Colombian Salsa in Medellin, Colombia Prepares for the Flower Festival

The flower festival in Medellin is perhaps the largest folkloric festival held in Colombia after the Barranquilla Carnival in January.
The festival was born in the 1950s to celebrate the importance of the flower growers in the region near Medellin. Cut flowers are one of the most important agricultural export industry in Colombia. Currently Colombia supplies about 70% of the flowers sold in the United States.
Originally the festival was just a parade of flower growers mostly from the Santa Elena county, they would make large flower arrangements and walk a few blocks in the downtown area showing their products to the people gathered along the streets but eventually the parade grew and the flower growers started making more elaborate flower arrangements until now when the public can see huge flower arrangements called “silletas”, some of them so huge that have to be carried by three or four people. Some silletas measure up to 4 meters (13 ft.) in diameter. The flower arrangements are very varied, some are just intricate arrangements of flowers, others depict landscapes, faces, diverse figures. Nowadays the flower parade includes hundreds of flower growers carrying Silletas, dance groups, bands playing local music. The public stands on the sidewalks along the route.
The flower festival has become the most important festival in Medellin.

But the flower festival is not just the parade, it´s an entire week of different activities and events that take place in and near Medellin.
Some other interesting events are the Horse Parade, which is already listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest horse parade in the world the Orchid – Birds and Flowers exposition at the botanical gardens (all week, July 29th – August 8th), the Old Car Parade (in which people driving the old cars use costumes of the year the car was made, people can even see a couple of Model T Fords ), the Riding Horse Show , the children´s flower parade ), The Music Band Festival , Arrieros – Mulas y Fondas (a street festival of typical food, drinks and activities from neighboring towns, at the La 70 street), San Alejo handcrafts market ( Parque Bolivar).
During the week of the festival, there are “tablados” in several streets in the city, Tablados are street parties, the streets are closed and there are bands playing for the public.



Article adopted from http://poorbuthappy.com/colombia/post/flower-festival-in-medellin-2004/ By ColombiaBoard posted on Jul 25, 2004, 09:59 in Friendly Talkzone