Part 1 – The Amazing Flower Parade

Having spent a few ‘intense’ days visiting the Canadian War sites through Normandy and Belgium, we were ready for our next cultural experience – participating in an annual flower parade in Loenhout, Belgium.  This has been a tradition since 1952, and what started out as a small parade to commemorate the opening of a new highway with the local people decorating their cars and bicycles with flowers, has grown into an annual parade and competition.  Each neighbourhood works together to create a float to enter in the parade.  In all, there are about 30 floats created across the different age categories – children, youth, and adult.

Katina has continued to use Couchsurfing to meet and stay with interesting people throughout our journeys.  Ingrid is a long time couch surfing host, and has had many people stay with her family.  When Ingrid saw the adventure we had planned for this year, she reached out to Katina and told us that we absolutely had to come to Loenhout to experience the parade.  We are so glad we did!

We arrived somewhat later in the day than we had expected, however Ingrid was very welcoming and glad to see we had made it safely.  After dropping off our things, we jumped into the car and headed out …it was parade weekend and there was lots of work to get done!  Ingrid led the way and we went to our first construction point.  We were amazed at what we saw!

The float for ‘our’ neighbourhood (yes, we were adopted by the neighbourhood!) was of two cobras coming out of snake-charmer baskets while music played.  Each ‘basket’ was about 10m high, and then the snake heads another 8-9 m, to be inserted into the baskets.  There was scaffolding all around the float and the whole construction area was covered by a huge “tent” that was about 20m high, and long enough to keep the whole construction area covered.

Creating the Float

The first thing to happen is the neighbourhood gets together and develops the concept for the float.  Some drawings are completed and eventually a scale model is created, so everyone can visualize what the float will eventually look like.

The concept model – King and Queen of the Fair

The concept model – Snake Charmer

Building the frame

A ‘wagon’ is used – either an existing wagon or in some cases a custom wagon is built.  This is basically the lowest level of the float.  Everything will either sit on this wagon or be welded to it.  It is the chassis of the float – steel frame and wheels with the ability to steer.  The wagons are also not pulled by tractors or otherwise powered…they all move under human power.  So there are spaces created inside the float for people to be able to push the float forward and to steer.

The frame itself is made out of steel rods which are shaped and welded together.  They are a variety of thicknesses, depending on what they are being used for and how much weight they need to hold.

Forming the Shape

Once the frame is built, it it covered with a paper mache-like covering which begins to give the float its definition.  For instance, you would see the forming of hands, feet, eyes, and other parts of the float.  When this is done, the desired form is clear.

Creating the Colour Scheme

From the model and/or drawings, the “white” form then has markings added to indicate what colours and types of flowers should be added.

Preparing the flowers

Hundreds of thousands of dahlias are used to provide colour to the floats.  Only the bloom itself is used, the stems and leaves are discarded.  The town purchases the flowers both locally and as far away as The Netherlands and Germany.  They are sorted and brought to a central warehouse from which each neighbourhood picks up the flowers they need.

From field….

to warehouse!

Each float then needs to prepare the individual flowers.  This is done by taking each bloom and pressing a 4-inch long staple through the middle.  This allows the flower to then be placed on float in the appropriate location later.

Preparing the flowers

Preparing the flowers

Flowers with staples, ready to go!

Adding the Flowers to the Float

Boxes of prepared blooms are brought to the tent, carried up onto the scaffold, and are meticulously placed onto the float and trimmed when necessary.

Scaffold set up to install flowers.

Making additional parts for the float.

Everyone helps!

Pinning flowers to the float

Look at the size of that hat!

Floats coming together nicely.

On the scaffold at the top of the float.

Community Involvement

The whole community comes together to make the floats, from aged 3 to 103!  Anyone can play a role. Some people are not able to help with the floats themselves, so they provide support in other ways.  Some bring food to feed the teams, others bring drinks.  The children and youth also have their own floats that they work on with adult support.  We were immediately and easily welcomed into the community and made part of the team and helped out in any way we could.

Our Experience

This was one of our most interesting and rewarding experiences to date on our trip.  We really enjoyed seeing the community come together and produce some really amazing floats.  You will have to wait for Zoe’s “Part 2” post to see the amazing final products!  We also took advantage of getting around like the locals, preferring to cycle to our destinations rather than drive our car.  We even had the opportunity to use a tandem bike!

Our host Ingrid with Ege who is an exchange student from Turkey.

A bicycle built for two!

Keep your eyes on your inbox for the exciting conclusion to this story!