This Saturday afternoon will feature what many students consider the centerpiece of Green Key weekend: the AD lawn party. From noon until 5 p.m., the Alpha Delta fraternity will host an event annually characterized by crazy times, outdoor alcohol consumption and funky up-and-coming bands.
Organ and Drums, a two-man band that AD President Bryan Thomas '05 described as "jazz/funk" is slated to headline the event. In years past, the event has featured notable acts including Blues Traveler and hair metal band Anthrax.
The band will perform until 4 p.m., at which time Dartmouth hip-hop group Reaction Speaks and The Bloody Haircuts will take the stage.
The AD lawn party usually attracts hundreds of Dartmouth students and alumni.
This year, AD Social Chair Mike Liroff '05 predicted a turn-out of around 500 people, with the widest and most varied assembly of people at any Dartmouth fraternity party.
A tradition that can be tracked back to at least the 1960s, the AD lawn party has become synonymous with memorable inebriated antics.
Animal House writer Chris Miller '63 told The Dartmouth in a previous interview that one Animal House scene -- in which a Delta Tau Chi brother skis down the stairs as the band plays "Shout" -- actually occurred at the AD party.
In 2000, a spontaneous mud-wrestling competition began after a party attendee ran down the hill of the AD lawn and slid into mud created by a night's rainfall.
Highlights from that year also included the wardrobe of a '99 Chi Heorot alumnus, who arrived at the lawn party dressed in only toilet paper. Party-goers eventually lit the alum's outfit on fire.
Liroff said that at this year's party, AD will have five brothers on shifts at any given time in order to control the expected rowdiness.
The fraternity also privately contracted two Safety and Security officers to control party-goers.
"We pay the school to station them at the party for the full 5 hours," Liroff said. "They can still act as officers of the school, from my understanding, and take kids to Dick's House."
Liroff emphasized that Safety and Security officers would be primarily on hand to provide crowd control and "for things like fights or foreign sources of alcohol."
As in past years, AD has obtained a permit from the College to allow outdoor alcohol consumption for students over 21, as well as a permit from Hanover to allow a band outdoors.
"It's a lot of red tape and hoops," Liroff said. "We start planning the lawn party the first week of term."
In past years, AD has been censured for allowing students to bring unauthorized alcohol in Nalgene bottles or drinking off its property.
To address these concerns, Thomas '05 said that the fraternity would not allow any backpacks or beverages beyond the entrance gate to the party facing the Ripley-Woodward-Smith cluster.
"If there's great weather, the lawn party should be an awesome time," Thomas said.
In 2002, snow forced the lawn party to move inside, and when Dispatch performed, rain forced the performance to move into the fraternity's first floor foyer, which AD brothers refer to as the Great Hall.
Thomas said that the Great Hall floor still has a noticeable slant from the weight of all the students packed into the room to see Dispatch.
Both Thomas and Liroff said they agreed that the AD lawn party has come to represent the best of Green Key weekend.
"It's our biggest party, definitely," Liroff said. "Both the [Phi Delta Alpha] block party and the lawn party embody Green Key in the same sense that the snow sculpture embodies Winter Carnival."
