As night fell on Hillsborough Street, the floats appeared. They kept the overall Homecoming theme, “Send those Jackets PACKin” with bubble wrap,boxes and lots of jacket swatting.

This was N.C. State’s fourth Homecoming parade since its return to Hillsborough Street in 2002.

The floats illustrated everything from extermination to a giant fly swatter to a group delivering yellow jacket remains. Participants used elaborate lights and vintage cars to enhance their creations.

The student organizations and alumni were not the only ones in on the parade action. Varsity athletes, coaches and The Power Sound of the South,along with other local bands, joined the line of floats.

Before the march, parade participants gathered to set up their floats behind the baseball stadium. Student organizations, alumni and local businesses alike caught the Wolfpack spirit.

There were more than 65 people, floats and organizations entered and on display throughout the night, according to Allison Goff, junior in communication and assistant chair of the parade committee.

According to the Homecoming parade committee chair Brooke Beasley, this year was a success, with more floats and outside interest than ever.

“It was great that people actually took the time to build floats this year,” Beasley said.

Even though there were a large number of floats, only 11 entered the float-decorating contest.

For many participants, float decorating was just a way to show off the Pack spirit, have fun and send those “Jackets PACKin,” but for others there was a title on the line.

“If you’re not first, you’re last,” said Ashley Sutton, a senior in textile and apparel management and member of Chi Omega.

For the floats competition, fraternities and sororities paired up, so each float was comprised of one fraternity and one sorority.

Phi Gamma Delta, otherwise known as Fiji, and Zeta Tau Alpha, not only entered the float competition, however. They also entered one of their own, Ben deKeyzer, junior in textile and apparel management and member of Fiji, to compete in the Craziest Fan Competition.

DeKeyzer was voted Craziest Fan at the Pack Howl later that night.

However, Alpha Delta Pi and Pi Kappa Alpha’s entry in the end took the award for the best float entered in the Homecoming float decoration contest, according to Beasley.