A delicate touch is required: How the colourful daffodil figures are created

There is great anticipation for the 64th Narcissus Festival in Ausseerland – preparations are in full swing. Before the artistic daffodil figures can be admired tomorrow, Sunday, the Ausseer communities will have to plant, plant, plant, in order to get everything ready in time for the big festival.

“Always three daffodils”

Which figure will be put up at the upcoming daffodil festival? The participants of the daffodil parade ask themselves this question every year. After a lot of tinkering, the figure is finally made from a construction iron frame and then covered with wire mesh. The day before the parade, small bunches of three freshly picked daffodils are put into this mesh to create a particularly artistic effect. “There must not be a single spot left empty, you have to work hard. Three daffodils always stay together,” are the instructions from the experienced parade participants.

Tens of thousands of daffodils are needed for one figure, and this year many are using other natural materials such as grasses, daisies and clover. “But we found more daffodils than we originally thought,” says Rudolf Grill, chairman of the Daffodil Festival Association. “You just have to know where to look. Many people have discovered the secret spots, and we found many more daffodils at higher altitudes.”

Many helping hands

If you add up the hours of all the helpers, it takes up to 150 hours to pick daffodils for a single large figure, and another 800 hours to plant them. Today, Saturday, numerous clubs are gathering, and tourists in the Ausseerland are also busy planting them – every helping hand is needed in the afternoon and evening hours. Some of the eager daffodil planters are busy until the early hours of the morning, before the parade in the municipality of Grundlsee begins at 9 a.m. Finally, at around 2 p.m., the traditional boat parade takes place – a highlight of the largest flower festival, after only a town parade took place in Bad Aussee last year. The winners of this year’s daffodil parade will be announced at around 3 p.m.

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