Calling Madeira a “floating garden” is not an exaggeration at all. The island reunites an incredible variety of botanic species from all over the world.
Sailors and settlers brought plants from Africa, Latin America, Australia and also from other parts of Europe, which quickly developed, due to the propitious mild climate and fertility of the soil. Over the centuries, the local flora has been enriched by countless species from abroad, among them the popular and well known orchids.
Madeira’s flora can be appreciated all over the island. We can see all its splendor with a visit to the public gardens. The Botanical Garden, Municipal Garden and the park of “Museu das Cruzes” are some examples. Among them you can find the main species of the island, and many others, some of them in extinction in others regions of the globe.
But it’s in Madeira Flower Festival, which this year takes place between 4 and 26 of May, that Madeira offers a stunning show to all its visitors and locals. A mixture os colors, shapes and scents fill the streets of Funchal city, delighting the visitors with a rare frame of beauty.
Market, Exhibition and Flower Decorations
From May 4th, Funchal city center is filled with color, flower scents and animation.
In Praça da Restauração is carried out the traditional Flower Exhibition, an event that gave rise to the current Flower Festival. It is an exhibition/contest in which local producers exhibit the flowers grown by themselves, and the best speciments receive a distinction. This exhibition symbolizes the close relationship between the locals and the flowers. It must be noted that the floriculture currently plays an important role in Madeira’s economy, and a part of the regional production is for exportation. This way, it is possible to take its beauty to be admired around the world.
Along Avenida Arriaga, we can find the Flower Market, an initiative that was recently integrated into the event, and it’s a way to promote and sell, both to visitors and locals, the existing variety of the regional production. Symbolically, this market also has a meaning. The sellers, dressed up with the regional costumes, represent Madeira’s florists, well known for selling flowers to tourists in the streets of Funchal, one of the reasons why the island is known as the “Flower island”.
Also in the center of Avenida Arriaga, are carefully constructed and exhibited the Floral Carpets. The close relationship between Madeira natives and the flower, is also reflected in the religious events. Traditionally elaborated all over the island, for the religious processions, these pieces of art began to be present in the Flower Festival, representing another attraction for the visitors, and making known another tradition of Madeira’s culture.
Along this route of the avenue, we can also find young women with flower costumes, and many other decorative elements related to this party, usually very fotographed by the tourist’s cameras.
The Flower Festival, beyond being a tribute do Spring and flowers, is also a way to get the Madeira name across borders, and because of that, in addiction to these initiatives, other traditions of Madeira’s culture are presented. Besides the flower carpets mentioned above, are also exhibited the traditional “Flower charolas”, and many folklore groups perform in the city center, to show the typical dances and music of the region.
Chidren’s Parade and Wall of Hope
On May 4th (saturday) in the morning, hundreds of children, grouped by their schools, parade between Avenida Arriaga and Praça do Município, under the watchful eye of the locals, and under the camera focus of many foreigners.
All the children take a flower in the hand to be placed in the traditional “Wall of Hope“, a structure prepared for this purpose at Praça do Município. This cerimony is carried out since 1979 and like the other activities of the Flower Festival, has also a special meaning related to the close relationship with the flowers. The children’s purity is associated to the flowers delicacy, and put a flower on the wall means an appeal for peace.
After the wall construction, happens the symbolic pigeons drop, as a sign of hope for the children and peace all over the world.
Late morning, the children and all the audience, can also watch an entertainment show, with music and theatre.
Allegoric Parade
On May 5th (sunday) is carried out the great Flower Allegoric Parade, which takes place in the Avenida do Mar, and it’s the highest moment of the Flower Festival celebrations.
Hundreds of figurants, with a strong presence of children, dress costumes decorated with various species of flowers, and parade grouped by troupes with their own choreographies and musical themes. With the troupes, also run the avenue sumptuous allegoric cars, also adorned with a variety of typical flowers of ths island, delighting visitors with their majestic elegance.
Theses pieces of art, along with the figurants, run the avenue and leave in the air the sweet fragrance of flowers, offering a stunning show to the tourists.
To complement your stay in Madeira during the Flower Festival period, you may also visit one of the gardens open to the public, where you can enjoy many of the species that compose the local flora.