One of my favorite parts about living anywhere for some amount of time is getting to know the locals well enough to get the “inside scoop” on local happenings. This year, I have been lucky enough to meet Luisa, a retired art professor, but continuing artist. If you’ve been following along you might remember she hosted my first Italian brunch. Any way, Sagra Dell-uva floats are constructed entirely by volunteers and the teams usually consist of only of young adults. But since everyone likes Luisa because she is always smiling and because she is a fantastic artist, she helps during the construction.
The floats are constructed in a “secret” location and the ideas are well concealed from the public. But since Louisa is so great, and everyone working on the floats welcomed us with open arms, we got to watch the the floats in process over a couple of visits. After talking with a couple volunteers I learned that the city gives a couple grand to float team (which represents a certain area of the Marche region) for the construction. The teams only have a month to pick a concept, get the supplies and build. Each float must incorporate grapes into their design. Historically, the floats have stayed within the whole wine and harvest theme, but in more modern times, the teams have gotten more creative in thinking about how to incorporate grapes into other kinds of themes. (Last year’s giant christmas tree constructed of grapes was really impressive) On top of all this the teams have to come up with a short skit that is presented during the parade. It’s pretty impressive how much work goes into these floats in such a short period of time. From BBQ and drinks to glueing individual grapes on, they certainly know how to play hard and work hard at the same time.
Here are this year’s floats in order of their winnings.
First Place: The Little Mermaid
This was definitely by far my favorite float. As soon as I saw the wire construction for the massive Ursala, I knew it would be good. Plus I am a Disney geek, so they already had that up on everyone else in my book.
Who could ever resist that Ariel? hahaha. They even had a bubble machine coming from their float, it was amazing!
Second Place
Wish I could explain this better but I forgot to ask for a translation. This float has to do with poltical satire, and definitely wins for attention to detail. Luisa put some AMAZING time into this one.
Third Place: Halloween
Wins for being qwirky and artistic!
Fourth Place: Shrek
This little boy was my favorite part of the whole parade. He was bobbing his head to the club beats like he was the coolest kid in school and it was hilarious:
The sign translates to “One glass…one kiss”. hahaha. Oh you silly Italian men/ogres.
Fifth Place: Mayan Theme
It made me sad to see the float representing San Michele come in last, but you have to admit the other floats were pretty incredible. These guys still put a great amount of thought and effort into this one!
Amazing job to all the teams! Now I understand why you party on the float!
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