Cow Parade in San José

The city centre of San José these months is the scene of a street spectacle that enchants its inhabitants – called josefinos-: the Cow Parade or La Parada de las Vacas. The artificial cows are to be seen along a route that connects different city parks through promenades.

The Cow Parade was born in 1998 in Zurich. The success of that event, originally meant to promote chocolate, gave way to similar events in Argentine, Mexico and the United States, to name a few countries.

And now San José, where local artists painted more than 200 cows made of glass fibre, or adapted them otherwise. From dull grazers they are transformed into chessboards, prostitutes, bolero-dancers an even into ‘ecological paradises’.

In the weekend thousands of people move to the inner centre of the city to gape at these artworks. The way the Costa Rican react in itself is an experience. Whole families set out to hug, photograph or to stroke the beasts.
The attraction to the people of the cow’s procession shows clearly the need in Costa Rica to this kind of easy-to-access cultural events that gives way for diversion. Normally San José is a city where art is no match for the concrete mixer.

The Cow’s parade is to be visited until August 2008 in San José centre.