The City of Bowling Green will have a bigger role

than usual in this year’s Homecoming Parade.

The parade will start at 5 p.m. on Friday at the

intersection of Avenue of Champions and College Heights Boulevard

and ends downtown at Fountain Square Park. Bowling Green’s Ernie

Small Blues Band will take the stage at 5 p.m. in Fountain Square

Park and finish playing as the parade ends. Big Red’s Roar, a pep

rally, will take the stage right after at 6:30 p.m.

Ginny Hensley, director of Alumni Programming, said

she is encouraging attendants to park their lawn chairs in Fountain

Square Park and wait for the parade to get downtown. 

“Then you’ve got the band playing, the parade going

on around you, and immediately after the parade and concert we’ll

have Big Red’s Roar,” Hensley said. “So all that stays downtown

this year instead of them coming back up to campus.”

Hensley said the move to keep all of the parade

events downtown will make having the parade easier than last

year.

“It was a little chaotic,” she said. “It was great

for about 20 minutes, then students had to leave and literally do

the same thing at Smith Stadium.”

Hensley said the downtown community has been

welcoming to the event. She said downtown businesses are staying

open later, with some offering discounts to WKU students, faculty

and alumni.

Some other downtown businesses will also be opening

their stores in a different way. A storefront window contest will

help get downtown ready for the event.

Hensley said the businesses in the contest will get

help from the department of Consumer and Family Sciences. Students

in some of those classes will help decorate storefronts.

“They’ll get a grade and downtown will look very

Hilltopper red,” she said.

Hensley said the parade and pep rally will help get

downtown excited about WKU’s Homecoming game against

Louisiana-Lafayette.

“We hope the downtown community will be able to see

our students in action,” she said.