According to senior Jason Ciancette, the Concert Board's booking chair, about 6000 people turn out for the event, which is free for Tufts undergraduates and costs $10 for anyone else (like Harvard students).

"That's more than our entire student body, soobviously a very huge percent of ourundergraduates attend," Ciancette says.

While exact figures were unavailable, Ciancettesaid the Concert Board spends about $90,000 of its$130,000 annual budget on the Spring Flingconcert; the talent budget for the event isusually between $40,000 and $50,000. The moneycomes from the $200 Undergraduate StudentActivities Fee that students are given the optionof paying along with tuition.

Harvard's optional activities fee issignificantly lower at $20 per student.

The Saturday afternoon concert is the capstoneevent in Tufts' Spring Fling Week, but certainlynot the only one that draws crowds. Any campusorganization can get its events on the calendarfor the week. This year, there's a trip to aBoston Red Sox game, movie showings on campus,student group performances and a Comedy Show.

Alcohol abuse at the Spring Fling Concert hadbeen a concern of the university in recent years,prompting a stricter policy, Ciancette says.

"Many years ago, there were so many cases ofalcohol poisoning that the...hospital was turningstudents away," he said. "We used to allowre-entry [to the concert] so people would go tothe fraternities, drink and then come back to theconcert."

Now, re-entry is not allowed, but students oflegal drinking age are allowed to bring six cansof beer each into the concert area.

Dartmouth: Animal House Times Ten

Due to growing administrative pressures and anincreasingly strict police presence in the pastdecade, the heavy drinking and wild fraternityfestivities of Dartmouth's Green Key Weekend havebecome a lot more decentralized than many othercolleges.

"It's basically become a laid-back partyweekend, just a time to enjoy the great weather,"says Mark Hoffman, Director of Dartmouth's StudentActivity Office.

"The basic attraction to Green Key Weekend is[the] fraternity lawn parties," writes NancyFopiano in an e-mail, a Dartmouth senior and aco-chair of the Green Key Society.

Organized by the Coed Fraternity SororityCouncil these parties include fraternity-sponsoredshows, a cappella concerts and fund-raisers.Performances range from cultural Step-Shows todances and reggae concerts.

But Dartmouth continues to live up to its"Animal House" reputation, with huge fraternityparties also taking place over the weekend. Someeven bring college alums back to the frats, givingthem an opportunity to finally drink legally.

Saturday afternoon also features a day ofcontests and activities ranging from tug-of-warand pedestal jousting to face painting and dogshows, some sponsored by non-college companies andgroups, according to The Dartmouth, the campusdaily.

Earlier years have included various big-namemusical acts, but, Hoffman says, the "questionableweather and lack of space" discourage the collegefrom sponsoring a big outdoor concert.