Bloomfloat

This article was created as an entry for a Summer Camp prompt! That means this article may be a rough draft, incomplete, or may not fully align with the world's lore. If you want to see this developed in the future, let me know!

PLEEEEEASE can we ride the bloomfloat this year? Please, please, pretty please, with a sunflower on top?

— How could a parent say no to that?

The bloomfloat is a special parade float that comes out during the Festival of Blooms in Iverra.

Coated in Florals

The Festival of Blooms is filled with fun pop-up events throughout its celebratory period, and parades are one that the denizens of Iverra love to get involved with the most! Individual parade floats come in all shapes and sizes, but the bloomfloat is among the largest and most recognizable, returning each year with marvelous new displays and tricks!

When the Festival of Blooms first started to hold its parades, they were a small-scale affair with most activity taking place purely on foot. Parade floats weren't exactly a consideration for quite some time, until folks started feeling like they wanted to make a real spectacle out of these little events! Wagons were the first step; hauling product and samples was much easier if you could pull them along behind you, rather than wearing them all on your back! When even the wagons seemed to overflow, then came the development of wheeled platforms that afforded much more space. Eventually, folks realized they could ride on top of them, and a push for even larger platforms started to come about.

With much iteration and creativity, the first bloomfloats started to hit the streets, funded by the city's finest.

The Wizard's Bloomfloat

A bloomfloat is typically reserved for the most influential members of Iverra's local community, such as the wizard of Brightfield! While the Brightfield Wizard is already well known for his spectacular Bloomburst show at the end of the festival, presenting a special bloomfloat during parades is a fun way for the wizard to get some practice in and display some showmanship skill throughout the event leading up to the closing ceremony.

Getting in the Springtime Spirit

Other businesses and community figures have their own bloomfloats as well; this is an amazing opportunity for these groups to show their best and brightest sides and celebrate their communities! It's common for business-led bloomfloats to send free samples into the crowd and to humbly advertise or launch new products and services with all eyes on them. WIth most businesses having their own "official" flowers and color schemes, bloomfloats are often instantly recognizable and highlight established branding with festive flair.

As a fun little community involvement activity, bloomfloats often invite town residents to ride along and share their community spirit. This practice is highly sought after by local kids who love being the center of attention for just a little while, often getting to be silly up on the floats and hand out festival favors as they move along.

Don't worry! They're being supervised, so they won't fall off.

— Bloomfloat minder's reassurance