The Carriers' Parade

The carriers' parade - or the "silleteros" parade - is a main event of a big festival in Medellin, Colombia. In this parade we can see young and old people showing the artistic vein they have inside, even thought they never visited a school to learned about this. Their schools have been the farms were they live and rise their families, in most of the cases in basic conditions.

Long time ago, the parade was prepared to show the beauty of the flowers, the colors, and the happiness they bring to people, so the person in charge decided to invite some carriers to show their "little" art on it, but this was a common tas theiy everyday have done to sell flowers and decorate the churchs. The carriers use to "carry" their art in their backs, no matter how old the person can be.

 Nowadays, the parade pretend to show the honor we feel to have this kind of artist on our country, in our community.   The flowers use to make the floral arrangements include any kind of flower that we can find on our land, and let me tell you they are a lot and amazing...

The tradition is passed to every generation by the family members to preserve the "Nation's Cultural Heritage".  Many people every year, colombians and foreigns, assist to this parade to admire the arrangements and to show artists their work worth enough to keep people waiting many ours for them on the streets.