Flower competition (Bloemen Corso) in the Netherlands (20/04)

In April, the Netherlands hosts one of the most beautiful and spectacular festivals in the world, the – Parade of Flowers (Bloemen Corso). This is a real hurricane of spring that takes you into a colorful world of dreams, flowers and sun.

According to tradition, the flower procession, starting at 9 am in Noordwijk, is a large festive column, which consists of flower-decorated cars, huge mobile flower installations and a large flow of people. Throughout the entire 42 kilometers of travel, all this beauty is accompanied by a costume show, music, songs and dances.

Florists spend millions of tulips, roses, hyacinths and other flowers to create giant traveling sculptures depicting people, animals, fairy-tale and fantastic characters. This work begins two to three days before the holiday. Designers and florists think through the compositions of the sculptures and their color scheme in advance, make special frames with lighting and attach buds to them, bringing the planned images to life. Anyone can take part in this exciting creative process: as a rule, there is a lot of work, and the help of volunteers is welcome.

The main parade takes place on Saturday. From Noordwijk, the flower procession heads along a pre-designed route that passes through Hillegom, Lisse and other cities hosting holiday concerts, finishing at 9 pm in Harlem. The route may change slightly from year to year, but the world famous royal flower park Kekenhof, located near Lisse, always remains a mandatory destination. It occupies 32 hectares of land and is famous for its flowers, especially its large tulip clearings. Here you can see 4.5 million tulips of 100 different varieties!

Along the way, numerous local orchestras, amateur and professional folk groups, groups of athletes, football teams, charitable societies, and cultural foundations constantly join the festive motorcade. All this is accompanied by beautiful festive music, dancing, exciting acrobatic performances and, of course, indescribably the wonderful aroma of fresh flowers.

By the way, the movement of the column is clearly described minute by minute. Tourists and Dutch residents are told this schedule in advance and can join the procession in any city.

The culmination of the celebration is the arrival of the procession in Harlem. Here the colorful flower procession ends with large-scale fireworks, and the flower sculptures remain in this city for another day so that everyone can see them.

This unusual festival began back in 1947. After the end of World War II, the population of the destroyed and impoverished country was in great need of positive emotions. William van Warmenhoven, a flower producer and breeder from the city of Hillegoma, gave them to his fellow countrymen. He decorated his dilapidated truck with several floral garlands and built on it the first floral arrangement of a huge blue whale made of hyacinths.

After driving through several surrounding communities, van Warmenhoven put a decorated truck outside his home on public display. Later, several more residents of nearby settlements joined the flower procession. Today, according to the organizers, the flower parade attracts an average of about a million spectators.

By the way, the beauty festival also has fabulous overtones. On this day, those present make wishes, because they believe that elves living in flowers will definitely fulfill them.

29