For the first time since 2019, Ivies festivities will return to the Brunswick Apartments (Bruns) Quad this weekend. After switching to the Main Quad post-pandemic, dwindling attendance led  Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) and Student Activities to push for Saturday’s Ivies party to be moved back to the Bruns Quad.

The official Ivies schedule this year will feature DJs and food trucks on the Harpswell Apartments Quad from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and another day of DJs at the Bruns Quad from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday. Student DJs Kyle Pellerin ’26, Young Seo ’26 and Hayden Mann ’27 will perform at the Harpswell Quad, while Eric Traub ’26, Luke Peltz ’27 and Mick Tamas ’26 will perform at Bruns.

Saturday’s return to the Bruns Quad marks a shift to Ivies festivities planning by returning it to student organization purview.

“This year, we are far enough from the pandemic that it was time to push it back to the students and to be like, ‘This is your day, not mine, and you guys need to think about what makes it special to you,’” Director of Student Activities Nate Hintze said.

Members of BSG took on this project at the beginning of the year and started working with Student Activities, the Office of Residential Life and the Office of Safety and Security to evaluate alternative locations to the Main Quad. They also wanted to understand what students wanted in place of a quad day.

“The adults and Student Activities imagined [the Main Quad]  would be the place for students to come and party, and students just more so saw it as a place to get food on their way to a party, because it was big and open. It felt very public, and there were professors around,” BSG Chair of Student Affairs Harper Stevenson ’27 said.

With the proposition of the Bruns Quad, BSG reached out to the residents of the apartments to get their opinion. The residents expressed majority approval of the shift, which solidified the change.

Ivies has evolved considerably over the past decade. Starting in 2010, the traditional Ivies concert was shifted from the Main Quad to Whittier Field. In 2016, there was a shift to have the two artists represented at Ivies split between Thursday and Saturday. The last big change was in 2022, when the Spring Concert was moved away from Ivies weekend and solely quad days took over the schedule.

These shifts have had little impact on Security’s response to Ivies, but there is hope that this year’s update will bring more Ivies festivities back onto campus rather than being held at off-campus houses like Lighthouse.

“I’m of the opinion that the more events on campus that Security can keep an eye on, the better,” Associate Vice President of Safety and Security Randy Nichols said. “In recent years, we’ve seen an uptick in Ivies activities that have gone off campus, and, of course, that creates consternation with neighbors, an increase in complaints about noise and disorderly behavior, possession of alcohol on the streets and that sort of thing.”

Nichols expects that his security team will be well prepared for Saturday’s move to the Bruns Quad but that it will be a busy weekend. On a personal level, Nichols is getting ready for his final Ivies after 20 years working at the College.

“It’s normally a good set of memories for all of us at the end. So, I ask the students just to have fun, be safe, work with us and let’s make some memories here together,” Nichols said. “I’ll be looking forward to a lot of last selfies with students.”

Harper Stevenson ’27 is a member of the Bowdoin Orient.