The theme of this year’s Texas Cavaliers River Parade is “Fantastic Voyages,” and on Thursday, the Fiesta-tied organization led media on a journey through the glitzy barges that will make their debut at the annual event.
The “Fantastic Voyages” theme is woven into each float by New Orleans-based design firm Kern Studios, famous for creating those used in Mardi Gras parades. During this Monday’s parade, the vessels will carry members of community groups and children’s charities along with celebrities and local officials down the San Antonio River. The event starts at 7 p.m.
“This year, we’ve got a lot of new, fun special effects elements like the new smoke cannon, which will be a lot of fun,” Kern Studios Director of Operations Patrick Kern told the Current. “Every year, you just try to think of ways to kind of elevate it, and we saw where we could definitely beef it up a little bit in terms of adding some fun new aspects. So electrical was kind of where we went heavy and got a lot of new special effects and lighting.”
That’s right, San Antonio, a “new smoke canon” is part of the show. The contraption features a large plastic barrel modified to propel smoke rings from a fog machine. Many of the barges feature handcrafted animal and vehicle sculptures as well as thousands of paper flowers.
“It definitely engages the crowd,” Kern said of the smoke.
The Cavaliers and its charitable foundation organize the parade as a fundraiser for programs benefitting local children. This year’s beneficiary is Rise Recovery, which offers no-cost drug and alcohol rehabilitation services.
This year’s parade will feature 58 boats and entertain about 25,000 spectators, River Parade Marshal Gregory D. Seay said. This year’s grand marshal, Brigadier General Charles Duke, in April 1972 became the youngest man to walk on the moon.
“As of [Thursday], we have about 1,500 tickets left, and ticket sales are going very, very well,” Seay added. “I’ve been a member of the Texas Cavaliers for 13 years, and being parade marshal, you see a whole new side of things … there’s a lot more responsibility. But the good thing about our organization is we have a little over 600 members, and we have hundreds of people that come down and put in thousands of man hours of volunteer time to make [the parade] happen.”
Tickets start at $18 and are available online.
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This article appears in Apr 19 – May 2, 2023.
