FCC last built a float for the July 4th parade back in 2005. (You can see a video of that float in the “Our History” page of this website.) Led by our 350 Fund mission statement, we were determined this year to reach out to the wider community. Along with our project offering water and bathroom facilities to all parade goers, we decided to again build a float for the July 4th parade. The journey from idea to finished product was eventful — mostly filled with kind people offering their time, their skills and their hard work to turn the idea of our church into a message that would reach out to the thousands of people lining the parade route.
The idea to again build an FCC float for Bristol’s Fourth of July parade was raised at the launch of the 350 Fund on Pentecost 2024. Only this time we were determined to design the float to be used year after year, taken apart for storage in the church basement and reassembled each July. Member and architect Alan Berry immediately stepped up with an offer to design a “to scale” model of the historic Norman sanctuary and bell tower, the first “stone church” in Bristol. Here are a few pics of the transition from design to raw plywood, timber and paint on the lawns and in the basement of the church, to a fully built float standing proud on the flatbed.
ELJ Construction, Inc. kindly agreed to provide a truck, driver and flatbed. Then a construction team, painting team, decorators, and marchers were all recruited. The lawn and basement of the church were chosen as the best site to build the float.
Once the platform, frame and lightweight panels had been cut and assembled, the team of painters got to work. Rolling on primer and top coat, detailing every roofing slate, sponging on every stone, painting in every window pane and doorway.
One by one, the panels were completed.
The walls, the bell tower, the roofing, the buttresses, the platform on which the entire structure would sit.
Banners were designed and made by Hill House Graphics. Flags, buntings and Astroturf were purchased. Everyone worked hard for several weeks in June to build, paint, haul all the pieces of the float up out of the basement to assemble on the flatbed, and finally to decorate the flatbed.
And early on the morning of July 4th, an imposing model of our church rolled away on its flatbed trailer from the grounds of the church to join the 33 other floats, the marching bands, the town dignitaries and all of the other hundreds of marchers who made up the hours-long parade that moved along the red, white and blue center lines of Hope and High streets on a bright, sunny day following a night of intense thunder storms on July 3.
Here is a video of the FCC float as it slowly moved along the parade route, led by our stalwart banner holders, Sam and Brady, and our team of marchers. Many thanks to everyone who created this church float and marched along with it on July 4th!