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Incredible “Corso Zundert” Flower Parade Honors Vincent van Gogh with Giant Floral Floats

By Sara Barnes on September 9, 2015

This past Sunday, the renowned Corso Zundert parade made its way through the streets of Zundert, Netherlands. Giant floats adorned with hundreds of thousands of dahlia flowers were welcomed by an eager crowd, who witnessed the incredible work of 19 design teams. The iconic painter Vincent van Gogh was the inspiration and theme for their mobile sculptures, as he was born in the city 162 years ago. Float artists adopted the colors, motifs, and imagery from van Gogh's works, and some even paid homage to the famed painter by recreating his iconic self portraits.

Corso Zundert was started in 1936, and it celebrates the region's reputation as a global supplier of dahlia flowers–an industry that currently occupies 81 acres with 600,000 dahlia bulbs. The parade's humble beginnings included horse-drawn carts or decorated bicycles, but in the 1960s, things began to change. Styrofoam was discovered to be a suitable building substance, and the floats started to increase in size. The material, along with iron, is still used today as the base of the floats, which have layers of papier mach applied on top. Each and every dahlia is then individually affixed to the floats, which uses about 400,000 flowers per design. With this meticulous attention to detail and dedication to the craft, it's no wonder that people flock to see the annual parade in action.

Above photo credit: Werner Pellis

Photo credit: Erwin Martens