The "incredible" Blossom Parade and the accompanying festival held over the weekend attracted the biggest crowd Hastings' longest-serving councillor says he's seen in decades.
"It was an incredible parade for three reasons," Cr Kevin Watkins said of the colourful parade, which attracted thousands of spectators on Saturday.
"Number one was the weather played its part and came right for the parade, and we got all the floats home before it started to rain again.
"Secondly, it was the biggest crowd I have seen in probably 40 years... it was reminiscent of the glory days of the parade in the 1960s.
"And thirdly, the number of participants and the floats, there was great variation and colour and a lot of people had put a lot of energy into them."
He said the parade was "so much part of our Hastings DNA" and it was great to see it return after being cancelled last year due to Covid.
Over 50 floats and entries took part in the parade this year, which travelled through Hastings CBD.