Overview UF Homecoming is the University of Florida's student-produced fall celebration, and it ends on one Friday with the Homecoming Parade down University Avenue and Gator Growl, the pep rally Florida Blue Key bills as the world's largest student-run pep rally. The 2026 program ran from a charity 5K at Depot Park in mid-September through a leadership pageant and Cultural Soulfest to parade day, when the Campus Festival fills the Plaza of the Americas and the Gator Gallop runs 2.1 miles along the parade route. Florida Blue Key, founded at UF in 1923, calls itself the oldest honorary in the state and runs the whole program. On site Gator Growl is a variety show the night before a home football game, staged indoors at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. In 2025 doors opened at 6 and the show at 7: the cheer team, Albert and Alberta and the Dazzlers dance team worked the crowd, Soulfest winner Sabor Latino performed, a student DJ opened, the Homecoming king and queen were crowned, and Steve Aoki closed by throwing about 11 cakes into the crowd. The parade runs 13th Street and University Avenue, and the Homecoming site calls it the largest student-run parade in the nation. Audience Students, alumni and families fill the arena in orange and blue, many in wigs, neon shoes and light-up gloves. At the 2025 show people held up signs reading Cake Me and It's my birthday to get picked for Aoki's cake. Talent and Influencers Gator Growl's headliners include Robin Williams in 1982, Jerry Seinfeld in 1988, Dave Chappelle in 1998, Kevin Hart in 2010 and Snoop Dogg in 2017. Steve Aoki headlined the 102nd Gator Growl in 2025. Track record The event grew out of a 1916 pep rally, took its variety-show format in the 1920s and dates Gator Growl to 1924. It ran in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium until 2013 and on Flavet Field from 2014 to 2019, skipped 2020, and moved into the O'Connell Center in 2021. More than 500 student volunteers produce it, with over 200 student employees on the physical setup alone. Brand presence Partners buy in at tiers weighted toward either the Homecoming week events or Gator Growl night, with a top tier across both. Pepsi and Gatorade were on the 2026 sponsor list, and Student Government Productions funds the Gator Growl talent.