It’s Thursday and my fourth day in Belfast. With three work-days left until the parade, the giant puppets have embodied some really interesting shapes and sizes and styles. One of the most impressive has to be Philippe’s. On his puppet’s right arm, a beautifully crafted miniature monkey swings 360° from a structure made out of wood. In a similar vein, Isabelle’s puppet carries with it a small round box that pops open to reveal a Wallace and Gromit-style character, which seems to stare inquisitively back at me. As for Yan, in addition to his urinating puppet, a humorous wink at the most famous of Belgians; Manneken Pis, he has also managed to make a tiny horse made of metal, which gently rocks back and forth when poked. Irene, from the newly joined Bologna branch of the puppet family tree, has made a giant and elegant puppet wearing a tailor-made suit, complete with a small top hat, which she will use to approach and salute the public. Furthermore, all the puppets have one innovation in common. Their heads contain LED lights to brighten up the parade as it will promenade through the streets of East Belfast on what the weather forecast predicts will be a bitterly cold winter evening.

For my part, I am filled with wonderment at the creativity and skills of the Puppet Family. From very basic raw and reused materials, they have managed to create funny and funky creatures, which i have no doubt will entertain the crowds in an interactive game of look and see.

I leave the puppet makers for a while and join Sandra and Ricardo from the Compagnia dello Zucchero, based in Bologna, Italy. They are the video makers of the BelBoBru (BBB) project and are busy making an experimental video documentary called ‘Why, why, why not?’.

According to them, “Diversity and equality are the spirit of the three BelBoBru parades and the ‘leitmotif’ of our video project.”

“Different cultures, ethnic groups, social classes, ages and nationalities all work together and mix together throughout these parades. So the video camera will be there to observe and play with all that unfolds in front of its lens, in a kaleidoscope of colours, moods and friendships,” they write.

You can see some of their work here.

We hear a rumour that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is going to be at the old headquarters of the Beat Initiative to film a short piece on the drumming workshop and the volunteers from the Wandsworth Community Association youth group taking part in the parade. We rush to the scene in Matt’s van in search of the story. A drummer with the percussion group Beat ‘n’ Drum, Matt explains that although they play mostly Samba in his Belfast group, for the purposes of the BelBoBru project, they have built up a repertoire of mostly funk pieces with simple but effective grooves, which combine musical styles from as far afield as Brazil and North Africa.

We are the first to arrive and Damian has set out some of the distinctive bright green and red Boom Dang drums for tonight’s funky drummers. So you know, Boom Dang was first created by Therese Johnston and Dan Fox, who designed and manufactured the lightweight drums based on the Indian ‘Dhol’ drum, and gave it a western spin. The drums come in four sizes. They also have two skins. One skin is low, whilst the other high to give two sounds when played – a boom and a dang. Hence the onomatopoeic name; Boom Dang.

In this penultimate rehearsal before the big night, the excited young members of the Wandsworth Youth Group join their seasoned Beat ‘n’ Drum peers on the Boom Dang drums to create a truly loud, mind-blowing sound that reverberates round and around the Beat warehouse. It’s so loud in fact you can’t help but think people from the city centre will drop in just to find out what all the racket is about. But then that is the appeal of Boom Dang drumming. And by the end of this workshop, Sandra, Ricardo and I will have danced, nodded our heads and clapped our hands in time to the bold and funky rhythms of this most festive and carnival of music.

Beginning with an old favourite, ‘Funky Drummer’, and moving on to ‘Mangue Dang’, their own Brazilian Maracatu-inspired compositions, the group play simple and complex rhythm sequences with seamless transitions into different tempos and levels of intensity. At some points their performance is even visual as their routine includes sidestepping and jumps and pivots by the maestro himself; Damian. There are also accompanying high-hats and cymbals all specially adapted as attachments to the Boom Dang drums. And in a further funky twist. The Puppet Family have also created four special puppets incorporating cymbals, to head the merry band of funky drummers and lead the way of the Lantern Parade as it shines as a beacon of light in the cold, wintery night.