The romantic side of Carnival
Every year, costumed actresses parade on floats decorated with flowers and shower the public with them. The flower parade represents a unique spectacle which has made the reputation of the Côte d’Azur.
To discover the origin of this festival, you have to go back in time to 1876 to see the first Flower Parade appear on the Promenade des Anglais created by Andriot Saëtone. At the beginning, they were simply flower exchanges organized to entertain tourists, but very quickly the Flower Battles were held to honor the work of local producers. The new event became established, in France and internationally, as the social highlight of the Belle Époque and the interwar period.
In 1966: the first televised broadcast of a Flower Battle.
At first, these were simple exchanges of flowers organised to entertain the tourists, but very quickly the Flower parades were held to honour the work of local producers.
Since 2005, the theme of the Flower Parades has matched that of the carnival parades.
Today, this event highlights the great floral diversity that makes up the region, since 80% of the flowers used are produced locally.
Florists take over the Halle Spada area for 72 hours before each event and pick fresh flowers : in total, 250,000 stems of flowers and 21 tonnes of mimosas are distributed to the public.
The unique costumes are created in a temporary workshop dedicated to Carnival by costume designers from the entertainment world who juggle with original fabrics and materials, giving free rein to their imagination.
Today, the flower parade is made up of around fifteen allegorical floats decorated with fresh flowers, surrounded and preceded by street performers (jugglers, stilt walkers, etc.).
3,000 fresh flowers
Since 2005, the floats have followed the theme of the carnival processions. Each of them is decked out with 3,000 fresh flowers !
100,000 stems
A total of 100,000 stems of flowers (gladioli, gerberas, daisies, carnations, roses, lilies…) are thrown to the public.
20 tons
20 tons of mimosas are distributed to the public !
The float entertainers
Each float has lots of people on board who throw 80,000 to 100,000 flowers to an enthusiastic public : gladioli, tokyos, mimosas, gerberas, daisies, roses, carnations … and all the remaining flowers are offered to the public at the end of the parade.
Each year, a casting session takes place with young motivated candidates aged 18 to 30, with talents as dancers or in the circus arts.
The future queen of the Flower Parade is among the 18 young girls selected during the casting.
