When is feria de flores

That tourism department was onto something, as the festival is now one of the most popular events in Colombia , with more than 26, visitors flying into Medellin to enjoy the jaw-dropping floral arrangements last year alone.

The Desfile de Silleteros is the admired anchor to the now day festival. Where dozens of locals once partook, the parade has grown to more than participants carrying floats through town.

The floats themselves are no joke, as they're built on up to six-foot-wide circular wooden platforms and weigh up to pounds, between the wood and flower-comprised art.

Over the years, even more events have been added on, including a lively bicycle tour of the city known as Ritmo de Bicicleta. Thousands gather—many garbed in Colombia's signature sombrero vueltiao hats—and bike through the city with music blasting and, yes, flowers tucked into their bike baskets.

World-renowned artists Juanes, J. Balvin, and Maluma, among others, are all from the city. The parade of the flowers represents the end to slavery, when slaves carried men and women up steep hills on their backs. Each year, men, women and children proudly carry the flowers of their history, land and culture on their backs. The city truly comes alive as it displays its heritage in the brilliant coloured flowers that grow in the countryside.

During the week is a fireworks show that begins and ends the festival. There are many options for tourists and international travellers. Seventy percent of cut flowers imported to the U. Flower vendors in the area, known as silleteros —a name derived from the wooden seats silletas that were used to manually transport people in a distant colonial past— have long been renowned for their artistry and for the quality and variety of their flowers.

About 40 silleteros made the trip that year and were received with such exuberance by locals that the display became an annual event. Santa Elena remains the staging area for the Feria de las Flores. In the honey-colored days leading up to the festival, silleteros arrange millions of buds onto three types of silletas. The more traditional silletas—a bit smaller than the body of a wheelbarrow—are worn on the back and closely resemble the wooden seats used for human transport generations ago.

An inset wooden grid in the silleta holds flowers at a degree angle. The result is a floral diorama in which vivid scenes and written messages are designed from contrasting blooms and flexible pine buds. The silletas monumentales monumental silletas —the largest class of silletas—are gargantuan interpretations of either of the two designs.

Carrying these arrangements that reach pounds, the silleteros are often older men and women, revered in the Paisa farming culture and honored by adoring parade-goers.