Touring Floats
Studio Concepts offers a variety of options to increase the exposure and value of your float.
Collapsible Floats
Studio Concepts builds floats which travel to multiple parades in enclosed trucks. With folding sides and removable props, these floats are quick and easy to load and unload, yet expand to create an impressive presence on the parade route. Your float can be designed to reflect a particular corporate or community image, and accessory decorative elements can be provided to adapt the float to the themes of specific events. Space for riders is available on the floats - seated or standing - and fresh flowers can add elegance to any design. The floats come fully equipped with sound and lighting systems (if needed), and can be built with elaborate mechanical animation.
Studio Concepts has a fleet of trailers adapted to float transportation use, and a staff of experienced float operators who are also licensed truck drivers. Each trailer is a mobile float shop, with all the tools and supplies to make sure your float is in top condition. We can manage all aspects of your parade involvement for you, from initial design to parade-day operations.
Mouseover the design to see some of the alterations on themes Southwest Airlines chose.
Studio Concepts can help you present your full-size float to several audiences. Larger floats which have not been built with touring in mind can be transported to parades in other cities, even if the decision to do so isn't made until after the first event is over. For example, a float built to appear in the Portland Rose Festival's Grand Floral Parade in June can be moved to Oakland to enter the Oakland Holiday Parade in December. Studio Concepts' transportation department has the people and expertise to move floats around the country by truck and railroad, regardless of size, and is equally well prepared to operate them at any event.
Rebuilt to fit the Event
Studio Concepts can also produce floats in several versions of one design to meet the specific needs and requirements of different events. For example, a float built to make use of the liberal height possibilities of a parade with minimal overhead obstructions might not look its best in a city where wires and signals necessitate frequent tipping down of the most prominent design elements, but the problem can be solved by a simple rework which preserves the intent and feeling of the original float.
In the accompanying photographs we see an entry in the Pasadena Tournament of Roses, where there is only one overhead obstruction along the entire parade route. Big Bird and the Sesame Street sign - both nearly thirty feet tall - had to fold down just once, which was deemed acceptable from a design standpoint. The client also entered their float in the Portland Rose Festival's Grand Floral Parade, where overhead signals and wires would have made it necessary for Big Bird and the sign to have tipped approximately twice per city block. It was therefore decided that a smaller version with Big Bird seated and a shorter sign would be more visually pleasing.
