Carts and Floats
Uniquely in the West Country, the vehicles are called carts, unlike other carnivals where the term carnival float is used. The term cart is still used today to describe the large and elaborate trailers used in the procession. Carts are built by local clubs of individuals funded totally by charitable donations and sponsorship from local businesses.
Carts are always themed, with no restriction on the theme from the organising committee. Regularly chosen themes include:
- Popular children's books - like Alice in Wonderland
- Favourite children's characters - such as Disney characters
- Scenes or themes from history - like Pre-Historic, Victorian or famous Battles
- Scenes or themes from around the world - such as Australia, Rio de Janeiro or Spanish
- Travel and transport - such as cars or trains, e.g., The Chattanooga Choo-Choo
- Popular themes of the day - including pop songs or dances
- The future or exploration - such as space
Carts include both music and costumed people to complete their theme. People and items on the cart can either be moving or static in tableau.
Today these carts are driven by farm tractors, and usually also tow a large diesel-driven electricity generator to provide the huge amount of power required to power the carts. Some generators used can provide over one megawatt of power, with 10,000 to 30,000 lamps not uncommon on a modern-day cart. The tractors themselves are often decorated to match the rest of the cart and generator, and in some cases modified so that the driver is positioned low down between the two front wheels. This allows for a higher degree of decoration without obscuring the driver's view. The length of the entire cart is often built to the maximum allowable of 100 feet (30 m).
These floats are interspersed with walking exhibits, either groups or singles, occasional marching bands or majorette troupes, and charity collectors who take donations from the spectators.
Read more about this topic: West Country Carnival
Famous quotes containing the words carts and, carts and/or floats:
“Squalor spreads its hideous length
through the carts and the asses’ feet,
squalor coils and reopens
and creeps under barrow
and heap of refuse....”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“In the very midst of the crowd about this wreck, there were men with carts busily collecting the seaweed which the storm had cast up, and conveying it beyond the reach of the tide, though they were often obliged to separate fragments of clothing from it, and they might at any moment have found a human body under it. Drown who might, they did not forget that this weed was a valuable manure. This shipwreck had not produced a visible vibration in the fabric of society.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Ah, broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever!
Let the bell toll!—a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river;
And, Guy De Vere, hast thou no tear?—weep now or never more!
See! on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore!”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)