Gray clouds obscured almost every color but one. Neon green seeped out of every crowd. Caps, hats, shirts, jackets and pants all painted the same shade.

Some people in green shirts went home, talking about how cold they are. For others, however, the night had just begun.

“It’s been a great day. We’re having a lot of fun,” said Ilan Kaplan, sophomore in LAS.

Kaplan wore a green cap and shirt, his other clothing shades of grey and brown; however, the color of fresh spring leaves was not exhausted from his wardrobe, Kaplan said. His girlfriend wore his green bandana.

Kaplan said he would buy groceries with his friends and cook dinner later that night.

“I think it could be storming out, and people would still be out,“ said Luke Telstad, a University alum.

Telstad and his friend from Chicago, Conrad Garbacz, planned on hitting Murphy’s Pub, KAMS and then The Red Lion.

“It’s been incredible,” Garbacz said. “It’s so nice to see a vibrant campus.”

Garbacz said drinks in Champaign were much cheaper than in Chicago.

Other Chicago natives were handing out what they claimed to be keys to a maintenance closet for an apartment complex on campus.

“We’re desperately trying to get rid of (maintenance keys) because we’re heading to Chicago,” Aidan Weyland, a Chicago native, said. “There’s not a single soul who will take this maintenance key.”

Weyland said that although no one was taking the keys, he believes University students would use the key to get free windex, squeegee, mops, buckets and internet fame.

[email protected]