In the past, the festivities before the annual St. Thomas football game were referred to as Taste of Saints, and even though this year’s event will be similar to last year’s, it has a new name: homecoming.

Nadine Friederichs, manager of alumni relations, said the original idea for Taste of Saints was inspired by the Taste of Minnesota, a food festival. She said the name change simply reflects how the event has changed over time from a food festival to activities.

“That concept of what it originally was, was gone. It’s just time for a change,” Friederichs said. “It was just time to retire that because it’s just really not a reflection of what it was borrowed from.”

When Taste of Saints first began in the early 1990s, clubs prepared food in dorms and apartments to sell at booths spread all over the upper quad. Friederichs said about 10 years ago, the city of St. Paul imposed stricter guidelines on the event.

“Students couldn’t be making food in their apartments, in their dorm rooms. We needed to follow more strict guidelines on where the food came from, how it was prepared and how it was served,” Friederichs said.

Senior Student Alumni Council President Sarah Hendricks said she will be helping out with activities at homecoming and that people won’t notice a big changes at this year’s event.

“If you look 20 years ago to what it is now, it has completely changed, but compared to last year or two years ago or even three years ago, it’s the same event,” Hendricks said.

On Saturday, St. Thomas will cater all of the food and student workers will serve the food at homecoming and tents with free activities and giveaways will span the plaza and quad.

Friederichs said every booth on the quad will have some kind of activity or giveaway like face painting, a Tommie prize walk, a photo booth and hole-in-one.

This year Friederichs said the St. Thomas Alumni Choir will be performing show tunes from Wicked and other favorites in between Bingo games.

Junior Alex Getting said he never went to Taste of Saints, but said the activities at homecoming this year seem more appealing.

“It sounds fun,” Getting said. “It will make the alumni want to come back, and it makes students want to come out and actually do stuff instead of just go to the football game.”

Friederichs said although there isn’t an official count, usually four to five thousand people take part in homecoming.

Hendricks said she thinks homecoming “emcompasses the entire St. Thomas community.”

“It really is the one event, in my opinion, that all of St. Thomas is represented because you have the Old Guard, you have the young alums, you have alums, you have the students, and then you also have the neighborhood involved,” Hendricks said.

Friederichs said the campus will host five class reunions: 2002, 1992, 1982, 1972 and 1962.

“I think it will really a day filled with spirit and celebrating Tommies. It really is the biggest event of the fall every year,” Frederichs said.

Freshman Kaitlyn Worachek said she’s surprised that she hadn’t heard about the pre-game festivities.

“Since I get so many emails about events from my RA or just the newsletters in general, I thought I would have heard about it,” Worachek said.

Friderichs said the game against Bethel University, the only other undefeated team in the MIAC, will be exciting.

“This is going to be a great game. The pre-game will get that going. It’s not just a festival anymore, it’s a party,” Friderichs said. “I think that people having fun before the game will just continue into the stadium.”

Heidi Enninga can be reached at enni5264@stthomas.edu.