Carpenter has experience building magic

Bard of Avon will never be the same
January 9, 2015
Mardi Gras 101: What you should know
January 9, 2015
Bard of Avon will never be the same
January 9, 2015
Mardi Gras 101: What you should know
January 9, 2015

Galliano-based carpenter Geordie Adams made T-shirts for he and his helpers many moons ago. On the back, the shirts listed all of the things that he and his team are capable of building.

“It has this big, long list,” Adams said with a laugh. “It was supposed to show customers all of the wide list of things that we could do for them. But it turns out that when we made the shirts, we forgot something that we’re good at building, too.”

That “something” would be building Mardi Gras floats. Adams constructed a pair of floats last spring for the Golden Meadow Carnival Club.


The experience took a few weeks, and was a challenge to Adams, who said that building floats wasn’t like anything he’d ever been asked to build.

But the entire project was an unquestioned success for the carpenter, who said that he’s received praise from both parade riders and partygoers who have seen his floats in action and like the way they look.

“Oh, I got a ton of compliments,” Adams said. “All of the people at the parade took pictures of the floats as they passed, and they came back and told me that I did a great job. It was cool to hear that people enjoyed the work that we did.”


For Adams, the process of making a Mardi Gras float wasn’t overly difficult. He said he was hired to build the frame for the two floats – mammoth structures that tower over the other floats that are currently used in the Golden Meadow parades.

He said his biggest goal throughout the construction process was making sure that the floats were sturdy and well-build – fully able to handle the thousands of pounds of both human mass and beads that reside in them for a parade.

Mission accomplished.


Adams said the finished product was a gem, touting that he and his helpers used several hundreds of pounds of screws to make sure everything was secure.

Once the shell was made, Ms. Marilyn Williams-Blanchard swooped in and worked her magic. She and her kids canvased the wood and gave it the Mardi Gras spirit by adding color.

Adams said building Mardi Gras floats is big business, and that several thousands can be spent when one factors in labor, supplies and everything else that goes into it.


But it was a joy to the Galliano man who said he’d build more in the future, if asked.

“If I could do just floats, I’d do that,” Adams said with a laugh. “I had fun with it. It was a fun experience. It was something different. We really enjoyed it.”


Galliano-based carpenter Geordie Adams spent years building Mardi Gras floats for the Golden Meadow Carnival Club.

COURTESY