Every year during the end of July and the beginning of August the city of Medellin fills up with tourist from all around the world as well as many families from other parts of Colombia to celebrate the Feria de las Flores.
The Feria’s tradition has been going on for many years. The first Flowers Festival took place on May 1, 1957 and was organized by Arturo Uribe, a member of the Board of the Office of Development and Tourism in Medellin, Colombia. The festival lasted for five days with an exposition of flowers displayed in the Metropolitan Cathedral, which was organized by the Gardening Club of Medellín and monsignor Tulio Botero to celebrate Virgin Mary day.
The flower parade represents the end of slavery when slaves carried men and women on their backs up steep hills instead of flowers. The first silleteros (porters) parade also took place with some 40 men from the corregimiento of Santa Elena carrying on their backs flower arrangements to the exposition site.
This is the beginning of a photographic series I’m starting titled “The Faces of Medellin” it will document a cross section of people from all around city in different jobs, economic backgrounds, and barrios around the city focusing on their story. This is only the beginning, but I hope that as this project moves on it will get more in depth with the people’s stories here and will say something about the current time period of this beautiful city and my current home Medellin, Colombia.
On Sunday there is the main event of the whole feria which is the Desfile de Silleteros. There is a huge parade with tons of people come to view the display of flowers where all the Silleteros show off their displays. By the end of the parade many of them are nearly falling down.
References:
Wikipedia
