Since 1936, every September, the Dutch town of Zundert holds the world’s largest flower parade, the Corso Zundert. This past September the parade honored the 125th anniversary of the death of Vincent Van Gogh, the town’s most famous native. Each of the floats is primarily comprised of locally grown dahlias, although other local flowers are not prohibited from use.
While the photos from the parade are spectacular, I am sure they don’t give us the real sense of size and sheer visual impact. There are a couple of floats, one with stacks of Van Gogh’s chairs, that I saw briefly in a short film on the parade for which I could not find images. But the one’s below give a sense of the variety and creativity that are part of this parade.
“The Potato Eaters” in dahlias
This is Gauguin confronting Van Gogh
This float opens into a sunflower (see the photo below)
Redtree Times 
Sometimes, I’m just astonished by things that exist in the world that I’ve never heard of. This is one. You would think this would have been splashed across every website and news broadcast in the world when it took place. No — we have to hear about the Kardashians or the latest argument between petty bureaucrats. Thanks for this introduction. I’m putting it on my calendar for next fall (not to go, of course, but perhaps to write about).
From what I have seen of past parades, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed by this coming year’s parade. I don’t know exactly what it is but 2016 marks the 500th anniversary of the death of Hieronymous Bosch who was born about 50 or so miles from Zundert. If that is the theme, I would think that there will be some pretty wild floats.
On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 8:00 AM, Redtree Times wrote:
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