Battle of The Flowers Parade and Fiesta Flambeau
The Battle of Flowers Parade is the oldest event and largest parade of Fiesta San Antonio, attracting crowds of more than 350,000 on the second Friday of Fiesta. It is the only parade in the United States produced entirely by women, all of whom are volunteers. These ladies, dressed on parade day in yellow and wearing yellow hats, direct operations with the assistance of the Army National Guard. Several school districts within San Antonio treat the day of the Battle of Flowers as a local holiday and subsequently don't have classes on that day.
As a present-day event, The Fiesta Flambeau Parade starts as the sun goes down on the second Saturday of the festival. The parade, dating from 1948, is illuminated by thousands of lights on the floats, dancers, horses, cars and even the band instruments. An estimated crowd of 600,000 filled the parade route to watch The Fiesta Flambeau Parade 2011.(KLRN TV)
-
Carnival Flags—The Battle of Flowers, San Antonio (postcard, circa 1907-1911)
-
On the way to the Battle of Flowers (postcard, circa 1907-1911)
-
Popular float in the Battle of Flowers, San Antonio, Texas (postcard, circa 1907-1911)
Read more about this topic: Fiesta San Antonio
Famous quotes containing the words battle of, battle, flowers and/or parade:
“Athelstan King,
Lord among Earls,
Bracelet-bestower and
Baron of Barons,”
—Unknown. Battle of Brunanburh (l. 1–4)
“Forty years after a battle it is easy for a noncombatant to reason about how it ought to have been fought. It is another thing personally and under fire to have to direct the fighting while involved in the obscuring smoke of it.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Why does the past look so enticing to us? For the same reason why from a distance a meadow with flowers looks like a flower bed.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“Chaucer’s remarkably trustful and affectionate character appears in his familiar, yet innocent and reverent, manner of speaking of his God. He comes into his thought without any false reverence, and with no more parade than the zephyr to his ear.... There is less love and simple, practical trust in Shakespeare and Milton. How rarely in our English tongue do we find expressed any affection for God! Herbert almost alone expresses it, “Ah, my dear God!””
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)