Fewer bands, but more floats.

That what awaits those who turn out to watch Saturday’s 224th Bristol Fourth of July Parade, a celebration taking place in a recession-weary America.

Two Mummers bands couldn’t commit to Bristol because of financial issues, according to parade chairwoman Judith Squires.The bands hail from Philadelphia and are renowned for their elaborate costumes and Dixieland-style music played with strings, bells, woodwinds, accordions, keyboard and percussion, but no brass.

“They couldn’t afford to come up here,” she said.

The total number of bands is 17, down from 24 last year, said Squires. But the number of floats is up to 26, compared with 20 last year.

Most float sponsors return annually with a new design. But there are several groups that have entered floats for the first time. One of them is the Rhode Island Tea Party, a taxpayers group.

“I said we should have a float in the parade,” said treasurer Marina Peterson, who lives in Bristol.

The group didn’t get started until the middle of May, but still managed to raise $1,600 and bring together 30 volunteers to build a wooden replica of the Beaver, the British ship ransacked by Colonists during the Boston Tea Party to protest taxes. The float was assembled in donated space at the Bristol Industrial Park.

Peterson and Helen Glover, the conservative Rhode Island talk show host, will be aboard the float, along with four men dressed as patriots pretending to dump tea overboard.

Now, says Squires, parade organizers are eager for the lousy weather to give way to sunshine.

“It’s certainly been a concern. Every day, I keep looking, and I probably shouldn’t, at the extended forecast,” she said. But, she added, “The parade goes off rain or shine.”

— Richard Salit