Carnaval 2011!

My collage of carnaval images became large this year, although the batteries of my camera died very quickly.

This year's Lampegat parade was slow. It was VERY slow. It started half an hour late, and got held up shortly after starting. One of the car batteries had broken down.
Later on, a Bob the Builder tractor (blue with googly eyes) couldn't make it through one street. They'd taken measurements carefully, but omitted a small detail: that the poles have a width too. Some more pause in the parade while this little tractor made a detour, closely followed by the Einstein parade celebrating the fact that Eindhoven is the 7th smartest region in the world. Ho hum.
The parade did not reach my point until 3:25, unusually late. I had been waiting outside in the cold, pathetically underdressed for the weather.


Yours truly, dressed as Lady Lavender.


Costumes work best when you wear them as a group. Who ya gonna call?


Green family


Snow-White And The Seven Drawfs


Wide shot: you can see a bit of Fred Flinstone on the left, moving on to Banana, Carrot and Pineapple, and the marching band.


Marching band


Advertising OmroepBrabant may not be the greatest career ever...


You can form a parade entry on your own, like this fellow with buzzers and bells. Many carnaval jokes are about literal interpretations of Dutch proverbs.


First car group: casino dancers performing antics to the house version of Les Lacs De Connemara.


Roulette car


Mocking the Dutch Eurovision 2010 entry.


This car broke down and then had to be pushed by the luckless pushers.


Haunted Castle paybox


Haunted Castle #1


Haunted Castle #2


Ghost Busters!


A prince cart is decorated, but only carries a prince, his followers, and sometimes a band. They can look beautiful, though.


Spiderman rescues a tired child from the inanity! There were two mini-Spidermans near where I was standing. Other popular costumes were pirate (men), and beetle/bee (women).


haunted Castle #3


Car close-up


Bloody Nurse accompanied by woman pirate and beetle. Other fun costumes I spotted were Eve (woman in flesh-tint suit with leaves and a snake on strategic places) and Bag Of Fries.


Group #10 car while closed.


Group #10 based itself on the Indian Waterlilies fairy-tale in De Efteling. In the main animatronics show, a witch sings (Yma Sumac - Taita Inty), after which waterlilies open, elves come out and dance, while frogs make music. The text on the book is local slang: Now you see them, now you don't: even without 3D it's a world of difference


After the witch song, the troll cart opens, little elves spring from the back of the book and do a little dance.


Little waterlily between cars.




Cart 12 broke down later. That giant head fell down.


This year's winners. They were handing out cotton candy to the kids on route.

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