Jersey: Battle of the Flowers

Posted on September 6, 2008 with 1 Comment

An annual flower festival has been held on the Channel Island of Jersey annually for over a hundred years with just a few non celebrated years by reason of war or austerity. Today it is a major tourist attraction on the island.
Each year in the second week of August two annual parades take place: on Thursday in daytime and the next evening by moonlight. Carnival style floats are decorated with flowers and accompanied by dancers and bands. Competition between the parishes is intense with many titles and prizes to be won.

The parades used to end with a literal Battle of Flowers, where the crowd tore flowrs from the floats and threw them at the procession. This got out of hand and was stopped in the early 1960s. The event had its centenary in the year 2002.