10 Most Incredible Flower Festivals Around the World
Flower festivals are celebrated all over the world and almost
around the year. Even as I write this one such festival is taking place
in India, the Malabar Flower Festival, and another scheduled to start
later this month. The Kegworth Flower Festival is underway in Derby,
England, and a dozen other places are preparing for theirs in the coming
weeks. Here we present 10 most fascinating display of flowers in
different parts of the world.
Bloemencorso
The
Bloemencorso, a Dutch word which means "flower parade", are held in many
towns in the Netherlands and Belgium. In a parade of this kind the
floats, cars and in some cases boats are magnificently decorated or
covered in flowers. Each parade has its own character, charm and theme.
Zundert holds the largest flower parade in the world.
The parade
takes place on the first Sunday of September. The floats are large
artworks made of steel wire, cardboard, papier-mâché and flowers. In the
Bloemencorso Zundert, only dahlias are used to decorate the objects and
it takes thousands of them just to cover one float.
The huge
floats are made by twenty different hamlets and each of them consists of
hundreds of builders, aged 1 to 100, who are all equally crazy about
the bloemencorso. The older members of the hamlet are often responsible
for planting and growing the dahlias, while the younger ones build the
float in large temporary tents that are built exclusively for the event.
Jersey Battle of Flowers
The
Jersey Battle of Flowers is an annual carnival held in the Channel
Island of Jersey in the second Thursday of August. The festival consists
of music, funfairs, dancers, majorettes and a parade of flower floats
alongside various street entertainers.
The 'Battle' itself
originally consisted of dismantling the floats to provide floral
ammunition for a literal battle of flowers between participants and
spectators, but this aspect has long been abandoned. Since 1989, a
nighttime Moonlight Parade with the floats festooned in lights has been
introduced. The Moonlight parade ends with a large fireworks display.
Spalding Flower Parade
The
Spalding Flower Parade held in Spalding, Lincolnshire, began life as a
celebration to mark the Jubilee of King George V and Queen Mary in 1935
and focused predominantly on tulips, which were abundant at the time. In
the following years, the event grew to involve an entire week dedicated
to the beauty of tulips and ‘Tulip Week’ was born, involving a 25 mile
walk and tour designed to show off the best growers in the area.
In
1959, the first official Spalding Tulip Parade took place and showcased
many beautiful floats decorated with tulips heads that had been stored
specifically for this purpose. Each float could use up to 100,000 flower
heads and within a few years the event had attracted worldwide
attention.
Genzano Infiorata Flower Festival
Each
year, during the month of June, local artists cover the entire street
of Belardo with a floral carpet with patterns inspired by religious art,
shapes and famous paintings. For more than 2 centuries (from 1778) on
Sunday and Monday following Corpus Christus feast the Infiorata a most
suggestive manifestation of art, pride of the artists of Genzano has
taken place. Each year the artists suggestions must conform to a
previously agreed upon theme, such as The Colours of Michelangelo, or
The Designs of Bernini. The carpet stays for two full days. On the third
day, their work is demolished by local schoolchildren, who are
permitted to wreak havoc!
Brussels' Flower Carpet
The
Brussels' Flower Carpet is a special event that comes every two years.
During this event a huge carpet of flower is laid out on the main square
in Brussels in front of the City Hall. The festivities started on the
evening of August 12 and the flower carpet was opened for public view on
August 13 and will remain open till August 15. The viewing is free, but
if you want a better view, you can pay 3 Euros to go up one of the
buildings to get a panoramic view.
Batalla de Flores, Valencia
Batalla
de Flores is celebrated in Valencia, Spain, to mark the end of the
month long Feria de Julio, a traditional fiesta of various cultural and
entertainment events. It starts with a long parade of enormous and
gorgeous floats pulled by horses and filled with young girls dressed to
the theme of the float. Once the floats have made a couple of rounds
around the route, the battle breaks out. The onlookers and the float
crews pelt flowers on each other and generally make merry. The girls
even equip themselves with tennis rackets to defend the attack.
Battaglia di Fiori, Ventimiglia
La
Battaglia dei Fiori or the Battle of Flowers is held once every two
years in Ventimiglia. This festival is a celebration of the Spring where
the communities that make up Ventimiglia compete to create the best
most extravagant float to be judged during a parade. These floats are
made almost entirely out of flowers, and there can be as many as 80,000
flowers on a float.
The floats parade around the town on two days.
The first is a night parade, with dancing, music and food. Everything
culminates in a spectacular fireworks while the floats are repaired and
touched up ready for the following day. The next day, float girls climb
aboard their communities entries, bands fire up, dancers and
entertainers pour out onto the street. The parade loops around the town
two or three times, at which point everyone in the parade starts
showering the crowd in flowers.
Festival of the Flowers, Medellin
The
Feria de Las Flores or Flower Festival the city of Medellin hosts a
week-long schedule of events and festivities including the world famous
parade of silleteros. The first Festival of the Flowers took place on
May 1, 1957 and lasted for five days with an exposition of flowers
displayed in the Metropolitan Cathedral to celebrate Virgin Mary day.
This flower parade represents the end of slavery when instead of flowers
slaves carried men and women on their backs up steep hills. Since then,
other events have been added like the International Pageant of the
Flowers, the cavalcade, Guiness Records in 1996 and 1999, classic
automobiles parade, Orchids exposition, among others.
Pasadena Rose Parade
The
Rose Parade, is "America's New Year Celebration" held in Pasadena,
California, a festival of flower-covered floats, marching bands,
equestrians and the Rose Bowl college football game on New Year's Day.
Originally started on January 1, 1890, the Rose Parade is watched in
person by hundreds of thousands of spectators on the parade route, and
is broadcast on multiple television networks in the United States.
Several
floats made of flowers with whimsical themes are paraded on the streets
to be judged. Aside from flower parades there are bands performing
music, a horse parade and a beauty queen contest.
Chiang Mai Flower Festival
The
Chiang Mai Flower Festival takes place on the first weekend of
February. The flower beds in public spaces all around the town are
especially beautiful at this time of year. Everywhere there can be found
gorgeous displays of yellow and white chrysanthemums, and the Damask
Rose, a variety found only in Chiang Mai. Also, the pink and purplish
Dendrobium orchids, and the yellow Daoruang. The real focus of this
Chiang Mai festival, however, is the public garden of Suan Buak Haad on
the south-western corner of the moat.
In some ways the best part
of the Flower Festival is the Flower Festival Parade. The flower parade
gaily decorated floats, pretty girls, and hill tribe people in their
colorful costumes moves very slowly down the streets and stops
frequently. Dancers in traditional costumes perform Thai dances, and
those taking part in the flower parade hand out roses to the spectators.
