It’s called the Battle of the Flowers, although the competition is artistic rather than martial.

On the last Friday of August (August 28, 2015, this year) groups of local residents of Laredo, Spain (arranged in crews called carrocistas), participate in La Batalla de Flores.

Centerpiece is a parade at 5:30 p.m. featuring floats decorated with fresh flowers cut from fields and meadows they planted earlier in the season: daisies, chrysanthemums, dahlias, carnations and marigolds. A jury chooses the best float of the year.

The festive day also includes street markets and musical performances, and finishes with fireworks.

Laredo is an historic fishing village on the Bay of Biscay, and the Battle is the symbolic end of the busy tourist season. For generations, hundreds, even thousands, of people have been involved in its preparation each year (the first was on boats in the bay in 1908).

Here’s a video of a recent parade:

(Photo and video courtesy of Turespaña)