The small city of Herve, near Liège in Wallonia, is set to host its 144th annual Easter parade, which will take over the city's streets with colourful processions and floats. This is the first cavalcade since 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Walloon city has hosted the grand cavalcade since 1867. Traditionally held on Easter Monday, this year's festival is set to become a four-day festival of celebrations, concerts, comedy acts, and drinks socials.
Unlike many other regions which organise their cavalcades during the Carnival celebrations, the local farmers have their parades to coincide with the Easter festivities. The main procession takes place on Easter Monday, which falls on 18 April this year.
Through most of the 19th and early 20th century, elaborate floats were towed by symbols of the local agricultural tradition, the elegant Ardennais and Brabant draught horses, which once helped work the fields surrounding the small city.
As industrial agricultural equipment slowly replaced the plough horses, they were then replaced by tractors and other modern farm equipment. However, since the 130th cavalcade, the elegant horses have returned to the procession. Up to 150 of the region’s equestrian beauties will gallop through the streets this year.
Visitors to the cavalcade can expect colourfully decorated floats, fireworks, folk music, dance and jesters, and other regional curiosities.
Related News
- 3,000 take part in torchlit parade against wolves
- Pukkelpop announces extra one-day festival this summer
More than 50,000 visitors are known to visit the small city each year to take part in the festivities.
The Liège region is known for its explosive “Tir de Campes'' tradition. Herve’s pyromaniac fraternity, known as the Herve Carillonneurs, sets off large homemade explosives on the city square for the crowd’s amusement.
The tradition dates back for hundreds of years. Chains of up to 1,000 hollow steel boxes are filled with explosive black powder and packed with clay plugs. These boxes are then ignited letting off a series of loud explosions which resonate across the city.
The spectacle was originally intended to ward off evil spirits before the arrival of processions within the city’s walls.
Tickets for the Easter weekend celebrations are available to purchase on the organiser’s website. Tickets for the cavalcade on 18 April are on sale for €4 and passes for the weekend of festivities can be purchased for €26.
