The easiest way to describe Carnivale is basically as the early-spring Halloween. Everyone is dressed up as their favorite movie character or animal, there’s food vendors with sweet treats barely visible due to the mass of kids surrounding them, and colorful decorations line the streets symbolizing the occasion. In reality however, Carnivale is much more chaotic and definitely much more fun. Instead of kids running from house to house trick-or-treating, kids are given huge bags of confetti and cans of silly string to run around and attack each other with. It’s basically a little mini war with everyone eventually becoming a casualty, marked by silly string on your leg or a bag of confetti dumped in your hair. The real masterpiece of Carnivale though, are the massive floats for the main parade. People will spend the entire year building these floats that easily take up the width of the street and are as long as 18-wheelers. Each one full of colorful characters and amazing artwork. You’d think these floats couldn’t get any better, however when the parade starts, you are quickly proved wrong. The floats will stay in one section of the street and perform their show. The characters that looked stationary will soon rise taller than the buildings around them, music will blast, telling the story of the float, and hidden surprises will pop out from seemingly nowhere. It isn’t like a traditional parade, where the floats are constantly moving. The works of art will stay still for their ten minute show and then proceed on down the street where they will amaze and captivate thousands of other people. Some even will focus on current event issues that plague our world. For instance, two floats this year were about the dark sides of social media and one was about climate change. This event felt like it came out of a movie. I was there only the first day, but this festival goes on for two weeks straight, everyday most likely more exciting then the last.