Battle of Flowers teams enter flowering frenzy to finish floats for Friday

Wednesday, 7 August 2024 16:00

The countdown is on until this year's Battle of Flowers and teams of volunteers have been putting it all together.

Communities in sheds around the island are in the home stretch now, having already dedicated hundreds of hours to the floral float process in the hope of securing victory for their intricate exhibits.

There is just a few days to go now until we know if all that hard work will pay off in Friday's Grand Parade and Saturday's Moonlight Parade.

This year's event, which is a favourite in the Jersey calendar, will feature performances from Sam Ryder and UK Queen, with Marti Pellow closing the carnival weekend.

The Battle of Flowers is returning from this Friday, 9 August, and will feature all 12 parishes in this summer's parades for the first time in a generation.

We've been catching up with some of the teams across the island on how their preparations are going...

St Brelade's 'Global Peril':

St Brelade's 'Global Peril'

St Brelade Battle of Flowers Association have created a float which seeks to highlight the current climate.

Sean Jones, who's designed the float, hopes it will get islanders thinking:

"It's called 'Global Peril' and it is everything that is going wrong with our little world at the moment.

"It's got an Arctic and Antarctic which is disappearing rapidly. We also go to the tropics which has very large volcanoes."

The hard work behind St Brelade's 'Global Peril'

Sean says it's been quite an undertaking, but there's still more to do:

"We have 35,000 stems which is roughly 125,000 heads.

"The game plan is to be in the shed from 9 on Wednesday morning and work until 1 in the morning, and on Thursday we will go for as long as it needs."

The Northern Alliance's 'Ile De Jersey':

St Martin and St John are teaming up with Trinity to form the 'Northern Alliance' for this year's Battle of Flowers.

They are putting together two floats - one inspired by Jersey's history of tourism and the other being Willy Wonka-themed.

Behind the scenes in the Northern Alliance shed

The association's Secretary Stacey Hansford tells us what working with her new team has been like:

"The Northern Parishes only formed in February this year so we have a brand new team. We've brought together people from Trinity, St Martin and St John.

"So considering we are a brand new team - half of us hadn't met each other until six months ago - we've managed to get on really well.

"It has gone brilliantly and we're so happy with the progress we've made and the new atmosphere that we've created in the shed."

Lieutenant Governor pays a visit:

Other teams around the island have also been bringing their projects together in the final push before Friday's Grand Parade.

St Ouen and St Mary have come together to create a whimsical float called 'Bon Voyage', inspired by the famous poem The Owl and the Pussycat'.

Vice Admiral Jerry Kyd, paying a visit to the St Ouen and St Mary parish shed

To boost moral amongst the volunteers working around the clock, Jersey's Lieutenant Governor Vice Admiral Jerry Kyd has popped into some of the sheds.

He was particularly impressed with dance rehearsals in St Brelade and a unique art piece of Sam Ryder, crafted by the St Peter team.

Behind the scenes at the St Peter team's shed

Volunteers have created a portrait of the singer, who is performing on Friday at the Grand Parade, out of harestails.

The Battle of Flowers Grand Day Parade will take place at 4pm on Friday 9 August, while the Moonlight Parade will kick off the following day at 8.30pm.

You can book your tickets on the Battle of Flowers website.

Take a look through the Battle of Flowers archives: