The Medellín Flower Festival

When it happens and where it comes from

The festival runs in early August for around ten days. It grew out of the silleteros of Santa Elena, the farmers who used to carry flowers down to the Medellín market strapped to a wooden frame on their backs — the silleta — and who now turn that same frame into arrangements well over a metre and a half across. Exact dates shift each year but always fall in the first half of August.

The Desfile de Silleteros

This is the closing event and the one that justifies the trip. Around five hundred silleteros walk a stretch of avenue carrying pieces weighing forty to seventy kilos, many made by families who have done this for generations. There are ticketed stands and free stretches of street. What nobody tells you: the good free spots are taken three or four hours ahead, and the best photographs happen before the parade starts, in the assembly area where the silleteros finish building their pieces.

The rest of the festival

Around the parade there are concerts, a classic car parade, the horse ride, an orchid show and dozens of neighbourhood events. There is also Trova, the most Antioquian thing you will witness: two people improvising rhymed verses at each other until one runs out of comeback. If your time is short, the parade plus one night of concerts counts as having been to the festival.

Sleeping and moving that week

Book accommodation months ahead: prices rise and El Poblado fills first. On parade and horse-ride days entire avenues close, the metro runs differently and taxis vanish. The practical approach is to plan every journey with slack and never assume you will find transport when a mass event ends.

Santa Elena, the source

Going up to Santa Elena outside festival week is a quiet plan of its own: silletero farms receive visitors, explain the craft and show how a silleta is built. It is a half day and works best midweek. If you are here in August and cannot get parade tickets, this is the alternative that actually gives you something.

Frequently asked questions