Zundert Flower Parade
Zundert: A city in the Netherlands
Bloemencorso: “Flower Parade” in Dutch
Bloemencorso Zundert: Zundert Flower Parade
Zundert is a municipality and town in the southern part of the Netherlands on the Belgian border. The town was founded during the 1100s. Vincent Van Gogh was born and raised there. The current population is less than 25,000. It is one of the most agricultural municipalities in all of the Netherlands. The closest big city is Antwerp, Belgium. Zundert is home to the world famous Bloemencorso Zundert, the Zundert Flower Parade.
The Zundert Flower Parade was first held in 1936 to honor the Queen of the Netherlands, Wilhelmina. The parade has continued for almost ninety years and is held on the first Sunday of September. The floats are quite stunning in size, beauty and creativity.
Twenty neighborhoods in Zundert build floats and compete for the grand prize awarded to the best float. Floats are built by volunteers of all ages from the twenty neighborhoods. The floats are constructed using steel wire, paper mâché, cardboard and flowers. The only flowers used are Dahlias. It takes about 8 million Dahlias per year to create the floats, of which about 6 million are grown in Zundert.
Construction begins around May or June with floats built in each neighborhood’s construction tent or building. The flowers are not added until the Thursday before the parade to ensure freshness. This is a particularly busy time, with volunteers working day and night to complete the floats. Floats are judged by an independent jury and one neighborhood is crowned the winner and carries the title until the following September.
From the Zundert Flower Parade site:
The Zundert parade is the largest in the world. It’s all volunteer work. Twenty neighborhoods compete to build the most beautiful float, judged by a panel of experts. And they’ve been doing so for over eighty years.
The wagons are huge
Nine meters high and nineteen meters long. The maximum dimensions were established in 1989. It was getting out of hand.
Fifty crying men
The neighborhoods hear the results immediately. Only the winning float is allowed to stop. The Zundert jubilation is the best thing that can happen to you.
Corso is for everyone
The Corso virus is passed down from generation to generation. It’s all a labor of love, but the whole neighborhood still participates.
Summer vacation in a tent
Parade builders spend the summer months in the parade tent, working on everything from rough welding to intricate Styrofoam work and papier-mâché.
Only dahlias
Each neighborhood has its own dahlia field. These fields boast dozens of varieties and colors of dahlias. It’s primarily the neighborhood’s elders who plant the tubers, weed the weeds, and pick the flowers.
Day and night work
The process of “tapping” the half-million dahlias per float doesn’t even begin until a few days before the parade. The tent is a hive of activity, with everyone pitching in until the float is ready. Even if it takes all night.
Eighty years of parade
The first parade was held in 1936 in honor of Queen Wilhelmina’s birthday. From the very beginning, the people of Zundert cherished their parade and passed it down from generation to generation. The parade enjoyed great public interest, especially in the 1950s.
The theme for the 2025 Zundert Flower Parade was “Keeper of Lost Souls” Following are pictures of the twenty floats in order of the votes they received starting with the winner.
Image Credits:
All Images from the Zundert Flower Parade site. Photographer: Erwin Martens.