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Go online to view video of this
year’s Towsontown Spring Festival.
The rainy weather didn’t stop Housing and
Residence Life from putting on their annual carnval.
News, page 8
www. thetowerlight. com
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Published by Baltimore Student Media for the Towson University Community
Photos by Casey Prather/’/'/)!' Towerlight
Photo Illustration by Rachel Fauber/77tt' Towerlight
The Towson community participates in the annual Towsontown Spring Festival on Saturday, May 2 and Sunday, May 3.
FEST!
NICK DIMARCO
Senior Writer
Despite a dip in second-day attendance, the 42nd annual
Towsontown Spring Festival still drew a crowd at least 10
times the size of Tigerfest and the Homecoming tailgate,
combined.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on the
two-day neighborhood fair, culminating in the largest
block party on the East Coast, according to Nancy Hafford,
executive director for the Towson Chamber of Commerce.
Hafford, who began planning the event a year ago,
wouldn’t consider canceling the event despite the threat
of torrential downpours.
"Once we start, we don’t cancel," she said, insisting on
remaining positive.
About 30 percent of the vendors scheduled to attend did
not set up shop on Sunday. More than 400 exhibits lined
the street of uptown Towson, with three beer gardens and
21 bands providing added entertainment throughout the
day. For Hafford, whose days had been starting at 6 a.m. in
preparation for the event, the Towsontown Spring Festival
is the highlight of the year.
"I think tonight I’m going to pass out and sleep for a
week," she said.
The similarities between Tigerfest and the Spring
Festival are numerous. Both events included a variety of
distractions for its attendees, several live music acts, beer
and this year, rain.
Community members have, in the past, expressed con¬
cerns regarding the destructive behavior of people who
celebrate Tigerfest. However, GTCCA vice president Mike
Ertel said there were few problems with the event this
year, and he said the Spring Festival has seldom been a
nuisance.
"It’s funny. We generally don’t have problems. It’s a big
crowd. It’s just not the same as Tigerfest," Ertel said. "It’s
a pretty mixed crowd. You get bikers who come in to see
the classic rock band, you get students, you get old people
and it always tends to go well."
Towson students who attended the Festival offered a
point blank perspective as to why a party that last year
drew a quarter million people, greatly differs from that of
Tigerfest or the Homecoming tailgate.
"It’s just different. It doesn't have to be all focused on
drinking like most other things on campus are," Tiana
Krum, junior sociology major, said.
The echoes of music could be heard from the Festival
See FESTIVAL, page 18
Women’s lacrosse wins second straight CAA title
KEVIN HESS
Associate Sports Editor
Towson made history Saturday afternoon, becoming the only
fourth seed in CAA history to win the conference tournament
with an 8-7 victory over the University of Delaware at Albert-
Daly Field on the campus of William & Mary. It was the second
straight conference tournament Towson has won under head
coach Missy Doherty, and they will advance now to play No. 3
North Carolina Sunday at Chapel Hill in the first round of the
NCAA Tournament.
"It feels great,” Doherty said. "We’ve played really well this
whole weekend. The girls stuck with it and finished strong. I
think all the teams going into the tournament were pretty equal
and everybody knew that. The title could have been anyone’s and
we’re just really happy that things went our way."
The Tigers got three goals from junior Steph Taylor, while
senior Meggie McNamara contributed a goal and two assists to
the winning cause. Towson senior defender Julie Ondrako had
three groundballs and three caused turnovers to help her earn the
CAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Performer. It was the sec¬
ond straight year a Towson senior has won the award. Ondrako
followed then-senior Mandy Corry, who earned it while playing
goalkeeper for the Tigers last season. Doherty said the defense
was able to clamp down late in the game to preserve the victory.
"Today our shots weren’t going in. We had a tough shooting
day and the defense really picked it up," she said. "To win games
like these you really have to have your defense step it up and we
definitely did that.”
See HENS, page 22
