Building A Mardi Gras Parade Floatpage 1 / 2
Building a parade float is a creative technical endeavor that requires an array of skills, careful teamwork, and many hours to transform design sketches into a finished float that is ready to be unveiled.
Once the theme for the parade has been selected, the hard work of envisioning the floats gets underway. With the help of talented artists, design sketches—from simple conceptual sketches to elaborate, lifelike renderings—are created from which the floats can be constructed. Floats are built inside of a huge warehouse and it can take nearly a year to complete, depending on its detail.
Design Sketch
Years ago, floats were constructed on wooden wagons that were pulled by mules. Today, most floats are constructed on platforms that are pulled by a tractor or a motorized float chassis. Either way, some floats keep a basic structure or form from year to year and are repainted, redecorated, and appointed with new props, depicting the new theme while others start anew with simply the chassis.
A dismantled float that will be reused looks like this:
After the artist's renderings are complete, professional float artists and builders begin the process of painting the white form of the float with background color, creating detailed design elements or decorations with intricate detail to mount on the float form, and constructing individual props, made out of paper mache, fiber glass or styrofoam.