot ─ with a few changes that include wife, Wilma, along the way ─ Wilbur the Wildcat has been a favorite around Tucson for more than 60 years.
