How Did Spring Carnival Get Started?

Spring Carnival traditions date back nearly to the founding of Carnegie Mellon itself, but the original festivities looked a bit different from today’s events.

The origins of Spring Carnival can be traced back to Carnegie Institute of Technology's "Qualification Day" — the official acceptance of freshman plebes — and the May Festival of the Margaret Morrison Carnegie College. In 1920, the tradition grew into "Campus Week" and the first Buggy Sweepstakes with crates and rain barrels on wheels. A "Campus Queen" was voted on annually for several decades.

The last "Campus Week" took place in 1929, after which Carnegie Tech Dean Arthur Tarbell wrote the Student Senate saying the faculty moved to abandon the festivities. The motion caused a campus-wide stir and ultimately led to an agreement on new programming in 1930.