The Gabriel and Jee families are among the oldest, having been friends in the competition for decades.
This year, their Special Delivery float showcased a new generation, featuring two-month-old Clara and four-month-old Felix riding in separate bundles with a giant stork hanging over them.
The older members of the two families also worked on floats together, said Beth Gabriel, who is Felix’s aunt and Clara’s godmother.
Felix’s grandmother, who grew up participating in the Battle of Flowers, was responsible for the giant stork.
The whole project was three weeks in the making.
It was Hayley Le Page’s 14th year in the competition and she was hoping to take home a trophy after nabbing it 12 times in the past.
‘Lucky number 13,’ she said.
She picked Toy Story as her theme as she liked using children’s characters and thought it would be topical with Toy Story 5 out this year.
More than 3,000 flowers went into the design and she worked on her creation, with each flower having to be folded and stapled on, for the past six weeks.
Sisters Bella and Haley Alderton rode in Ocean Magic, a ride decorated with sea-themed paraphernalia which had taken three weeks to build.
This year they decided to go big and drop Dolly the pony, who has pulled their float for the last few years.
It was their fifth year in the competition and, despite the upgrade, they said only the last few days had been ‘slightly chaotic’, with the octopus especially taking up their time.
Steve Torode, Liz Naftel and family unveiled three impressive floats, though one stood out for being the first rollercoaster ever seen at the North Show.
Mr Torode said it took 10 days to build their floats, ‘all of us together as a family’.
He has been involved in the Battle of Flowers since 1982 and had noticed a lot of changes since that time, back when floats used real flowers and were very, very big.
‘But the quality is still as good,’ he said.
His family got together often to make flowers during the winter. As farmers, he said winter tended to be quieter, which meant many Sunday lunches spent making flowers together with the whole family round.
Edie, his seven-month-old niece, rode on the octopus wheelbarrow and the float called ‘Edie’s fairy garden’.
Meanwhile the family also showed off a rollercoaster float made entirely of recyclable materials.
Amy Le Prevost is a big Mario fan. Having gifted her children a Nintendo Switch so they could play it, she thought a Mario-themed float would suit them.
The design took a while, but she said building it was the real effort.
Building Mario at the centre of the float was a unique challenge. In her nine years of competition, she had never designed human dimensions. ‘Very tricky,’ she said.
Still, the figure was built after many nights with family and friends.
Nigel and Fiona Troalic, alongside their daughter Poppy and Denise Elliott, worked together for 10 days on their floats.
They praised the competition and advised people to get involved in any way they could.
‘You do it once and you catch the bug,’ said Mrs Troalic.
They suggested starting off with smaller floats, then getting more ambitious as the years go by. All it might take is one small float, they said, to join a great community.
This year they showed off a mini tractor and a sandcastle on wheels, among other floats. Poppy drove the tractor.
‘It’s really fun,’ she said.
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