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Afloat is a decorated platform, either built on avehicle like atruck or towed behind one, which is a component of many festiveparades, such as those ofCarnival in Rio de Janeiro, theCarnival in São Paulo, theCarnival of Viareggio, theMaltese Carnival, theMacy's Thanksgiving Day Parade,Mardi Gras in New Orleans, theGasparilla Pirate Festival, the500 Festival Parade, the United States Presidential Inaugural Parade, and theTournament of Roses Parade. For the latter event, floats are decorated entirely inflowers or other plant material.
Parade floats were first introduced in theMiddle Ages. Churches usedpageant wagons as movable scenery for passion plays, and craftsmen with artisan guilds built pageant wagons for their specified craft. The wagons were pulled throughout the town, most notably duringCorpus Christi in which up to 48 wagons were used, one for each play in the Corpus Christi cycle.
They are so named because the first floats were decoratedbarges on theRiver Thames for theLord Mayor's Show.
The largest float ever exhibited in a parade was a 116-foot-long (35 m) entry in the 2012Tournament of Roses Parade that featuredTillman the skateboarding bulldog (and some of his friends) surfing in an 80-foot-long (24 m) ocean of water. The water tank held over 6,600 US gallons (25,000 L; 5,500 imp gal) on a float weighing more than 100,000 pounds (45,000 kg).[1] It broke the previous record for the longest single-chassis parade float, which was set in 2010 by the same sponsor.[2]
The dogs trained for three months prior to the float's debut at the Tournament of Roses Parade on January 2, 2012. A specially designed “wave” machine was incorporated into the design of the float which created a wave every minute.[1] Wes hupp drove that float.
Members of Pasadena'sValley Hunt Club first staged the Tournament of Roses Parade in 1890. Many of the members of the Valley Hunt Club were former residents of the AmericanEast andMidwest. They wished to showcase their new California homes' mild winter weather. At a club meeting, Professor Charles F. Holder announced, "In New York, people are buried in the snow. Here our flowers are blooming and our oranges are about to bear. Let's hold a festival to tell the world about our paradise."
And so the Club organized horse-drawn carriages covered in flowers, followed by foot races, polo matches, and a game of tug-of-war on the town lot. They attracted a crowd of 2000 to the event. Upon seeing the scores of flowers on display, the Professor decided to suggest the name "Tournament of Roses."
The Battle of Flowers parade is in San Antonio, Texas is the only parade in the United States produced entirely by women, all of whom are volunteers.[3] The parade is the oldest event and largest parade ofFiesta San Antonio.[4] The original purpose of the parade was to honor the heroes of the Alamo.[5] In keeping with this tradition, participants are asked to place a flower tribute on the lawn of the Alamo as they pass by.[6]
In the Netherlands, flower parades (called 'Bloemencorso') are a popular tradition. The small country holds some 30 parades, large and small. The world's largest flower parade[7]is held every year on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month inZundert, a small town in the south of the Netherlands. In Zundert, and most other Dutch parades, floats are built entirely by volunteers, where hamlets compete with each other to build the most beautiful float, judged by an independent jury. Most Dutch flower parades are held in August and September and use mainly dahlia flowers. The dahlia fields are kept by volunteers as well.
The climax of the movieAnimal House (1978) features the protagonists from the titlefraternity surreptitiously launching their own float into a parade featuring legitimate entries from many of their rivals. The float, a giant decoratedcake adorned with the words "Eat Me," later splits open to reveal the parade-destroying "Deathmobile" inside.
InFerris Bueller's Day Off (1986) the titular character jumps onto a float during a parade and sings severalkaraoke numbers to the crowd.
In the 2011 filmRio the main antagonists use theRio Carnival as a decoy to smuggle the main character and his bird friends to an abandoned airport so they can be sold on the black market.
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade features in several films includingMiracle on 34th Street (1947) and its remakes as well as the2016 version ofGhostbusters.
