If you go
› What: Big Orange Caravan — Chattanooga› When: Saturday, 12:30-2:30 p.m.› Where: First Tennessee Pavilion, 1826 Reggie White Blvd.› How much: $10 at the gate› Activities: Meet and greet with “Vol For Life” greats. Q&A hosted by “Voice of the Vols” Bob Kesling with Butch Jones and John Currie. Food and beverages available for purchase from local vendors/food trucks. Also will include music, prize wheel, visiting with Smokey, photo booth with a Neyland Stadium backdrop, cornhole, a social media station, free popcorn and face painting.
An expected crowd of more than 1,000 Chattanooga-area Tennessee fans will get the first look at a revamped Big Orange Caravan on Saturday at First Tennessee Pavilion.
Football coach Butch Jones, his entire staff, men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes and new athletic director John Currie are the headline guests at the event that has been redesigned with a family-oriented atmosphere after the planning process got a late start this year.
“I’m really excited about the format we have,” Currie said in an interview with the Times Free Press last week. “Instead of charging people $35 for a rubber chicken plate to sit inside a ballroom, we’ve got a low-cost, family-friendly deal, where if your kid runs around a little bit, you don’t have to keep them quiet the whole time. They can have fun.”
The Big Orange Caravan event historically came to a Chattanooga hotel or country club in May, but when Currie started as athletic director on April 1, he learned that no caravan events had been planned for 2017, he said. The event also has gone to Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta and the Tri-Cities in the past.