Festival de las Flores New York 2024 is New York City’s version of the Feria de las Flores flower festival in Medellín, Colombia. There is usually a parade, street fair, and street crawl where people visit businesses on the route.
Festival de las Flores New York 2024
New York’s Festival de las Flores is actually a series of events, including a Gala and Parade.
Flower Festival New York Gala
The Flower Festival New York Gala 2024 benefits New York’s Colombian Festival de las Flores, with a cocktail, dinner, and dancing at the New York Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens; on June 29, 2024 at 7pm. $100. 🇨🇴
Festival de las Flores Parade
The Colombian Festival de las Flores 2024, New York’s version of Medellín’s Feria de las Flores, is on 37th Avenue from 69th to 89th St in Jackson Heights, Queens; on Sunday, July 14, 2024, from 12-3pm. FREE.
There is usually a street fair with live music, dancers, theatre, and circus performers, and a street crawl where people visit businesses along the route.
Festival de las Flores
Medellín, like many Colombian cities, is in a mountain valley. In some places, especially on steep hillsides, the only way to travel is on foot. In the past, Colombian farmers used to carry flowers and goods down the mountainsides to market in chairs tied on their backs. The chair was basically their backpack frame. In colonial times, they even carried rich people and politicians in those chairs. That is not done anymore, but the tradition is remembered by carrying flower arrangements at the flower festival. Medellín’s Feria de las Flores is in August.
The highlight of the Festival is El Desfile de Silleteros (Silleteros Parade), in which marchers carry huge floral arrangements tied to chairs on their backs. Some of the the arrangements weigh as much as 200 lbs (90 kg). A “silletero” is a chair worker (from “silla” or chair).
The Medellín festival started in 1957 when a promoter (people from Medellín are often good promoters) asked a few silleteros to march in a parade. Today over 500 silleteros march in what has become a huge week-long festival, the most important celebration in Medellín. Like many Latin festival traditions, it’s a family affair. Entire families and communities turn out for the fun.
Today the small town of Santa Elena is the heart of silletero culture. Santa Elena is a busy place on the night before the festival.
A large portion of New York City’s fresh cut flowers are grown in Colombia. The Festival promotes that connection. July is an important month for Colombians because of Colombia’s patron saint Chiquinquirá on July 9, and Colombian Independence Day on July 20. The Festival de las Flores is part of New York’s Colombian celebrations. It’s especially popular because most New York Colombians are Paisas from Antioquia Department, of which Medellín is the capital.
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