One of Drake University’s traditions, and famous landmarks is the painted street. It’s a wide sidewalk that runs behind the library and in front of Jewett (a residence hall) that gets painted by student organizations every year at the beginning of Relays Week. Street painting is always accompanied by a massive paint fight, and there usually ends up being more paint on people than on the ground. But besides the paint fight, here are a few things that are guaranteed to happen every year at street painting.
1. People get paint in their hair
No matter how hard we all try to avoid it, with hats, bandanas, and shower caps, there are always a few people who make the choice not to cover their hair. This inevitably leads to a giant mess, tons of complaining, and lamentations over the difficulty of it all. There are also always people who covered their hair and thought they were safe, only to realize after the paint settles that their coverage was lacking. Either way, it’s an unfortunate reality of a giant paint fight.
2. People find paint on their bodies days after the event
In a similar vein, no matter where the paint lands, it can be difficult to scrub off. This particularly applies to people who get paint in hard places to spot, such as the back of the neck or the back of an elbow. After multiple showers, there will still be paint spots magically appearing days later—after all, if you don’t find a blotch of blue paint on the back of your leg a week after street painting, you probably weren’t paint-fighting hard enough.
3. Everyone worries about the weather
This is slightly more of a lead up to the event, rather than part of the event itself, but nonetheless, it wouldn’t be street painting without worrying about the weather. If there’s even a chance that street painting will be on a cloudy day, everyone panics—for good reason. If it rains, the paint fight is cancelled, and all of the student organizations have to paint their squares on their own time.
4. Someone gets absolutely covered in paint
I’ve thought before that I’ve had a ton of paint on me—and I’ve been completely wrong. No matter how much paint you get on yourself, someone will always top it. I’ve seen people walking away from street painting coated in so much paint that they’re barely recognizable as human beings. It’s a bit of a letdown to see that you’re not as hardcore as other people, but I don’t envy them the job of getting all that paint back off.
5. The new painted street looks AMAZING
It’s inevitable—every year at street painting, painted street ends up looking much better than it did before. Part of it is the incredible designs that student organizations come up with, and part of it is just getting a fresh coat of paint over last year’s fading, cracking masterpieces. Each individual square is completely unique, and the street as a whole is beautiful, ready to kick off a new year and a new Drake Relays.
