Kent State’s 2025 annual Homecoming celebration will be held the weekend of Oct. 10-11, welcoming back alumni and celebrating the beginning of the school year.
The Division of Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement events manager, Jasmine Pennino, and senior associate director of events, Jason Hawk, discussed this year’s celebrations.
The Homecoming festivities will begin Friday, Oct. 10, with an invite-only Alumni Awards ceremony held at the Kent State Hotel.
Throughout the year, there are nominations for different awards, which are then chosen by a panel of alumni judges; the ceremony honors the recipients of the awards.
“The alumni and their family are invited to come to a private dinner over at the hotel where we pass out the awards to them,” Hawk said.
The festivities then continue Saturday, Oct. 11 with the Block Party on the Student Green starting at 9 a.m. A few activities held during this will include inflatables, a balloon artist and a spirit tent to kick off the day.
After the kickoff of festivities, the annual parade will proceed at 10:30 a.m. This year’s parade is taking a different route compared to past years.
It will begin at the intersection of Johnston Drive, continue onto Loop Road, Rhodes Road, continue past the Kent State University Ice Arena, travel west onto Summit Street and end on Terrace Drive.
“The reasoning for that [change] is the construction on 59 — and so we will be doing the route that we have currently for this year, for the next three years as well,” Pennino said.
After the parade, students, alumni, fans and faculty can then prepare for the Homecoming game by tailgating. Multiple tailgates will be occurring such as the Black Alumni Chapter Tailgate, LGBTQ+ Student and Alumni TailGAYte and the Flash Nation Tailgate outside of DIX Stadium.
Following the tailgating, the annual Homecoming football game will take place. This year Kent State’s Golden Flashes will play against the UMass Minutemen. During the halftime show, the marching and alumni bands will perform, and the homecoming court will be announced.
At the Flash Nation Tailgate they will have cupcakes and sing “Happy Birthday” to celebrate Flash’s birthday. They will also have a giant card that people can sign as well as old photos of flash, “because the actual costume itself has changed quite a bit,” Hawk said.
Apart from celebrating Flash’s birthday, all former students who served as the mascot, or other versions of Kent State’s mascot, have been invited back to join a float with President Todd Diacon during the parade. They are still currently accepting any RSVP’s from alumni mascots that would like to join.
Another aspect of the Flash Nation Tailgate is the annual tradition of the “Kiss at the K,” where they traditionally end the celebration with a kiss, at 1 p.m. This is to celebrate couples who met each other during their time at Kent State.
For the parade, they usually expect an attendance number of several thousand people.
“Hopefully, we have fair weather and that leads to a great turnout,” Hawk said.
Homecoming is a great way for alumni to revisit their past experience at Kent State.
“They can interact with any chapters or Greek life, or anything that they were a part of,” Pennino said.
For those unable to attend the Homecoming parade, they can access the livestream here for an online viewing. The livestream will begin at 10:15 a.m., 15 minutes before the parade starts.
Ava Drozd is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].
