Pregón Parade in Ambato

Candidate for Queen of Ambato

This young lady was a candidate for the Queen of Ambato in 2009. She and the boy below were marching in the same parade in Ambato.

A couple of months ago I blogged a couple of pictures from the Ambato Festival of Fruits and Flowers. One was of an awesome Mother Nature Float in the main parade from that week. Please take a look at that picture if you haven't already, and don't forget to expand it to full size. It is one of my favorite pictures that I have ever taken in Ecuador.

During the week of the Festival of Fruits and Flowers in Ambato, which coincides with the week of Carnaval elsewhere in Ecuador, there are actually two big parades. The main parade (mother nature float and more), with the name of the festival (Festival of Fruits and Flowers parade), happens twice, but that is not what I mean. There is a separate parade, that takes place before the main parade, with separate participants. This picture is from that first parade, the "Pregón" parade.

As if that isn't confusing enough, there is a third huge parade in Ambato that takes place between the New Year and the two parades of the Festival of Fruits and Flowers, the "Corso de las Flores y Alegría", which I also have pictures from. I will post pictures from that parade eventually. The "Pregón" parade and the Festival of Fruits and Flowers parade are going to take a while.

So we have:
1. "Corso de las Flores y Alegría" (first week of new year or so)
2. "Pregón" parade (starts Festival of Fruits and Flowers, during Carnaval)
3. Festival of Fruits and Flowers parade (the big one you don't want to miss, ends the Festival of Fruits and Flowers)

Today's pictures are from #2. The mother nature float was from #3.

People in Ambato take their parades very seriously. It is kind of a mini-industry in town. If you are in Ecuador, it is worth making plans to get to Ambato to see the Festival of Fruits and Flowers parade during the week of Carnaval. When Flor and I first moved to the United States, I took her to see the Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, and having seen the Festival of Fruits and Flowers parade in Ambato, Flor was not overly impressed. To me, the floats in the Festival of Fruits and Flowers parade are not as big, elaborate, or impressive as the floats in the Tournament of Roses parade, but they are impressive in their own right. What I liked best about the Festival of Fruits and Flowers parade were the marchers. They wear beautiful coordinated costumes, and their movements are also well-coordinated. Many of them are school groups as they are in the United States.

Boy Marching in Pregón Parade

After all that, I have to ask you to wait for pictures of the Festival of Fruits and Flowers parade. (Except for the ones I've already posted.) The pictures today and for the next few days are from the "Pregón" parade, that opened the Festival of Fruits and Flowers and preceded the main parade by about a week. The theme was "Alegría de un Circo". "Pregón" can be translated as "Herald" (it is a tough word to translate literally, pregonar means to announce publically, the thing a town crier would have done in the past)-- this was the opening parade, that heralded the rest of the Festival of Fruit and Flower festivities. "Alegría de un Circo" is "Happiness of a Circus".

Unlike the main parade of the Fiesta de las Frutas and Flores, which has international (including European) participation every year, the "Pregón" parade was entirely by, for, and about Ambatans. I suspect the "Pregón" parade is also something of an apprentice parade for the main parade. I'll explain that idea in a later post. The participants in the "Pregón" parade included all of the candidates for the Queen of Ambato, a number of children's school groups with amazing costumes and coordinated movements, a parade of Volkswagen Beetles decorated to look like cartoon characters, and stilt walkers.