Homecoming parade complements downtown concert, Big Red’s Roar
October 17, 2011
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.