The impending threat of exams couldn’t thwart a little frivolity among University of Florida students Friday night. Hundreds congregated on the University Auditorium lawn for some holiday fun culminating in the illumination of the Holiday Gator, a life-sized alligator sculpture bathed in the glow of orange and blue LED lights.

During an hour-long program, guests sipped hot chocolate and apple cider while listening to holiday music performed by the Gator Marching Band, the UF Concert Choir and the UF Sunshine Steelers steel band. Majorettes and members of the color guard pumped their pompoms to the beat.

This year marks the gator sculpture’s sixth as UF’s holiday centerpiece. Leslie Tharp, a Gainesville-based blacksmith and UF College of the Arts alumna, forged the abstract steel piece in 2019. Every holiday season, the gator is positioned at the center of a six-way pedestrian intersection within Auditorium Park, the green space just north of Century Tower.

Friday’s event was a novel experience for interim UF President Donald Landry, who briefly mingled with visitors before departing to attend to competing obligations.

Heather White, vice president of UF’s Division of Student Life, served as master of ceremonies in his stead. She recruited children from the crowd to conduct a countdown to the lighting.

Afterward, attendees took turns posing for photos in front of the sculpture, its new orange and blue highlights mirrored by similar ones shining on the bell tower and against the auditorium’s Gothic windows.

UF will illuminate the Holiday Gator through Dec. 22.