(Host) All over Vermont, Halloween events are under way or about to get underway. Lining up at this hour are the floats and bands for Rutland’s signature Halloween parade, which draws thousands to the downtown every year.
The Rutland High School art class float is always one of the highlights of the parade. Art teacher Steve Halford talked with VPR’s Steve Delaney about some of the class floats, past and present.
(Halford) “We had a deformed frog with happy insects dancing around him, when the frog issue came up about deformity. Consumerism gobbling up people, of course our famous dung beetle. All the errors that were being made locally ended up on a big ball of dung pushed along by a golden scarab.
(Delaney) “Always a point?”
(Halford) “Yes, as a teacher I like to jumpstart the kids thinking about these things.’
(Delaney) “How much can you tell me about what you’re up to this year?”
(Halford) “The theme is about what’s happening to young women as far as how the media portrays what they should look like, enhancing their breasts – all these things happened to them to get this image. And we’re trying to address that here.”
(Delaney) ‘You’ve got a big stage to put all that on because this parade has become quite the thing in town.”
(Halford) “Yeah it was a weird parade. You know it shocked people when it first, the first parade. It was because it was weird. And then it was like, people picked up on that and it just like, yeah weird is cool.”
(Delaney) “And now it’s become an institution.”
(Halford) “Hey, yeah – it’s fun. You spend six weeks making it and then 15 minutes and you gotta destroy it. It’s tough.”
(Delaney) “And thousands of people get to see it.”
(Delaney) “Yeah, and some people say we should explain more of what we’re doing, and I say no let people think about it – that’s the fun of it.”
(Host) Rutland art teacher Steve Halford talking with VPR’s Steve Delaney. The Rutland Halloween parade steps off at 6:30 Friday evening.