Spring is here.

If the melting snow and the tables that have returned to the front of the Campus Center were not enough evidence for you, then here’s another clue: Springfest is coming, in a little over a week.

Springfest, which opens at 12:45 p.m. on Saturday, April 20 (the significance of the date, 4/20, has not gone unnoticed), will feature 10 bands and nine hours of music. There will also be a dunk tank, moon bounce, cotton candy, popcorn, Jamba Juice, twister, hackey sacs, footballs and Frisbees. And the beer garden will be open from 12:30 p.m.-8 p.m., so drinkers can get started early.

“Everyone should be there earlier than other years because a lot of good music will happen early as well as late,” said Brooke Wilson ’03, chair of the Springfest committee.

Mac bands The Common Place, Synthesis, Fallout Boy and Upstate will all be playing on the Macalester stage. The Main Stage will feature Suspects, Asheru, El Da Sensei, Iffy, Lone Catalysts, Mason Jennings and Rah Digga.

The committee that has been planning Springfest since December was staffed by Anthony Gonzalez ’02, Rob van Alstyne ’03, Beth Humphrey ’02, Poppy Coleman ’02 and Sam Johnson ’04, as well as a number of other volunteers.

Wilson said that the committee has used advice from previous committees to improve the event this year.

“We all have been working on this event since December and we just hope everyone has a good time with good music and it doesn’t rain,” Wilson said. “We all firmly believe that this is going to be a great event.”

“Springfest is more than just one day, she added. “It is about having fun in the sun at the end of a long semester.”

She noted that on the Thursday before Springfest there is a spoken word event, and Spring-a-ling occurs on Friday. “It will be a fun weekend,” she promised.