Even bigger than I thought!

So, as I mentioned before, we're going with some friends to Karnival in Köln next weekend. We've heard a lot about Karnival, since it's a big deal to a lot of people here. The festivities start next Thursday, and culminate with a HUGE parade on Monday morning, referred to as Rosenmontag. While looking for more information this morning, I discovered that this parade is way bigger than I thought. Check out these crazy statistics:

Rosenmontag Parade facts:
- 1.5 million people in the streets
- 7 km long route (4.3 miles)
- 4 hours long
- 10,000 participants
- 124 bands
- 440 horses
- 74 decorated floats
- 57 tractors
- 50 trucks (to carry the stuff thrown into the crowd)

Thrown into the crowd:
- 150 tons of sweets
- 700,000 chocolate bars
- 220,000 boxes of chocolates
- 300,000 bouquets
- thousands of small toys and gifts

Materials used to build the floats:
- 4,000 meters of roof slats (13,100 feet)
- 5,000 meters of wire (16,400 feet)
- 6,500 sq. meters of wire mesh (70,000 sq. feet)
- 320 sq. meters of wood (3,450 sq. feet)
- 2,000 sq. meters of fiber board (21,500 sq. feet)
- 1,800 kg of nails and screws (4,000 lbs.)
- 3,600 kg of paint (8,000 lbs.)
- 10 kg of adhesive (22 lbs.)
- 120 sq. meters of fabric (1,300 sq. feet)
- 40 cubic meters of styrofoam (1,400 cubic feet)
- 720 kg of paper (1,590 lbs.)

Costs:
- For the parade materials: 650,000 Euros (850,000 dollars)
- Total: 2.3 million Euros (3 million dollars)

Totally insane, right? I can't wait! :)