Every year, on the first weekend of February, the city holds its Annual Flower Festival, that includes a parade of marching bands, displays of native dress and culture and beautiful floats, creatively designed with intricate arrangements of all the flowers in bloom now. (During this festival, there were 3000 different orchid species represented.) This year there were floats designed of temples, tributes to the King's sister who recently died and historical events in Bhudda's life and in the city of Chiang Mai. In the photos (link below), you will see there are not throngs of people watching the parade as everyone knows the floats will be on display for several days parked in the midst of the festival for picture taking. It's another food-and-craft-fest plus creative flower and planting arrangements, along with many kinds of orchids and other plants for sale. If you want to see more photos that Jim and I took, go to Chiang Mai Flower Festival photo album .
