INDY 500

Indy 500 attendees seen with jugs of liquid. What's in them?

Jenny Porter Tilley
Indianapolis Star
Fans at the Snake Pit with "borg" beverages during the 2023 Indianapolis 500.

A college trend that emerged within the past year has apparently made its way to Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

IndyStar reporters at IMS were downing coffee when they noticed a few race fans drinking jugs of colorful liquids early into the day.

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One of our Twitter followers suggested these beverages might be "borgs." According to a delish.com article, it's short for "blackout rage gallons." Today we'll just say it's a Borg-Warner, since another factor in the borg trend is using puns to decorate. Some of the puns delish.com cited include Borg-an Freeman, Mark Zucker-Borg and Borg-street Boys.

We asked our intern, Morgan, what this was all about.

Example of a "borg" beverage.

"Typically borgs have liquor, water, and Liquid IV," she said in our newsroom race day chat. "Very popular at MSU during St. Patrick's Day, because it's supposed to keep you hydrated/avoid a hangover." She once made her own, which she called a "Borgan."

In past decades, other trends have been less sanitary — hairy buffalo in a giant plastic bin or bathtub comes to mind. It makes sense that a generation who braved a pandemic during college had a better idea.

'Blackout rage gallons':College students now party with BORGs, booze-filled gallon jugs

Domenica Bongiovanni and Morgan Womack contributed to this report