College students came to the Homecoming festival for the food.
Before Friday’s Homecoming parade, about 1,500 people snacked on free ice pops, Greek yogurt and orange-and-blue popcorn at the first annual Homecoming Festival.
Businesses, like The Hyppo Gourmet Ice Pops, Chobani and Earth Fare, were required to donate $500 in cash or free merchandise to set up a booth at the festival, said Santiago Ramirez, Gator Growl’s associate producer of communications. There were 16 booths at the festival.
While children played carnival-like games, college students went booth-to-booth on the hunt for freebies on the Plaza of the Americas.
Holding bags of popcorn and cups of yogurt, UF freshmen Krista Grajo and Othelia Jumapio said they were drawn to the event for the free food. The festival took place during the SunTrust Gator Gallop, an annual 5K Homecoming run that ended on the Plaza this year. Deanna Henriksen has been running in the Gator Gallop for 15 years. This Homecoming, she brought her kids to the festival before the run.
"We figured it would be a great way to kind of burn some energy with the kids, and, you know, get them pumped up for the whole day and the whole Homecoming weekend," she said.
Parents took their children to get their faces painted with gators and butterflies by members of Dance Marathon at UF, who were accepting donations to their spring Children’s Miracle Network fundraiser. The group does not know how much they raised, DM Public Relations Overall Director Armani Abreu said.
"By participating in events like this where the community comes forth, we get to show them what big things the university is doing," the 21-year-old said.
