The Drake Student Activities Board announced the theme, relays hosts, musical artists and changes to street painting for the 2025 Drake Relays at Blitz Day on March 26.
This year’s theme is “Racing Thru Time,” which Relays Chair Chloe Isbell says was inspired by the Relays events themselves and the trend she’s seen of embracing aesthetics from different time periods.
“I wanted to make sure that track and field felt included, but then also students had an identity in it,” Isbell said.
Isbell looks forward to seeing how student organizations incorporate the theme into their squares, whether they choose to represent it through groovy 60s colors or an ode to “Back to the Future.”
Seniors Ben Connolly, Sarah Greiver and Melia Patrick are this year’s Relays hosts.
The Relays artist is Leon Thomas, who is known for his role as Andre on Nickelodeon’s “Victorious.” He has since released three albums and produced songs for artists such as Ariana Grande, Toni Braxton and SZA.
“For a lot of us, he’s an artist that we grew up with seeing him on TV,” Bands Co-Chair Trinity Houston said. “He was making bangers then, and he’s continuing to make bangers now.”
Houston and Brooklin Brumfield, the other bands co-chair, surveyed the student body about the genres and artists they listened to in order to decide on the Relays artist.
“We tried to work with not only our budget but the University as a whole to figure out an artist that would best fit the student body population at this moment to make sure that students are happy with the choice that is being picked,” Houston said.
The Relays concert is on Saturday, April 26. Local DJ cDisiac will open for Thomas and perform at other Relays events earlier in the week.
Isbell presented a change to Painted Street square selection at the event due to conflict around the Painted Street raffle last year. Squares this year will still be chosen through a raffle, but student organizations can opt to share a square with another organization in exchange for an extra entry into the raffle.
“One of the main reasons that we changed it was there was a lot of controversy with the way that it worked last year, and we wanted to avoid that,” Isbell said. “It seemed like a more equitable approach to making sure that all student organizations have a chance at Painted Street.
