Float and Inflatables Grounded for K-Days Parade

The $80,000 balloon was filled with helium and sailed above the crowd for its maiden voyage at the 2012 event, but this year it will be pumped up with cold air and pulled on a platform, city spokeswoman Melissa Lovatt says.

“We just felt the weather has been so unpredictable in the last month or two, and we have had really strong wind gusts that come up really suddenly,” she said Thursday.

“We didn’t want to have to abandon it being in the parade … This was a more consistent alternative.”

The float will travel on a 15-centimetre-high platform, similar to what was used to carry it in last month’s Pride Parade, pulled by about 16 people.

The 10 other inflatable entries in the parade will also be filled with cold air and carried in some way, to avoid paying for helium and so the floats are easier to manage under obstacles, Northlands spokeswoman Kathy Kiss said.

Although world helium supplies were tight in 2012, Lovatt said that isn’t a problem in Edmonton this summer.

Staff at the parade will hand out up to 1,500 party balloons filled from tanks of the recycled lighter-than-air gas provided by the University of Alberta.

The 11-metre-long city float includes green for the river valley, blue for the river, about a dozen large spheres to mark Edmonton cultural groups and a translucent pyramid representing the Muttart Conservatory and City Hall.

It was sent back to the manufacturer in Windsor, Ont., for repairs last summer because some of the painted decorations peeled off after the parade, Lovatt said.

The dark green lower level was removed and the remaining three bottom pieces had painted colours replaced with laser screening before returning to Edmonton in January, she said.

In addition to the Pride Parade, it was displayed at City Hall on Canada Day. Next month, the float is scheduled to be pulled in the Cariwest Parade and might be shown off at Heritage Days.

Lovatt hopes it can still be inflated with helium and soar up to seven metres in the air at an Edmonton Eskimos game or other Commonwealth Stadium event, where there’s more room to manoeuvre.

“This will be the first full season, and we want to create a long-term plan to put it in as many events as possible.”

She’s not disappointed it won’t be travelling overhead Friday, although she doesn’t know if it will ever float at an Edmonton parade again.

“We’re going to see how this is received with the platform and how people look at it, whether it’s more accessible or if people like it more with helium,” she said.

“From our perspective, we really just want people to enjoy it. We want as many people to see it and experience it as possible. If this is the most secure, assured way of doing it, we’re happy to do that.”

The 60-kilogram creation, about four metres high and seven metres wide, folds down to the size of a large tent.

It took five years to come up with a replacement for the last city float.

That structure, a domed greenhouse, rotating oil rig and miniature Fort Edmonton over a truck cab that marked the city’s 2004 centennial, was dismantled because there wasn’t anywhere to store it.

Coun. Kim Krushell, who spearheaded the project, said people wanted a float and the inflatable was a cheaper alternative.

“The balloon is designed to do either (helium or air),” she said.

“The concern I had with helium was with the weather we’ve had lately, if there was a big storm brewing it could be trouble with the trolley wires. We don’t want entanglement.

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