Floats feature fables

Press, 4 November 1986, Page 1

Floats feature fables

. . ; By

DEBORAH McPHERSON

Reading fables and fairy stories for the last four months has all been part of the job for a team of display artists deep in the heart of Belfast, who have been working on three new floats for this year’s Santa parade. Before starting to assemble the new Cinderella and The Tortoise and the Hare floats for the parade on Sunday, November 23, the team of three full-timers and two temporary workers read all the books on the popular characters.

“We want the floats to look like cartoon characters —>.not too savage," said the construction foreman, Mr John Bunker, who has been building floats for more than 30 years. Mr Bunker.started as a cabinetmaker at the former Hays Store — now F.T.C.. — and was later asked to make a few floats for the annual parade, which was then held on a Monday.

More than 30 floats had been accumulated in as many years since the parade’s humble beginnings with only two floats, said

Mr Bunker,. ' The’ display artists usually make two or three new floats a year, as well as’taking part in the parade dressed as characters in the stories they have helped to create. An additional float for Rainbow Bright, a popular children’s television cartoon character, has also been made this year, at the Belfast workshop in Radcliffe Road. This year, guest appearances will be made by Mickey and Minnie Mouse, as well as The Dog from the Footrot Flats cartoon by Murray

Ball.. - Mr Bunker said his part in the parade meant walk- > ing among the crowd. The looks of wonder and excitement on the . faces of hundreds of children is Mr Bunker’s reward along with the satisfaction of transforming fibreglass into a wellloved fable. This year’s parade will begin at 2 p.m. in Park Terrace, and will travel along Rolleston Avenue, Montreal Street and Armagh Street. The floats will then go back to storage for another year.