PROVIDENCE, R.I.--April 17: It's Friday night of Spring Weekend at Brown, and the party scene is hopping.

About 300 laughing and dancing students are crowded in Wreston Quad, standing in tight clusters on the lawn outside the frat houses. The dance remix, "My Heart Will Go On," is blasting from a third-story frat window, and students are chugging beers and ignoring the nearby police, who seem content to munch on pizza and watch the party.

Other students are lounging on couches dragged onto the grass, or tossing frisbees back and forth while waiting for a chance to slip back inside the hot tub outside a coed frat.

And this was the off night.

Friday night's festivities were sandwiched between a rapfest Thursday night--KRS-ONE, Grandmaster Flash, and Rakim--and an unmelodic alternative assault Saturday, opened by Luna, followed by Yo La Tengo, with Sonic Youth as a headliner.

If you were to take a spring tour along the East Coast, stopping at many of the top colleges along the way, your weekend festivities would range from trendy bigname concerts, to unstructured parties and games, to a two-day musical extravaganza capped by a funk festival.

And when you hit fair Harvard, you could mingle with the high schoolers, bum some beer off a senior or boogie to the beat of student bands.

To be fair, Harvard does not charge for admissions, student activities fees at Harvard are far lower than at many other colleges, and the majority of the Undergraduate Council's funds go to student groups, the heart of the campus.

For years, Harvard students have complained about the lack of a big name band, and council officials have responded that on a limited budget, with only a few weeks of warmth and sunshine, scheduling a top band was a virtual impossibility.

This year, with a $19,000 bid, the council reached an agreement with Sister Hazel (not exactly a household name) but after being outbid for this upcoming Saturday night, the council acceded to student pressure, and canned the band, opting for a series of six student performances instead.

Still, while students may bring their Pre-Frosh by this weekend's festivities, it is not the long-awaited event dominating campus discussion. In fact, these intrepid first-year reporters, one of whom even sacrificed a weekend of studying to document the Brown party scene, had heard nary a word of Harvard springfest until they were assigned this story several weeks ago.

Below lies a virtual tour of what you might have seen if you had defied your parents and gone almost anywhere else-even a few steps down the road.

Tufts: Two Stops and a World Away

Anyone who doesn't want to sit through several hours of student bands this coming Saturday can take the Red Line two stops to Tufts, where the Spring Fling Concert promises a large crowd and an impressive talent lineup.

The 11 a.m. concert, planned by the Tufts Concert Board, will feature rap superstar L.L. Cool J, with jazz-funk artist Maceo Parker and ska band Less Than Jake opening. In the past, the Spring Fling has featured such well-known bands as George Clinton and P-Funk All-Stars, Barenaked Ladies and A Tribe Called Quest.