Menton Lemon Festival, February 15-March 2, 2014

Press release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW YORK, NY, NOVEMBER 22, 2013 – Attracting over 230,000 visitors in 2013, Menton’s Lemon Festival is a three-week celebration revealing the integral place of the lemon in Menton society and history.

Involving 145 tons of citrus fruit, the festival features bi-weekly parades every Thursday and Sunday where folk dancers and marching bands animate the large floats, which are all adorned with lemons. Menton’s Jardin Biovès explode in a chorus of citrus fruit fashioned in sculptures of the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, animals and other fanciful designs. Open at night, the garden transforms into a light festival with colored lights cast on the lemon sculptures set to music. This year's theme will be "20,000 Leagues under the Sea" and narwhals, whales, giant squids and other creatures will add to the traditional repertoire of citrus statues. reveal all their secrets in the spotlights of the Gardens of Light.

A tradition dating back to 1934 when Menton was the largest lemon producer in Europe, the festival has its roots in the 1882 parade of Menton that Queen Victoria of England attended.