COLOMBIA: Medellin's flower festival closes with spectacular parade

Medellin's 49th Flower Fair came to a colourful close on Sunday (August 6) with the annual Desfile de Silleteros or flower-carrier parade. Local musicians from the Colombian province of Antioquia accompanied the stream of locals who came down from the mountain to show off their flower arrangements, or 'silletas'. Some 483 local workers who had worked long hours putting together elaborate displays of blooms carried their creations the three and a half kilometres past 40,000 spectators who lined the route in Medellin, situated 400 kilometres to the north west of Bogota. Among those who turned out to enjoy the display was Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who was accompanied by his wife Lina Moreno. One particularly eye-catching arrangement paid tribute to Colombian crooner Juanes, who has taken the musical world by storm with hits like La Camisa Negra and Es Por Ti. The arrangements, which weigh around ten kilos each, are carried proudly by the craftsmen who spend days working on their colourful displays. But as local craftsman Mario Fernandez explained, it is a local tradition from Antioquia that they are proud to continue. "Ten days working on the flower chair and we're tired and everything, but however, what you like you like, and that is why people from Antioquia never leave where they work, because we keep pushing forward," he said. This year's parade also included some 28 carriers who had attended the very first such event in 1957. All over seventy years of age, these original flower carriers marched alongside a young generation who will be carrying this tradition on into the twenty first century.

ITN Source | August 11, 2006

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