The Black (Day) Parade

Our newspaper today broke the story that Spalding's flower parade is no more.

Rising costs meant that the carnival trust set up to organise the annual event made the painful decision to scrap it in its 50th year.

For those who've never been, the parade consists of floats - essentially tractors - which have a display of flowers formed into a planet, or a farm scene, or house etc. Each parade, which goes through the heart of Spalding, is themed. Last year's was "thanks for the memories". Ironic I guess.

Hundreds of thousands of people come to the little town, incredibly, for one weekend.

But is it a surprise that it's going? No.

Every year people gripe about the parade (which by the way has as many tulips as rocking horse poo - they've been paper versions in the past few years). The gripes are always summed up in one word: disappointment. The floats come through; there's usually a few that are decent; then they go; then people get drunk at the Poacher and fall in the Welland.

Some floats are obviously well made and a lot of work goes into them. But it always seems people are doing it because no-one had the bravery to say that we should celebrate Spalding differently.
Whether forced by financial constraints, or acting on feedback, or making the decision with other ideas in mind, the Trust has shown that bravery.

So let's go for it. A proper festival at Springfields, with proper celebrities and local groups. An entry fee for a start. As suggested on the inevitable Facebook group, let's have some real ales. Let's have fireworks, Nintendo Wiis, great games. Proper food - Chinese or Indian. Let's support our drama groups more. Let's keep the Flower Queen - all of our Queens have been great ambassadors.

The more ideas people come up with the more an embryonic idea will grow - and then Spalding will still have a standpiece we can be proud of.