(Tyler Williams)

Blaring music could be heard around the corner of North Central Expressway and SMU Boulevard as students teamed up to build floats for Saturday’s Homecoming parade.

Although students are not dancing and singing to Broadway songs, they are decorating their floats in keeping with the Student Foundation’s 2010 Homecoming theme of “Broadway on the Boulevard.”

Students from an array of organizations entered into a week of chaos at 6200 N. Central Expressway as they have been building and decorating their floats. The theme is Broadway Musicals, which include, among others, “Hairspray,” “Wicked” and “Mary Poppins.”

The sounds of sawing, hammering, singing and laughing competed with the voices of students as they created their floats Wednesday night.

“It’s really fun—slightly overwhelming, but fun, and a lot of work,” said freshman Lauren McKaig, a member of The Union.

Homecoming chairs selected options for float themes and then each one had his or her organization vote on their favorite pick.

Senior member of Pi Beta Phi sorority and one of the homecoming chairs, Cassie Nelson said, “We wanted to have our musical be an original Broadway musical, not a movie that was made into a musical.”

Although “Mamma Mia” was not on Pi Phi’s original list, it did not stop them from having fun.

The girls sang and danced while they “pomped.”

Pomping consists of poking tissue paper through chicken wire and is how all floats are decorated for Homecoming.

“We want it to be the best it can be. We want an impressive float for our alumnae as well as SMU alumni,” said Leigh Dodson,  senior member of Pi Phi and Homecoming chairs.

Sophomore member of Delta Gamma sorority, Ali Fagan, said, “It’s really just a great opportunity to bond with my sisters.”

However, it is not all fun and games for the guys, who are responsible for the manual labor, which includes building the floats’ frame.

“Building the whole structure on time is very difficult,” said J.K. Jauregui, senior member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. “It’s fun though; it sucks it’s only once a year.”

Ford Binning, a junior member of SAE, said, “It is great to get together and achieve something. You really feel accomplished after you build something.”

Most students do not realize how much time and effort goes into the float-building process.

“It is very time consuming,” Dodson said. “You have to balance school and then get everything done for the float.”

Another student, Hunter Brown, Homecoming chair for Sigma Phi Epsilon, found other difficulties in float building.

 “The hardest part is getting the electronics on the float to work,” he said.

Binning, holding a hammer and nail, disagreed with Brown.

“Pomping is the hardest,” he said.

Though float building can be difficult, Brown said, “the best part is watching it all happen and come together. Everyone has been working so hard.”

Float building began on Sunday at 2 p.m. and must be completed by 8 p.m tonight.

The floats will then be judged from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday before the parade begins.