Blossom Festival committee plans more ‘traditional' style parade

Adding more colour: Blossom festival committee member Kylie Switalla, of Alexandra, displays the crepe paper blooms that will be more prevalent on this year’s festival floats.

After feedback from the public, the festival procession will be revamped this year and festival chairman Steve Battrick said changes would ensure the parade retained its ‘‘traditional qualities''.

The festival event managers are Project Excel and project manager Selar Henderson said the festival committee would help match community groups with businesses to encourage float-building.

‘‘Some feature of the float must include paper flowers, however large or small,'' he said.

This year's festival will open on September 27 with the float procession and conclude with the WoolOn creative fashion awards on October 4.

The content of the procession will change, with more emphasis on entertainment for spectators and more simplified categories for floats.

Mr Henderson said the changes were to encourage more community groups to take part.