Daffodil Parade

The 77th annual Daffodil Parade will be on April 10, 2010. The daffodil parade is part of the Daffodil Festival which started in 1933 to honor the flower industry of the Puyallup Valley. The parade travels though Tacoma, Puyallup, and Sumner and Orting cities in one day. The parade will be broadcast live from Tacoma this year. Canadians also like to join the Daffodil Festival. "Carousel of Spring" is the theme chosen for 2010. The theme was chosen in relationship to the current state of the economy. As with the carousel which goes up and down, so goes the economy. http://www.daffodilfestival.net/Daffodil_Parades/DaffodilParadeCover.htm

The Daffodil Parade features the Daffodil Queen who is crowned each year from a group of 22 high school seniors competing for the honor of being Queen along with scholarship awards which accompany the title. In 2010 the Daffodil Scholarship Foundation presented the Queen and her Royal Court with more than $57,000 in college scholarships. The 2010 Queen, Annie Jeong of Stadium High School, received a $7,500 scholarship provided by the Puyallup Fair Foundation. Each of the Royal Court was asked to prepare an answer to a question related to the subject of the Parade's theme.

The Daffodil Parade features floats which are decorated with fresh daffodils. There are more than 200 different varieties of daffodils grown in the area with the King Arthur being the most common. The daffodil was brought into the area to replace the hops crops in 1925More than 40 floats covered with fresh cut flowers use thousands of daffodils each year. Around 40 non flower floats or parade entries are expected for this years event. The float listing and the parade line up can be viewed on the Daffodil Festival website. http://www.daffodilfestival.net/Daffodil_Parades/DaffodilParadeCover.htm http://www.daffodilfestival.net/history.htm

The Daffodil Festival reciprocates with other local festivals by sending the parade float to take part in other events. Each year there is a traveling float schedule which identifies when the Daffodil float will be in another parade. When traveling te Daffodil Queen and two princesses ride the Float representing the Daffodil Festival. These individuals share the story of the King Alfred daffodil throughout the region as they ride the float. More than a million people view the daffodil float annually. http://www.daffodilfestival.net/floatschedule.htm