MADEIRA’S FLOWER FESTIVAL
The Flower Festival is a Madeiran tribute to spring. Today is the highlight of Madeira’s famous flower festival. At 4pm today, the main streets of Funchal will be transformed with dancing children and flower-filled floats. The flower parade takes place every year, two weeks after Easter, and has been a tradition here on the island since 1979. This year there will be 11 groups taking part in the parade, with a total of approximately 1500 participants in all.
Next week Saturday, as part of the flower festival, hundreds of children will gather in the Praça do Município (the town square in front of the Colégio Church) where they will build a ‘Wall of Hope’, made of flowers. The children will each place a flower on the wall to symbolize the hope for a better and more peaceful world. Other activities that have been taking place in Funchal this week is the making of flower carpets in the streets, folklore performances, flower shows, classical music concerts and variety shows.