The Flower Parades

A corso is a parade of floats decorated entirely in flowers, and the Netherlands has kept the habit going as a competition between villages rather than a show put on for visitors. In April the bulb-region corso works its way from Noordwijk towards Haarlem with floats built from hyacinths, daffodils and cut tulip heads, passing through the fields the flowers came from. In September Zundert in Brabant runs the dahlia parade, where each hamlet spends the year building one enormous float in its own shed, welded steel under papier mache, then pins on dahlias grown locally in the last few days. The finished things are the size of barns.

What you actually see

• The Zundert dahlias - hamlet-built floats several storeys high, covered blossom by blossom.
• The bulb-field route - the April parade moving through the fields in the flowering season.
• The building sheds - open in the days before, when the frames are still bare.
• The static display - floats parked and lit after the parade, far easier to actually look at.

When to go

The April parade depends on when the bulbs flower and the date is set only weeks ahead. Zundert falls on the first Sunday of September. In both cases the floats stand on display the following day, which is the better way to see the detail. Arrive at least two hours early for a place on the route.

Honest expectations

You stand for hours, often in bad weather, with long gaps between floats and deep crowds at the good stretches. Parking is pushed far out and the walk in is long. The April corso is at the mercy of the season and can catch the fields either bare or already cut. Between towns there is nothing to do.

Nearby

The bulb fields and dune coast in April; Brabant's brewing villages in September.