Surprise falls at Christmas parade.
Snow wasn’t in the forecast, but those who went to the Plant City Christmas Parade got a surprise when they saw snowfall on the 69-degree night. The two instigators of the weather outside were Casper Geist, owner of Dixie Station Tattoo, and Skip Sampson, his friend, and tattoo artist at the shop.
The two had made it snow previously in Ybor City and Brandon. “Since Casper had the chance to open this place, it was an idea we both had to do this out here,” Sampson said. “Now we’re right here in downtown.”
Fire Flower Candles, Blooms & Brews Garden, and Angelina’s Deli are other businesses near the corner of Martin Luther King, Jr Blvd and Collins St. “Everybody on the block are friends,” Geist said. “We all get along. We all work together to do things. The whole block does; natural disasters, special events, we all get together to do something together.”
“Broken Beaver is starting to open, so we had the block to be able to put this on,” Sampson added. “What kid doesn’t want to see a snow in Florida? All of us from up north are used to it. But the kids are going to remember it. Even the adults will.”
Snow machines can cost anywhere between $100 and $400, plus the trigger mechanism. Broken Beaver and Dixie Station sponsored the machines. “You know the things you use to get Dial soap out?” Geist said. “It is just a big, expensive one of those with a fan.”
“They are just normal snow machines,” Sampson added. “These are brand new. I only used four machines for what we accomplished.” Previous machines the two used weighed 90 pounds when full of the solution. The machines used on Friday weigh a tenth of old models.
“We make the formula to get the kind of snowfall we want,” Geist said.
“The saturation, the thickness, whether it is a flurry, or whether it is heavy; we can change all of that,” Sampson said. “We can make it accumulate just a little bit. It just depends on the mixture. It is non-toxic, to make sure no one gets sick from it, and it doesn’t stain anything.”
Robert Reed, co-owner of Broken Beaver made his roof available to join in on the fun. The set-up crew worked up on the rooftops of Broken Beaver, Angelina’s, and Dixie Station the whole day, setting up, running electricity, and placing drop ports where they might want to use the machines. They tested the snow machines inside Dixie Station so people wouldn’t suspect snow in the forecast during the parade.
Tattoo artist Bryce McNally helped operate the machines. “There were four machines, and it takes three guys turning them on and turning them off at the right time, filling the machines, and re-aiming them,” Geist said. “There were times when we stopped, then started again, depending on what was happening or how much it was starting to accumulate.” When the machines began shooting out the snow, it filled the air at the corner at MLK and Collins.
“We were on the roof the whole time, so we didn’t get to see anything,” Sampson said. “We were just trying to coordinate which direction the snow was going, deal with the wind, and deal with the amount.” However, friends sent videos to Sampson and Geist. “One kid screamed, ‘It’s snowing in Florida!’” Sampson said. “It was best. The coolest part is the surprise of it all. Nobody really expects to see that. When it snows in Florida, the kids are not going to forget that. That is why I do it.”
“The next day at church, people were telling me how they came from two blocks over to be in the snow,” Geist said. “We love our community, and want to put out as much good into the community as possible.”
Sampson is already thinking about future Plant City events. “The amount that you can make with the right sponsorship and the right amount of machines, I could do three quarters of the downtown,” he commented. “They do it at Disney. They do it at Busch Gardens, so why not here?”
