It’s back, and it’s bananas.

Banana Splittin’, a banana-split eating contest, will return to campus on Wednesday, Oct. 14, after a two year hiatus. 

“We decided to take a break from Banana Splittin’ after several years of bad weather conditions which resulted in low participation,” Nicole Dyer, AU’s Director of Student Life. “CAB is super excited to host Banana Splittin’ this year because it aligns perfectly with some of their values, building community and having fun.”

When Carlos Campo became Ashland’s president, he started looking through the university’s history and traditions, Dyer said, and when he stumbled across the event, he started wondering how to make it happen again. 

“He reached out to Dr. Hannah Clayborne to see if it was feasible to bring the Banana Splittin’ Competition back this year,” Dyer said. “When Hannah approached me about it, CAB was still in the process of looking for another Homecoming event to round out their schedule, and when I mentioned it to CAB as a possibility, they loved the idea. So, we ran with it!”

The event will include three contests; a fastest-eating contest for a five-person team, a most creative eating style contest for five-to-eight people, and a best costume contest, also for five-to-eight people.

Teams can participate in any or all contests, although the larger team that can compete in the costume and creative eating contest would have to be trimmed down for the eating contest.

Each contest winner gets a professional photo taken, which will hang in the student center, and a $100 gift card to split among the team. All participants will receive a t-shirt.

The Campus Activities Board, 

which is organizing the event, doesn’t want students who were around for the last Banana Splittin’ event three years ago to expect the same event.

“Since it is its first year back, we know that its not going to be what it used to be the first time,” Hailee Miller, the CAB co-chair of this event said, “and we understand that, and we are taking small baby steps to work back towards the original Banana Splittin’ and how amazing it was. For us, we are just looking for some teams from around campus to come. We know its not going to be an insane amount, but we want a group of students participating, and we also hope a group of students comes out to watch.”

Getting the event restarted has presented some difficulties, since most students on campus haven’t experienced a Banana Splittin’.

“Our biggest struggle that we’ve had is getting teams to sign up since a lot of people aren’t educated on what Banana Splittin’ is. We have several teams signed up in every category, so we have a steady amount of people but we are really wanting more people to sign up to get this event going.”

Sign-ups will continue through Friday, Oct. 9. Paper forms can be returned to the Student Life office, and online forms need to be submitted by 5 p.m.