Floating Flower Parade wows the crowds after two-year hiatus

Last year marked the first time the Floating Flower Parade sailed through the scenic canals of The Hague. Photo credit: Varend Corso Westland/Arnaud Roelofsz.

WESTLAND, Netherlands: Despite a two-year hiatus due to Corona, the Dutch Floating Flower Parade proved it has still got what it takes to wow audiences with a spectacular and energetic floral flotilla of 60 boats.

Last weekend saw hundreds of thousands of visitors hitting the street as an estimated half-million saw the Dutch Floating Flower Parade sailing by.

Spectators enjoyed 60 boats which had been lavishly decorated with more than 450,000 flowers, 120,000 plants and 80,000 fruits and vegetables grown in the Netherland’s most famous horticultural region Westland, and a weekend of great weather, at the 23rd Floating Flower Parade.

The event took off on Thursday 23 June with some fantastic live music and a parade evolving around the Finally Showtime theme.

This year marked the first time the Dutch Floating Flower Parade travelled to The Hague. In January, the city council of The Hague offered the event organisers a one-off grant worth up to €25,000, allowing the Floating Flower Parade to sail through the waters of the same city on Sunday 26 June 2022.

A ‘fourth’ sailing day has long been on the wish list of the parade’s organisers.  Expanding the event to four instead of three days will allow them to attract more visitors, and local sponsors and is a great opportunity to bridge the gap between municipalities.

Rob Baan, chairman of the Floating Flower Parade, touts the Parade’s premiere in The Hague as a great success. “It was a show like no other with the people of the Hague embracing our event. We proudly showed what the horticultural region Westland stands for: healthy and beautiful products, plenty of job opportunities and high tech greenhouse horticulture and an international business environment.”

In another absolute first, the floral flotilla set off at the end of June instead of the beginning of August, sailing through Westland, Midden-Delfland, Schiedam, Vlaardingen, Maassluis, Rijswijk, the beautiful city of Delft and The Hague.

Adding to the festive mood is recent recognition by UNESCO, which has awarded Dutch ‘corsos’ with the intangible cultural heritage status at the beginning of this year.

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