Brussels First Balloon Day Parade
Yesterday, on Saturday 28th of February 2009, took place the first Balloon Day Parade in Brussels! According to Wikipedia, the first Balloon Parade took place in New York in 1924, an initiative from Macy’s Department Store employees, who were first generation immigrants. They wanted to celebrate US holiday of Thanksgiving with the kind of festival their parents had in Europe.
Live animals borrowed at Central Park Zoo were replaced with large anima-shaped balloons in 1927’s edition, and this was also the first apparition of Felix the Cat. That’s for history…
Here in Brussels, it was the first edition with about 16 balloons, from crocodile or dinosaur to Spirou, Smurfs or Agent 212, a typical belgian policeman from a comic strip… The parade was also followed by fanfare, as it should be. It went from South train station to North train station, the usual parcours for parades and demonstrations. Unfortunately for us photographers, the sun in front of us, which is never easy to shoot, even with a flash (which I urgently need to master by the way!).
(Click on the image to go to the gallery)
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