Building Fantasy Fest floats is a labor of love.

Participants spend countless hours working on them and some have spent in excess of $5,000 per float -- only to vie for a maximum cash prize of $500 and $100 prizes for the nine other awards.

Despite the small payout, float making and being in the parade -- Fantasy Fest's biggest event -- is addictive and seriously competitive, participants say. The reward does not come at the hands of the judges, but from the roar of the crowd, as they become Duval Street rock stars.

"You start off going through Truman Annex and along Whitehead Street and it is very dark," three-time float builder Nancy Chatelaine said. "Then there's that moment when you make that turn onto Duval Street and the street is all lit up and thousands of people are cheering. This is when you say 'This is the moment that makes it all worth it.' "

Fellow float builder and local artist Cayman Smith-Martin also sees that turn as the point where all the frustrations are forgotten and all the money spent out of pocket is worthwhile, sucking in him and his crew for one more year.

"It's that first turn," said Smith-Martin, who operates Lucky Seven Arts. "Your adrenaline just gets pumping ... It (the parade) brings out the entertainer in all of us."

Chatelaine and her husband, Richie, caught the float bug while watching the 2005 parade. The Big Pine Key couple had front-row seats and decided that it looked like so much fun that they had to get involved. Now they build floats for both the Fantasy Fest and Christmas parades.

Fantasy Fest and float building are a family tradition for Smith-Martin. His parents, Sunshine Smith and B.J. Martin, created a "Rocky Horror Picture Show" theme float for the first Fantasy Fest in 1979.

Chatelaine's and Smith-Martin's approaches represent two distinct styles of float making: big, flat-bed trucks versus costumed walking troupes.

The Chatelaines start with a Hummer and a flat-bed trailer in late August and fit it with 5,000 pounds of wood, metal and other parts to create their own "traveling little city," Richie Chatelaine said.

Even though it's a big endeavor, the Chatelaines like to keep the crew that builds the float to them and one other person.

"People start off all right, but then they start asking where rum is and stripping down to their skivvies," Richie Chatelaine said. "Then the angles are all off, and things aren't right."

Each year the couple chooses a sponsor to offset costs, even though they spend thousands more dollars than they bring in. Last year, the nonprofit animal group Raccoon Rescue sponsored their float and they became a moving safari of peacocks, foxes and other "Political Party Animals." Their work resulted in an award for best float by a nonprofit.

This year, they are sponsored by the Total Wellness Center, and let's just say the float will be stacked with "vivacious vixens," Nancy Chatelaine said. And for yet another year, they are scheduled to wrap up the parade with their float with its signature New Orleans-style jazz band.

"I think it's an honor," Nancy Chatelaine said. "We are the 'Ta Da' .... You turn around and there is all these people following you and dancing."

Smith-Martin, who has gained experience building props by creating the art for the inside of Margaritaville locations, has turned down sponsors and chosen not to have advertising banners on his props. He and his crew rely only on the generosity of friends in the art and music scene and whatever the curb provides.

Smith-Martin and his crew, who have constructed six floats since the late 1990s, leave their mark each year with signature stilt walkers, a kicking mobile sound system and large, cartoonish props. He starts with color sketches for all the props and characters, which can reach as many as 40 people.

"It is a total group effort," Smith-Martin said.

Smith-Martin and his crew encourage recycling, as it is greener and cheaper. They turn trash into oversized pieces of art, using old shopping carts, bikes and discarded cardboard, Styrofoam coolers and couch cushions.

Both Chatelaines and Smith-Martin make all their costumes from scratch, they said. All participants agree that the process to build floats and props and outfit the crews is just as much fun as the parade.

"The show is only the icing on the cake," Smith-Martin said

However, the job of monitoring floats may not be as fun. It can be quite a task, as Fantasy Fest has earned the reputation as an anything-goes event.

Madness monitoring resides with float coordinator Judi Bradford. Bradford keeps two files that no float maker wants to be in -- "bad examples" and "anticipated problems."

The bad example file contains floats that were poorly constructed, grossly inappropriate and display crude behavior, Bradford said. The anticipated problems file contains floats that are used only for blatant advertising purposes or done by groups that have been problems in the past, which means they have created problems or been too drunk, Bradford said.

Float rules also prohibit nudity or sexual activity. Political satire is welcome, but campaigning is not, Bradford said.

"We want floats to be fun and funny," Bradford said. "We want them to be naughty but not naked or pornographic."

tohara@keysnews.com