Spring Carnival Opens Thursday, April 14

Buggy Races Set for Friday and Saturday

Activities on the "Midway" in the Morewood Gardens Parking Lot include rides, student booths, food and live entertainment.

Students push and drive their sleek aerodynamic missile-like vessels around an eight-tenths of a mile course.

For many students, it's bigger than commencement. And for many alumni, it's even bigger than Homecoming.

THE tradition of all Carnegie Mellon traditions takes place this Thursday through Saturday, when students, alumni, faculty and staff participate in the annual Spring Carnival and Sweepstakes Races on campus.

This year's carnival begins at 3 p.m., Thursday, April 14, and continues through Saturday, April 16. Activities on the "Midway" in the Morewood Gardens Parking Lot on Forbes Avenue across from Hamburg Hall include rides, student booths, food and live entertainment.

The Sweepstakes Buggy Races, part of Spring Carnival for the past 85 years, will begin at 8 a.m., Friday, April 15, and Saturday, April 16. Many student organizations and groups will race their sleek aerodynamic missile-like vessels—with a female driver prone inside—around the eight-tenths of a mile course up Tech Street, down and around Schenley Drive and up Frew Street.

"Driving is an unbelievable experience," says this year's Sweepstakes Chairperson Sara Player, a former driver for the Carnegie Involvement Association, better known as CIA. "Thirty miles per hour doesn't feel so fast when you're riding in a car, but when you're just a couple inches off the ground you're zooming.

"The people who would most likely understand what it's like are street lugers and astronauts. You're strapped in, and small and precise movements are critical. The hairpin turn up toward Scaife (Hall) is crazy," she says.

The Buggy Races will be broadcast live on campus channel 17 and will air live on the Web at http://www.cmutv.org. The races will be replayed at 2 p.m. each day.

Margaret Morrison Street, Tech Street, Frew Street and Schenley Drive will be closed beginning at 6 a.m. on Friday and Saturday for the buggy races. Roads will reopen by 12:30 p.m. If inclement weather causes the cancellation of competition during those days, races will be held from 8 a.m. to noon on Sunday, April 17.

The Spring Carnival Committee, University Advancement, AB Tech, cmuTV, Computing Services Network Group and Housing Services will be providing live images of the most popular venues through the conclusion of carnival. Images from the Midway, the Main Stage and the Buggy Race Course will be available at http://carnival.andrew.cmu.edu.

Live streaming video from the Midway will also be available at http://carnival.andrew.cmu.edu/current/carnival.mov.

For a schedule of Spring Carnival activities, visit the Web at http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/org/carnival/.

For more on the Sweepstakes Races, visit http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~buggy

Bruce Gerson
April 11, 2005