With the arrival of spring, the city of Funchal turns into a inebriating floral stage filled with enchantment. The island’s mild climate allows a variety of flowers to bloom everywhere, which naturally enchant for the beauty they emanate and the scent they exhale. It is in this unique setting that, once again, the city of Funchal is the stage for a sumptuous display that takes place, during which the flower plays its most important role.
The magic of this event starts on Saturday morning, with the Children’s Parade, on which, hundreds of children dressed for the occasion. The parade ends at the Town Hall Square (Municipio) where the children symbolically place their flowers on the so-called “Wall of Hope” (Muro da Esperança), in an appeal for world peace. The wall set up ends with a release of pigeons and a children’s show.
In the afternoons, the streets of downtown Funchal is filled with music, colors and soft aromas. All attentions are drawn to the central area of Avenida Arriaga, where the Flower Market lends to the downtown area a frenetic pulse of flower selling. Sculptures of flowers made by young people who interact and invite tourists to participate and to register unique images of this event, do justice to the well-known hospitality that characterizes the people of Madeira.
The highlight is the Flower Parade with several groups of over a thousand participants who, bearing costumes depicting flowers, dancing to the sound of exquisitely selected music, through the main arteries of the city, along with fantastic floats, beautifully decorated with many different varieties of flowers of Madeira.
Alongside these events takes place a set of playful and recreational activities filled with charm and symbolism, such as, the construction of delicate floral carpets of unrivaled beauty along the main streets of Funchal, as well as musical concerts, folklore performances from Regional groups, shop window ornamentation and the Flower Exhibition in the Largo da Restauração.
This year the grand Flower Festival takes place from the 9th to the 15th of May, under the motto “The Route of Flowers”.
Update 13-04-2013
The route for the Flower Parade will be different this year. For more information please contact:
Phone: (+351) 291 211 900 or (+351) 291 211 901
Email: info.srt@gov-madeira.pt
Website: www.visitmadeira.pt
