CARNAVALE FLOATS AND ART

The floats were truly outstanding this year, as you can see. Tonight is the end, and we will have our town back after the 200,000 + spectators leave. The first picture is an art show at the old church of Santa Margherita, using fishermen's seafood crates to display the photos of the sea. The second is an old ceramic model for a float from the 80's. Float constructors have been required to submit thses models for decades. Quite a collection of them were on display.
The floats are always a treat to see just before the parade because workers are always still working on them feverishly. You can see a crane in the picture that is used to hoist up moving heads and parts of bodies, right up till the last hour before the floats take off. And then you see them later in all their glory, with elaborately costumed dancing groups behind, music, lights, smoke, special effects, and parts of these huge structures mechanically moving and changing positions. I think they look the most dramatic as it gets dark and the powerful rows of lights are switched on them, creating effects that you cannot see during the daytime hours. All in all, they were the best part of Carnavale, and each year new ones with different themes are created from scratch. A neat thing is after Carnavale, you see big chunks of floats in fields or in back lots all over town.