Panamanian Town Adorned with a Million Flowers

Around one and a half million flowers have shaped more than a hundred animal figures in Volcán, Panama this Sunday during the eighth edition of the ‘Flower Parade’, a colorful annual event that showcases the art of “mosaic art.”

“It is an event focused on flower mosaics, as you can see around the fairground. We have different pieces that we make with natural flowers. For more than 15 days we have worked every day to be able to arrive and have flowers that are in figures throughout the fairground,” says Virginia López, a member of the Volcán Flower Parade Foundation.

The event takes place in the town of Volcán, located in western Panama, 500 kilometers from the capital, on the slopes of the Barú Volcano, the highest point in the country, with a temperate climate (between 15 and 25 degrees) compared to the high temperatures of the rest of the country (which sometimes exceed 30 degrees).

Some 160,000 visitors are expected to come this year to enjoy the tourist attraction, which ends on September 17, Lopez said, adding that it is an annual event, where flowers of the chrysanthemum, astromelia and heliconia varieties are used to make the figures on display.

The Flower Parade also boosts the local economy through tourism and trade during this low season by generating an internal tourist boom by offering visitors a unique experience that highlights natural beauty and agricultural production, say the organizers.