There is no better way to celebrate the arrival of spring-and procrastinate for finals-than with over eight hours of live music, free beer, giveaways and good friends. Following this logic, Student Events, with the help of WBRS and the Radical Student Alliance, held the annual Brandeis SpringFest last Sunday. The all-day event brought a diverse mix of bands to the Great Lawn, including alt-country rockers and music-school dropouts Apollo Sunshine, underground hip-hop duo 7L &
Esoteric, headliner Saul Williams and even Brandeis' own Jamele Adams, the assistant dean of student life in support of diversity.
Students and others took advantage of the warm weather and free music by spending the day sprawled out on beach towels, sweatshirts or whatever they could find. Some studied on the freshly cut grass, their heads bobbing to the music in the background. Other onlookers listened attentively, danced or took a look at the handmade crafts being sold at booths around the lawn.

The festival, where performers played on two stages erected behind the Shapiro Campus Center, began around 1 p.m. with performances of African and hip-hop dance. The outdoor crowd grew larger as the day went on and free beer became available. The audience was noticeably animated during Apollo Sunshine's 30- minute acoustic set despite the group's less-than-perfect performance, which sounded like a musical hangover from all the free booze. While it's possible that the group, which does not typically perform on acoustic instruments, simply did not adjust well to the unplugged setting, the trio's physical demeanor on stage certainly didn't do much to help their cause. At one point during the group's set, all three members sat on stage screaming incoherently into their respective microphones.

The audience was also particularly excited to see New England natives State Radio step onto the tented main stage, just as the warm sunny day began a steady decline toward a windy and chilly evening. The New England-based trio, led by former Dispatch frontman Chad Urmston, treated the audience, which by then stretched out across the full length of the field, to their mix of roots reggae and straight-rhythmed rock. State Radio's set included a number of tracks from their first full-length album Us Against The Crown, as well as "Time Served," a track Urmston wrote and recorded during his time with Dispatch.

Urmston and company were followed by Balkan Beatbox. The group, fresh off of a successful stint opening for Hassidic reggae star Matisyahu, entertained the dwindling crowd with their eclectic blend of electronic sounds, African rhythms and Middle Eastern melodies. The members of the band are as diverse as the music they produce. The group features a rotating cast of vocalists including Tomer Yosef, Jeremiah Lockwood and Hassan Ben Jaffar.

Those who could no longer take the dropping temperatures and frigid gusts of wind were in luck when the audience was asked to reassemble in Schwartz Auditorium as well-known poet, rapper and author Saul Williams arrived to close out the day long celebration with some help from the hip-hop/spoken-word trio Foundation, who also performed earlier in the day. Williams' performance, always interesting and truly captivating with his rapid-fire delivery, was provocative at times. The artist slowed the show down to discuss his use of a certain racially charged term that some may have found offensive. Williams explained that the word, though ugly in some instances, can be used in a much less distasteful and confrontational manner. Audience members eventually joined in the discussion as well.

While the artists chosen to perform for this year's Springfest may have lacked some of the instant name recognition of acts from years' past, this year's festival featured one of the most diverse and interesting lineups in recent memory.