That year, to coincide with the second Congrès des Jardins Ouvriers d'Alsace, the local association organised a procession of flowers, probably to promote the creation of small gardens, with an emphasis on fruit and vegetables. The humanist city of the time was renowned for its market-gardening tradition, which continues to this day.
Jean Kobloth, President of Tourisme, Culture et Loisirs, described this first picturesque parade in the programme for the 50th anniversary of the Corso Fleuri in 1979:
"As they left the stadium, a fireman in Napoleonic costume preceded the fire brigade band. This was followed by children carrying flowers, vehicles and flower groups. The houses of Damm and Kaelbel took part with their vegetable and fruit floats. A float with ‘The Lion of Sélestat’ in flowers and Zewwele (onions) followed. A wagon with Senator Lazare Weiller, a wagon with Alsatian girls, a ‘Zwiebelputzwagen’ and ‘ein Wagen mit wunderbarem Mist’, which literally translates as: a magnificent manure wagon well packed with flowers! Carts with vegetables and flowers pulled by children, schoolchildren, gardeners, flower sellers, riders and working-class musicians. Then came the float of the Queen of the Gardens (...) Visitors to Strasbourg felt that the procession did not suffer from the comparisons with the Corso Fleuri at the Orangerie in Strasbourg: a fine compliment.
But it was really in 1929, under the impetus of the mayor of the time, Dr Auguste Bronner, that the procession was transformed into a flower parade.
For a long time, Corsos were divided into three, four or five groups, each preceded by a music society. Among the first parades - alongside purely advertising subjects - were subjects inspired by guilds (gardeners, butchers, bakers), by the colonial history of which the French of the 1930s were very proud, or by the activities of individuals and companies.
There were many ‘flower cars’, both advertising and non-advertising, and the ‘little queen’, the bicycle, was particularly in the limelight. If the Corso Fleuri de Sélestat has become what it is today, it owes it to the quality and dynamism of its participants, both private individuals and businesses, and also to the personalities who successively added their own imaginative touch. At the time, Dr Bronner could scarcely have imagined the extent to which the event he was organising would go on to surpass the longevity of all similar initiatives... even if, from the very first year, his ambition was to rival the most famous processions in the region.