Auburn University's Fall Family Weekend is Sept. 26-28, in conjunction with the homecoming football game against Louisiana Tech University.
One of the main events for families is the tailgate.
"The tailgate is going to be located between Plainsman Park and the South Donahue Residence Hall, right along South Donahue Drive," said Tess Gibson, coordinator of parent and family programs. "We moved it this year, so it's right where Tiger Walk takes place."
The tailgate is an opportunity for parents to meet their students' new or familiar friends.
The tailgate will be set up by The Tailgate Guys, and includes a large white tent and seating.
"All of The Tailgate Guys' tents run from three hours prior to kickoff to an hour before, so it'll be from noon until 2 p.m." Gibson said.
Tiger Dining will provide the food for an individual tailgating experience that started last year.
"The idea is that we would provide food from some of the different dining locations around campus, so that the students' parents would have the opportunity to kind of eat like a student," said Glenn Loughridge, director of Campus Dining. "We didn't want to cater something in that students would not have access to consistently and not be something they wouldn't enjoy."
The menu will include chicken salad mini wraps from GG's at Lupton, smoked chicken sliders with raspberry chipotle sauce from AU Smokehouse and Donahue pulled pork lettuce wraps with special green goddess and kale slaw from Plains to Plate.
"We get a lot of questions from parents," Loughridge said. "Parents are obviously concerned about students' eating habits, and we want to make sure they feel comfortable with what students have access to."
Other items on the menu will be Greek salad with falafel and tomato jam from Go Greek, homemade ranch chips from Rye of the Tiger and dilled cucumber tomato salad with capers from Campus AYCTE.
Auburn's dessert bars and cookies from the Bakeshop and assorted beverages will also be available.
According to Loughridge, they started having Tiger Dining cater the tailgate last year in conjunction with new food venues opening all over campus.
"It was fun to watch students, kind of pointing out things that they eat on a daily basis to their parents," Loughridge said.
Parents can register for the tailgate online for $20 per person, and it is free for students. Other events will be going on throughout the weekend, including the homecoming parade.
"The Auburn University Marching Band is going to be performing, AU Rhythm will be performing, AU Singers, we have the cheerleaders and we have Tiger Paws and Aubie," said Rachel Berube, director of homecoming and sophomore in agronomy and soils. "Right now, including the floats, we have 27 participants in the parade."
To buy a ticket for the tailgate go to auburn.edu/ustores/web/store_main.
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