About Parade Floats

They're sometimes fun, usually colorful and always the main attraction at any parade. Parade floats are fun to look at, regardless of your age. Anyone who enjoys watching parades are bound to appreciate the floats that are featured. Depending on how elaborately decorated they are, parade floats can sometimes take weeks and even months to put together. Regardless of how much work goes into them, the people who work on them have something to proudly display as they show all the parade onlookers their handiworks.

History

While no one is exactly sure how or when parade floats came about, some historians believe that it was in the Middle Ages that the parade float was introduced for the first time. During this time, many churches put on passion plays and they used scenery that was movable, as well as pageant wagons that were pulled through their towns.

Identification

Many different types of floats exist; however, they almost always have one thing in common: They usually consist of some type of platform that is decorated. The platform can be a flatbed trailer or it could be an actual vehicle. Either way, the parade float is always powered by vehicle. If the vehicle is not decorated to look like a float, then it is usually pulling the trailer on which the float was built.

Types

There are many different types of parade floats. The most popular floats in the United States can usually be seen during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Here you will find vehicles that have been decorated, as well as huge balloons that stand several hundred feet tall. Another parade known for their eccentric floats is the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California, on New Year's Day.

Materials

Floats can be made out of just about anything. However, the most common materials used in designing floats are crepe paper and chicken fencing wire. Flowers can be crafted out of the crepe paper, while the chicken fencing wire is wrapped around the float's platform in preparation for being decorated. Some floats, however, are decorated with fresh flowers or other types of foliage. Depending on the design of the floats, they may also have mechanical structures built onto them to make certain parts move as the float goes down the road. For night parades, lights are also used to decorate the float so that onlookers can see the scene that has been created on the platform.

Considerations

When watching a parade, you might wonder just how much time goes into creating the floats that you are viewing. In some cases, it can take almost a full year to come up with a unique design for the float and get the needed materials and parade builders together to work on the float. At huge parades, such as the Mardi Gras Parade and the Tournament of Roses Parade, float builders constantly try to come up with new, innovative ideas that will please the crowds.

Resources

• Tournament of Roses Parade website