Bosch Parade June 2024 unfinished

Please note 

I haven't yet finished this piece.  There are some technical things i have to learn, but my illness last fall has slowed the process.  But i want it to be in the list at this point,  so here it is in its rough form.

Any event based on inspirations from the work of Hieronymus Bosch is bound to be a bit weird. Add to this my inability to understand a lot of the world around me, stuff like immersive art of the modern sort, the internet, and Dutch, and it gets even weirder. 

Having been in 's-Hertogenbosch I have a bit more of an understanding. I recommend reading my post on the town for that perspective.

 To understand the parade, one must understand 's-Hertogenbosch and vice versa. I have put together a separate post to describe the town and museum.

I am not a proficient photographer, nor am I a historian. I also claim no expertise in art or art movements. So this offering is a personal sketch of one of the finer odd parades I have attended, and I have been part of many of them. As usual please forgive my bad use of blogger. And a new treat for you is I am adding videos. One more thing for me to do badly, but this is about the kinetics.

I have the raw photos and videos if you see something you want to use elsewhere. All I ask is that you credit me please.  This is my first real foray into videos, and I suck at it. And yet, some of the charm is in the  movement of the floats.

I started my journey with the event's utterly confusing web site. I admit that I am not the best judge of what is and is not followable in the world of social media, but more than a few other people felt just as confused as I was when trying to figure out just what the Bosch Parade is. Another video of the parade on fBorg

The parade started as part of a town wide celebration of the work of an artist that was either mad, or visionary, or perhaps both. Wikipedia gives a very brief description. It grew, then got hammered by the pandemic lock down. The strength of the parade has allowed it to now reach a period of reboot. I heard a bit of  "It's not as good as it was."  but I think as the organization get somes experience it will return to and surpass the wonderful weirdness it has been in the past.

 "Parade Central" is the Garden of Earthly Delights. This is a pop up event, with food vendors, and of course beer. Pallets have been stacked for seating, lights strung.  The floats tie up at the docks. To the left of this photo there is a large old boat that served as a dorm for some of the artists in residence. This is where I went on the first evening.   

  

I met the parade director, and the Emcee for the event.

I'm afraid they didn't quite know what to do with me, so they gave me a drink ticket, and fed me. I was assigned to show up the following evening at one of the information stands. Off I went with my little cameras.

The Parade is repeated over 4 days. All of the able floats follow the same route. Three evening runs, and the last Sunday run starts at 3 pm. 

The parade route a canal that is part of the River Dommel.  There are two terraces where one can purchase seating in the viewing stands. There is also lots of grass, mud, canal walk, bridges available for free. It is mostly in the early evening, but this far north it is plenty light.

There are roughly 20 floats (and yes they do float) mostly pulled by swimmers. As you see these swimmers, remember that the canal system here has been used for almost a millenia. Not only for moving people and goods, but for defense. And for refuse disposal. The sewer system is less than 100 years old.  So the swimmers have a water suit.  When they return from their swim, they are given a special soda with antibiotic stuff.  And they are advised with  several signs to seek medical attention should they have swallowed any of the water. Dedication!

There is a delightful pamphlet in Dutch, and a few in English, that sort of describes the floats/teams. My volunteer assignment was to hang out on the bridge and hand out the ones in English. Most of the descriptions came long before the floats were under construction, so I am not totally sure of what all of them are. But here goes:

#3 Rad Vab Wibder/en.

# 4 Insturmen This is a family created art piece. It is a floating instrument played by a lot of folk

  

  

#5 De Mythische Kinderen Van Sisyphus

  

  

#6 Archipelago

 

#9 Hebzucht This is one of my favorites, I love dragonflies and that it is constructed from computer guts.

    

#10 Toxic Hunger This was created in the USA.  Making it to be transportable was quite a feat.

   

11 Evolution of Demons: Characteristics in Overdrive

 

#13 De Stem Van Het Water This was wonderfully creepy.  It didn't have flash or drama. It just sort of lurked,

#14 The Voyage of the Ship of Fools  You always knew when this was around as  it was accompanied by a pink misama.

    

#15-18 Your Contemporary Demons These made me giggle.  Smurfs on drugs.

  
  

I was not sure where she fit in the scheme of things

       

  

The only costumes were folk walking from the central area to the floats. Were it me, there would be lots more ad hoc  costuming.

 

I am not sure which entry this was but it was beautiful to watch the rectangles around the outside are airbags, and she gracefully floats up and down

Overall I loved this event, and my stay in Den Bosch. I am not sure I would go on my own for a second time.  However if any of you want to do a group trip, I would be happy to help facilitate it.

Foot note: The mechanics of using Blogger is mind boggling.  Nothing works the same twice in a row. It adds formatting  and moves photos in odd ways,  If you have any advice for me, please drop me an email.  

Between that and having one of the slowest computers on earth, and an even slower internet, the visual quality of this blog is less than I might like.