The Tiger football team may have been out of town this past weekend, but that did not stop hundreds of LSU fans in Baton Rouge from getting a taste of traditional tailgating fever.
Guaranty Broadcasting, the owner of several radio stations including Eagle 98.1, Y-100 country and X-104.9, hosted the second annual Taste of Tiger Tailgating at the PMAC Friday night.
Students, alumni and other fans swarmed the assembly center to get their hands on free food, drinks, coupons and other prizes from a large group of local restaurants and businesses.
Fans who participated in the event enjoyed free food from restaurants including Tony Seafood, Zippy Burritos, Mellow Mushroom, On the Border, Krispy Kreme, Pastime Bar and Grill and CiCi’s Pizza. Hundreds of people also swarmed the Coca-Cola and Budweiser stands, which were both handing out free drinks.
Lindsey Galliano, a Human Ecology junior, said the huge amounts of free food were the best part of the evening. Fajitas from On the Border and boudin balls from Tony Seafood crowded Galliano’s plate.
Galliano, along with many of the other female participants, also enjoyed getting a mini-lip makeover at the Lockworks booth and participating in the salon’s Hot Lips competition.
Carrie DeVries, a mass communication sophomore, and Shilpa Brahmbhatt, a mass communication freshman, were stationed at the Lockworks booths as Lockstars and were offering their own opinions on who had the best pucker after their lip makeover.
DeVries said she had worked at a number of events before, but was impressed with Friday night’s turnout and the diversity of the crowd.
Several fans arrived before the businesses and in true Tiger tailgating fashion, Linda and Lionel Johnson, owners of Rev Crawfish World in Plaquemine, camped out outside the PMAC all afternoon and won the tailgating competition, cooking boiled shrimp and crabs.
The Johnsons were not the only people to win prizes Friday night, though.
At the end of the evening, announcers from Guaranty Broadcasting stations drew raffle tickets and gave away an Aveda gift basket, several CiCi’s pizza family packs, Tony’s Seafood gift boxes, polo shirts from Cingular and gift certificates to On the Border.
Arnold said he hopes the taste of Tiger Tailgating was a great way to give fans something extra to do on the weekend of an away game and send them home with prizes, coupons and information about local businesses that support the Tigers.