Today marks the beginning of a week's worth of events that celebrate "Honoring the Legend" for Homecoming 2004, which will culminate with the parade and Homecoming game this weekend.

This year's Homecoming festivities will include new features for many of the week's events, said Andrea McDonald, Homecoming overall chair.

"I think [Homecoming week is] going to be pretty amazing; each event has something new and different to make it exciting," McDonald said.

A major change this year is an alteration of the parade route, said Allison Davis, parade overall chair.

"[The old route] has been a problem in the past," Davis said.

Because of construction and parking problems, the parade will now begin at 6 p.m. on the corner of Porter and Curtin roads, behind Beaver Stadium.

Last year, the parade started at Bigler Road and Park Avenue.

Davis said the time and route changes should allow faculty to leave the new East Parking Deck without encountering parade traffic.

McDonald said the change should enable the parade to flow more smoothly because the floats would not have to cross Park Avenue.

"At the old staging grounds, we used to have to stop for traffic across Park Avenue," McDonald said.

McDonald said the wait at Park Avenue caused large gaps between the floats in past years and should not be a problem this year.

"We think it's going to shorten the length of the parade," she said.

McDonald added that the changed parade route would make more seating available.

"Hopefully parade day will go quickly and the parade won't last five hours," said Laura Lombardi, parade workshop captain.

Another change this year is that candy will no longer be thrown from floats during the parade.

In a security meeting last week, Garret Plunkett, overall security chair, said the change was to improve the safety of bystanders.

Late Night Homecoming will also be hosting a concert featuring Fastball on Thursday night as part of the festivities.

Public Relations Overall chair Tara Burnham said this was the first year that an effort was made to bring in a mainstream, well-recognized band.

Late Night Homecoming will also include wing and pizza eating contests at 9 and 10 p.m., respectively.

Other events include the East Halls Celebration and Competition tonight, a Nittany Pursuit scavenger hunt tomorrow and an airband competition Wednesday.

McDonald said changes would include an improvisational "lightning" round, which will be implemented in the Airband Competition, in which competitors will perform lip-sync routines.

Each event will earn organizations competition points that go toward the Homecoming competition, which will conclude at an awards ceremony Sunday.