Human Flower Project

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Kickin’, with Dahlias in the Tirol

The Austrians combine a flower parade with anticipation for next year’s European soccer championship.

The Football Wizard, winning float

at the Seefeld Flower Parade, 2007

Photo: Tourism Presse

Have you noticed that every cultural event or social occasion now seems to do double duty as an ad campaign? Twinning is the name of the game. So organizers of the 39th Seefeld Flower Parade in Austria’s beautiful Tirol chose to dedicate this year’s Blumencorso to next year’s UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) championship matches. The floats, with 120,000 dahlias, included “the Football Wizard,” what appears to be an English Bobby, and Austria’s delightful logo—a red and white snail. (You have to admire a culture that would represent itself as proudly slow.)

Trix and Flix

mascots for the UEFA games

representing co-host countries

Switzerland and Austria

Photo: Tourism Presse



Next year’s European “football” games will be co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland, so mascots for the event are hot-headed twins Trix and Flix. They looked radiant at the Alpine flower parade, done up in garnet-colored dahlias.

Most flower parades in the U.S. take place in the winter and spring and usually feature roses and springtime blossoms. In contrast, many European Bloemencorsos seem to be held in the summer and fall months and go heavy on the dahlias,  with dazzling results.

Delightful as these floral sculptures in homage to soccer are, we still long for the days before twinning prevailed. Pretty soon, we expect to see Tyson’s Thanksgiving and the Ray-Ban Summer Solstice.