The theme for this year’s Spring Fest activities may well have been “10 years and still growing, no matter what the weather.”

While cold, rainy weather on April 12-13 may have kept the crowds well below the usual 40,000 annual attendees, new participants made this year’s event the biggest in its 10-year history.

“Spring Fest has grown because of several new departments joining in on the fun,” says Danica Kirkpatrick, events coordinator for Purdue Agriculture.

From across the university, first-time participants included Discovery Park, Purdue Cancer Center, Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, School of Nursing, Purdue Worklife Programs and the Purdue Repertory Dance Company, Kirkpatrick says.

Other participants and sites for Spring Fest include the Colleges of Science, Consumer and Family Sciences, Education, Liberal Arts, Engineering and Technology, plus the School of Veterinary Medicine and the Krannert School of Management.

Next year’s Spring Fest is scheduled for April 18-19.

Sharing a learning moment with your daughter can prove daunting when a giant balloon hat keeps getting in the way. Minnie Yang, 9, and her mother, Joanne, were learning about chicken embryos.

Four-year-old Aya Schroeder goes nose-to-nose with Albert. The donkey was part of the PEAPs (Purdue Equine Assisted Programs) display at Spring Fest.

Sarah Kinder’s job at Spring Fest was to keep a steady supply of Bug Bowl balloons on hand. Kinder is an ag economics sophomore from Greenfield, Ind.

The object for these bug-like creatures was to pop each other’s balloons with their fencing foils. Anastasia Talbert, 9 (left), and Jacob Baber, 8, battled it out as part of a fund-raiser for the Purdue Fencing Club.