The Madeira Flower Festival, one of the islands’ most colorful celebrations, is May 5-8, 2011, in Funchal on Portuguese Madeira.

This traditional festival includes exhibitions and musical performances,streets and buildings decorated with flowers, a flower parade, flower show and competitions and gardening displays.

On May 7, thousands of youngsters will take part in the Children’s Parade, each carrying a flower to place in a mural known as the “Wall of Hope”, located in Praça do Município. Doves will be released to mark the end of the wall’s construction and there will also be a show for the children.

May 8 brings another dazzling event: the Grand Flower Parade. Hundreds of flower-themed floats and characters will make their way through the city in lavish style to the sound of music, displaying arrangements of many different species of flower typical to the island and leaving soft and ephemeral perfumes in their wake.

(Photo courtesy of Madeira Tourism)