Super Bowl fans at Levi's Stadium forced to get creative with ICE OUT towels

Santa Clara, Calif. — What began as a pre-game protest became an accidental fashion statement inside Levi’s Stadium on Sunday, as thousands of Super Bowl LX spectators repurposed bright rally towels emblazoned with a cartoon Bad Bunny and the words ICE OUT to beat an unseasonably fierce California sun.

Contra-ICE, the activist group behind the giveaway, had stationed volunteers outside the venue beginning three hours before kickoff, handing out 10,000 of the 15,000 towels printed for the occasion within the first two hours, organizer Shasti Conrad confirmed. Conrad, who chairs the Washington State Democratic Party, said the idea was sparked by Bad Bunny’s Grammy-night call to “ICE OUT” and by the artist’s subsequent selection as halftime headliner, a choice that drew public criticism from President Donald Trump.

“We are just trying to get the message out,” Conrad told Mirror U.S. Sports while watching fans file through the turnstiles. “Hopefully the people will hold these towels up in the stadium, and that will catch people’s attention.”

Mother Nature cooperated more than the group dared expect. By game time, temperatures hovered near 70 degrees under cloudless skies, sending fans in the east-side sections scrambling for shade. Many reached for the free towels they had tucked into pockets or handbags, waving them overhead or draping them across necks and bare arms. The result: a stadium-wide mosaic of ICE OUT slogans visible throughout the national broadcast and a serendipitous amplification of the protest’s reach.

Conrad, observing the scene from the concourse, said the sight reinforced her conviction that “the vast majority of Americans…want ICE out.” She added, “Puerto Rico is a part of America. He has such pride for his community and for his country, which is the United States.”

Whether the improvised sun-shields translated into political converts is impossible to quantify, but the towels’ presence inside the Super Bowl proved that activism can find a home—even on sport’s biggest stage—when creativity meets opportunity.