(5-7)-SEP-2003 Bloemencorso

Each year the Aalsmeer Bloemencorso parade is held during the first week of September. The parade consists of wagons decorated with flowers expressing a particular activity around the main theme. The theme for this year is

An impression of all the selected designs can be viewed here. One of the selected ideas for one of the wagons, designed by committee Ter Aar, is: Chinese New Year.

Besides the flowers the main association one gets with this is a lion dance. It should be no surprise to read here that the CNCWS has been contacted to perform around the wagon the New Year's lion dance to fully give this wagon an all Asian finishing touch.
Information about the route and timetable of the parade can be found here.

On Thursday 4 September all the decorations will be put on the wagons involved in the parade. Starting at 4:00 p.m., the flower auction in Aalsmeer will become the stage for a unique scene. Within just a few hours' time, more than a million flowers and plants will be attached to the vehicles.
Admission to the 'Night of Aalsmeer', which takes place in the world's biggest flower trade building, is absolutely free. The public is invited to wander among the fragrant clusters of flowers as well as the plants and to watch and see how bare floats are transformed as if by magic into carefully designed masses of flowers.
The CNCWS will be using a new set of lions during the parade. These lions all have to go through the awakening ritual. This ritual was performed during the decoration of the parade wagon with an abundance of flowers. The designer/architect (Mr. Hans Hoogenwerf) of the Chinese New Year wagon was involved in the awakening of one of the lions.

Photographs with an impression of the parade can be reviewed for

September 4, 2003,

September 5, 2003,

September 6, 2003,

September 7, 2003.

The Chinese New Year wagon was awarded the Amsterdam City Trophy for the most beautiful decorated wagon (Echo, September 10, 2003: picture, text)

Note: some of the CNCWS volunteers will remember that two full solar cycles ago they were part of the lion dance for an side-act at the 1981 bloemencorso parade: theme Spelenderwijs on a wagon called "Chinees Schimmenspel" made by committee Oude Spoorbaan.