It’s the final countdown and we are well on our way to another St. Patrick’s Day parade. Welcome to awesome – population those fortunate to either ride on or have been part of the legacy that is the floating experience. We hope everyone will come out in two weeks and be a part of the greatness that is the Raleigh St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival.
For those you not familiar with the event it has been around since 1983 – we’ve been a part of the fun since 2006 first as an artmusiclife.com project and going forward into the nosvc.com years. We’ve built with papier-mâché, balloons, spoofed televisions shows, a space program and thrown out 100s of pounds of candy.
The question we hear most – why? The usual response – why not? I can explain it to you but you won’t understand. You have to experience it. You have to get on a cardboard boat that was built in a couple of weekends from scrap, put on a viking helmet and watch as the masses cheer for you. Last year someone described it as “being a rock star.” Fortunately we’ve never been asked to play music – except that one year – with the balloons.
Thanks to everyone that came out today to help with the build (Candace, John, BobG, Courtney, Cara) – we’ll have more to do soon. If you have a favorite memory or float post it in the comments. Until then – Megi vegur rísa upp á móti þér.
getur vindurinn alltaf vera á bakinu
I’ll never forget Eric’s toe injury of ’06. I think there is video footage somewhere. Good times!
I remember that getting bandaged up with duct tape and a paper towel. Flip-flops and trailer jumping are not a good combo.
The first one was easily the best we had no idea what we were doing or what to expect. Theme? We didn’t really have one. I remember thinking the music note was huge until we put it on the float. I also really liked the Cheers theme. I hated Cara dMc missed that one. Last year was great but mainly due to the decision we made while building the float on going to see the real shuttle.
In standard form this is the 6th anniversary of the “last” parade float I’ll ever build. That being said if the tradition really ends here I’ll be happy. We’ve had a lot of really great times and created a very unique fraternity of people that have ridden in the parade. when I get a chance I am going to try and see how many people we’ve had floating over the years from memory and pictures. I’d imagine we’ve got a relatively high number of folks and more new ones this year.