Families that play together…

Options exist for prospective bead-throwers to roll along a parade route without forking over hundreds of dollars each year toward club dues.

That opportunity, however, requires either a sizeable investment up-front or a connection with someone else willing to take the plunge.

Matt Adams is one of four owners of a float in the Krewe of Versailles. Adams said the cost for independent float ownership is an initial investment ranging from $10-15,000, depending on whether the float is purchased or newly built.

All 20 floats in Versailles, also known as “The Larose Day Parade,” are independently owned. Adams said it keeps the riding costs down versus bigger clubs in the area and allows float owners flexibility in everything but adherence to the club theme.

“Versailles comes up with a theme and each float picks a theme within there,” Adams said. “We all decorate our floats like we want. You don’t see the same thing every year.

“You have a lot more say so. You can say who rides on your float and who doesn’t if you have drama.”

Rider dues vary from float to float, with each member required to pay $150 in club dues. Float dues for Adams’ ride are set at $100, which covers decorations, parties and repairs.

“If there is a downside, it’s maintenance,” Adams said.

Yearly upkeep includes new paint and decorations to abide by the club’s annual theme and regular monitoring and replacement of tires, axles, boards and anything else that may become frayed.

Once upon a time, prospective riders paid a $50 fee to enroll their pick-up truck in the Krewe of Kajuns, a Fat Tuesday Houma parade that follows the Krewe of Houmas.

Although the conventional trucks are no longer allowed, and although the Krewe of Kajuns rents floats from the Krewe of Hercules, prospective members are still invited to enlist their own double-decker rides.

“It’s just that there’s no point in not allowing them to do it,” said Darlene East, parade co-captain.

The 2012 self-entry fee is upwards of $900 to compensate for insurance coverage but well below the $2,000 per rental-float cost, East said. The entry fee is typically divided among float riders.

The amount of individually owned floats in the Krewe of Kajuns has dwindled over time n only two floats are independently owned, as compared to the full fleet when the club began in 1966.

“There used to be more, but as time has gone on, some of those people sold their floats and they started renting Hercules’ floats,” East said.

Still often referred to as “The Truck Parade,” Kajuns membership is open to men, women and children.

On the other end of the spectrum, clubs that rent their floats to other groups typically don’t accept independently owned floats to their parades.

Paul Chauvin, parade captain for the Krewe of Terreanians, said his club will finance float construction for a group of new riders, but the float must remain under club control.

Terreanians, which will roll for its 62nd time this year, has always operated that way, Chauvin said, so that riders cannot use the leverage of pulling a float out of the parade.

“It can allow them to hold the club hostage,” he said. “It’s just been a tradition that Terreanians has always owned its own floats.”

Terreanians rents its floats to the Krewe of Aquarius and becomes an insurance writer for the all-female crew. Aquarius is responsible for the floats once they depart from and until they return to the Terreanians’ den.

The Krewe of Bayou Petit Caillou, which runs during the first Saturday of the season in Chauvin, is another club with truck-parade roots that accepts individually owned floats.

Becky Foret, the Bayou Petit Caillou tableau chairperson, said her husband inherited his float from his father. The family has used two previous floats throughout its 21-year riding history.

Redecoration is a yearly cost to the family of $200, and everything else depends on wear and tear.

“Every year, we make sure all the wood and axles and tires are all still good,” Foret said. “Mainly, this year we probably just have to change a couple of boards on the sides. Some years, you don’t have to change anything.”