Silleteros (flower-chair carriers) from Santa Elena parade alongside the Medellin River during 52nd Annual Feria de Flores (Flower Festival) Parade in Medellin, Colombia. Ensconced in the Andes Mountains about 45 minutes west of Medellin, Santa Elena is known for its flower-growing climate, while Medellin is known as the City of Eternal Spring because flowers bloom there year-round.
The first parade took place May 1, 1957, and 40 Silleteros participated. Today more than 500 Silleteros showed flower arranged on chair-like structures which they hoist on their backs. The tradition of carrying flowers on chair-like structures hoisted on the backs is inspired by the chairs used by pre-Columbian natives to carry work-loads and people in colonial times. Made of wood, some of the chairs along with flowers can weigh as much as 70 kilos and expand as much as 1.5 meters in diameter.
More than 1500 musicians, dancers, and jugglers too part in the parade.
Three pictures show children collecting flowers thrown out of a helicopter from the asphalt.
This year's parade began around 2:30PM at the Guayaquil Bridge, ran along the Medellin River, and ended at Plaza Mayor, a distance of close to three kilometers.
