Calgary business busy building floats for Stampede Parade

The owner of Foam Works in Calgary is getting together five floats for Friday's Stampede Parade.

Foam Works, which builds large parade floats, is busy getting ready for the premiere event of the Calgary Stampede on Friday.

“We’ve got quite a number of floats in the parade,” said Foam Works owner Nick Bellemore.

“We’ve got five additions this year, including some community associations and some companies.”

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The company will help construct three new floats while revamping two others. A few of their clients are YYC Airport, Calgary Marathi Society and Stampede Moving & Storage.

“I love float season because of how creative we get to be,” said Bellemore. “This is usually the time of year where we really get to think outside of the box.”

Hours go into making the complex projects come to life before they are sent along the parade route.

For the Calgary Marathi Society, more than 250 hours of work were involved.

The project includes a beaver playing field hockey and a tiger playing hockey.

“We’ve got the Indian culture and the Calgary culture combining,” said Bellemore. “There is really no limitations in what we can build.”

For the Calgary Marathi Association, the parade provides the opportunity to “display the diversity of India and cultural aspects of India.”

“This is that one day when we get to bring India onto this large stage and showcase that to fellow Calgarians. It’s a great cultural exchange opportunity for us,” said Rohan Sankhe, the director of special events at the Calgary Marathi Association.

This is the association’s fifth year in the parade but it will be it’s first with a float.

“Very happy that we have a 12-foot tall float. It kind of talks about the beautiful similarities between the Canadian culture and the Indian culture,” said Sankhe.

The parade won’t be the only place where their foam projects will be spotted. CrossIron Mills has a big lasso set up, which it built with Miles Display and Design, while several sculptures of theirs will be on the Stampede grounds.

The Calgary Stampede parade will be broadcast on CTV Calgary and Crave, as well as livestreamed on CTV Calgary’s website and on YouTube and TikTok, beginning at 9 a.m.