Long Weekend part 2: Flowerparade preparations!
The goal of my long visit to the South of the Netherlands was the Bloemencorso in Zundert; a yearly parade of flowerfloats. These are organised all over the Netherlands, but Zundert is the oldest (since 1936!) and biggest corso (20 floats) every first Sunday in September. Every neighbourhood (or hamlet) of Zundert has been working for months to build their own dahliafloat. On the Friday before the parade, they start putting on the fresh flowers; it's a community effort to get all the floats ready for the Sunday Parade.
I visited the Bloemencorso in Zundert before (in 2016 [ LJ and 2018 [ LJ].
This year I signed up for a corsotour on Saturday, where you get to hear about the history of the event and you visit two construction sites, to take a closer look at the finishing touches on the floats! Come join me :-)
Visiting flowerfloat construction sites!
I got the bus from Breda and arrived in Zundert about 40 minutes later, in the streets you can already see by the flags of the hamlets. The grandstand in front of cityhall is ready for tomorrow.
Fun fact: Vincent van Gogh was born in Zundert! On the site of his birth is now a museum (and tourist information).
The statue of the girl with the bicycle is in memory of the first Flower parade, which was on decorated bicycles.
Before the tour I have dinner: a burger with pulled pork on top and fries.
Each table has a different dahlia; mine's pink <3
I swear I ordered one dessert; my .... came with strawberries, ice cream and whipped cream on the side!
And before the tour we were welcomed with a drink and a cupcake!
After a slide show and short film about the history of the corso, we walked to the first construction site; the tent is built especially for the float. This is hamlet Kapelleke and first thing we see in the tent is the model of their design "Invasion".
We get a slideshow about the hamlet and a handy overview of the shields of all the hamlets that are competing in the Zundert corso.
Then we are allowed to walk around with a guide to see work in progress on the float up close!
There are people all over the construction putting on the flowers and trimming them to fit the design.
Can you see the nail in each flower?
This design also incorporates green leaves.
We climb all the way up the scaffolding where more people are working.
Everything is so impressive.
I hope they get all the flowers on in time and will be rooting for them tomorrow!
In between sites, we also visit a dahlia garden where all the varieties are on display, pretty!
Then we go to the tent of hamlet Markt, to see their float in between the scaffolding...
This is the scale model of their design "Front"; it represents 3 celtic tribes fighting the Romans, there is a surprise hidden within.
All the dahlia colours are on a legend to show where they should go :-)
There's silver-coloured iron and brown wood on the shields in the design, not natural dahlia colours. However, the design is not painted on, beforehand the flowers are coloured with spraypaint or cinnamon(!) to get the desired colours before they are pinned on the float.
The black is a natural colour; it's actually really dark purple
I love how the whole hamlet is involved; not everyone is allowed to work on the scaffolding, but anyone can push nails in the flowers. From young kids to the elderly, they all help out!
There is a pully system to get the crates with flowers up the scaffolding.
It was marvelous to see the construction up close. The tour ended with drinks and snacks in the restaurant. I left around 10 p.m. to catch my bus back to my hotel in Breda.
On the way to the busstop: seats are ready for the parade tomorrow.
Roundabouts in Zundert are simple circles on the road to allow for the float :-D
Up next will be my photos of the flowerparade. If you can't wait I have already posted my videos at my YouTube, here's my playlist: Bloemencorso Zundert 2024.
J.
X-posted from https://beelikej.dreamwidth.org/584553.html [
comments] Lurk or comment wherever you like:)
I visited the Bloemencorso in Zundert before (in 2016 [ LJ and 2018 [ LJ].
This year I signed up for a corsotour on Saturday, where you get to hear about the history of the event and you visit two construction sites, to take a closer look at the finishing touches on the floats! Come join me :-)
Visiting flowerfloat construction sites!
I got the bus from Breda and arrived in Zundert about 40 minutes later, in the streets you can already see by the flags of the hamlets. The grandstand in front of cityhall is ready for tomorrow.
Fun fact: Vincent van Gogh was born in Zundert! On the site of his birth is now a museum (and tourist information).
The statue of the girl with the bicycle is in memory of the first Flower parade, which was on decorated bicycles.
Before the tour I have dinner: a burger with pulled pork on top and fries.
Each table has a different dahlia; mine's pink <3
I swear I ordered one dessert; my .... came with strawberries, ice cream and whipped cream on the side!
And before the tour we were welcomed with a drink and a cupcake!
After a slide show and short film about the history of the corso, we walked to the first construction site; the tent is built especially for the float. This is hamlet Kapelleke and first thing we see in the tent is the model of their design "Invasion".
We get a slideshow about the hamlet and a handy overview of the shields of all the hamlets that are competing in the Zundert corso.
Then we are allowed to walk around with a guide to see work in progress on the float up close!
There are people all over the construction putting on the flowers and trimming them to fit the design.
Can you see the nail in each flower?
This design also incorporates green leaves.
We climb all the way up the scaffolding where more people are working.
Everything is so impressive.
I hope they get all the flowers on in time and will be rooting for them tomorrow!
In between sites, we also visit a dahlia garden where all the varieties are on display, pretty!
Then we go to the tent of hamlet Markt, to see their float in between the scaffolding...
This is the scale model of their design "Front"; it represents 3 celtic tribes fighting the Romans, there is a surprise hidden within.
All the dahlia colours are on a legend to show where they should go :-)
There's silver-coloured iron and brown wood on the shields in the design, not natural dahlia colours. However, the design is not painted on, beforehand the flowers are coloured with spraypaint or cinnamon(!) to get the desired colours before they are pinned on the float.
The black is a natural colour; it's actually really dark purple
I love how the whole hamlet is involved; not everyone is allowed to work on the scaffolding, but anyone can push nails in the flowers. From young kids to the elderly, they all help out!
There is a pully system to get the crates with flowers up the scaffolding.
It was marvelous to see the construction up close. The tour ended with drinks and snacks in the restaurant. I left around 10 p.m. to catch my bus back to my hotel in Breda.
On the way to the busstop: seats are ready for the parade tomorrow.
Roundabouts in Zundert are simple circles on the road to allow for the float :-D
Up next will be my photos of the flowerparade. If you can't wait I have already posted my videos at my YouTube, here's my playlist: Bloemencorso Zundert 2024.
J.
X-posted from https://beelikej.dreamwidth.org/584553.html [
comments] Lurk or comment wherever you like:)