It's A Luau! Spring Fair Starts Friday By Leslie Rice Every April, hundreds of thousands of people make a pilgrimage to the Homewood campus to attend JHU's biggest party of the year. This year the party will be Hawaiian-style, and Hopkins students are hoping that artfully placed fake palm trees and the wafting tunes of live Caribbean music will draw a sea of people to the JHU Spring Fair, appropriately named Luau '95. Fair opening ceremonies, hosted by former Baltimore Colt Art Donovan, will begin at noon on Friday, April 28. Fair hours are Friday from noon to 7:30 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Besides the nearly 200 arts, crafts and food vendors, the fair will feature exhibitions by nonprofit organizations, a kid's corner, carnival rides and an antique car show. The Maura Beer Garden, open to adults 21 or older, will feature live music Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Also on Saturday afternoon, a celebrity softball game will be held featuring local notables such as Baltimore City Council President Mary Pat Clarke, attorney Stephen L. Miles and WMAR-TV news anchors Stan Stovall and Mary Beth Marsden. On Sunday morning, a 5K Race will be held in conjunction with the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center. Kicking off the weekend festivities will be a Thursday night concert in the Newton H. White Athletic Center featuring the Boulder-based band The Samples, known for alternative hit singles like "Giants" and "Feel Us Shakin.'" "Everyone on campus seems really excited about The Samples coming, they're really popular in the college scene," said April Bowling, co-chair of the fair. Spring Fair, which is run by a 300-member student staff, is the major fundraising event of the year for JHU student organizations, said Bowling. Just about every JHU student group has a vending table out during the fair and often will make in one weekend enough money to cover expenses for an entire year. Depending on weather, the fair will draw from 100,000 to 300,000 visitors. Last year, visitors still arrived by the thousands despite rain. "People just went into nearby buildings and patiently waited until it stopped raining," said Bowling. "Spring Fair has really become like a city fair. The only difference is that it's more accessible than one held downtown. We see it as an opportunity to give something back to the Baltimore community, which has been so good to us. Also, it gives children and high school students, who make up a major part of the fair visitors, a nice exposure to campus life and college students." For more information about the fair, or the 5K Race, call the Spring Fair office at 516-7692. Tickets to The Samples April 27 are $17 each and can be obtained by calling 481-SEAT.