It may only be August, but trust me, Halloween is on the minds of many! Including Patrick and myself. Lately we have been spending our weekends volunteering to prepare for the Anaheim Fall Festival and Parade, and it’s a big deal this year, because the Fall Festival turns 100! I hope to do a large reflection on this unique Anaheim tradition closer to the holiday, but today I wanted to bring you a behind the scenes look into the top secret float warehouse and talk about how floats are brought to life.

The parade consists of school bands, car clubs, local businesses, and amazing hand made floats, ranging from little push carts to ones towed behind trucks and even farm trackers to ones built atop small golf carts. For me, the highlight of the parade is this collection of floats, which are hand crafted by a team of volunteers that I’m proud to be a part of. They start with ideas which get approved, then concept art and often even miniatures are made to work from. Using mostly wood, but sometimes plastic and even cardboard, we start to bring these ideas to life. I’m not too handy at the construction side of things, mostly I just hold something as it’s being cut, or be a gopher for Pat, who is better versed in the construction phase thanks to years of building theatre sets in high school and college. Once the saws have stopped spinning the floats get painted, which is where I come in. Everything needs to be based out in a single color, and then we go in layering, putting in the details and finishing touches, sometimes including lighting effects! Volunteers sometimes bring their dogs, and often we have “help” from the cats who live at one of the nearby businesses.

Most of our floats are used for multiple years, and need cleaning, touch-up, and repair work. I did some repairs on an older flat while a new float was being constructed, then moved to painting a new float, which I can’t wait to share with you and the city! It’s going to be out of this world!

If you live in, near, or visiting Anaheim on October 28, then you won’t want to miss the Anaheim Fall Festival and Parade! The daytime festival includes crafts, artists selling their work, food trucks, costume contests and more! You can learn more via the website and Instagram, which is currently counting down the days to the parade and doing volunteer spotlights! Do you have any Halloween traditions in your town or have you already started to think about Halloween?