Every two years and for just a few days, the Grand-Place in Brussels, a region of Belgium, rolls out a red carpet, but it’s not just any old typical red carpet. It’s a huge carpet made of fresh blooming flowers.
For the first time ever, the theme of this year’s flower carpet celebrates Latin American culture. Guanajuato, a historic Mexican town and UNESCO World Heritage site that shares a rich tradition of making carpets, inspired the Brussels carpet.
According to the organizers, every year for ‘La Octava Noche’ in Uriangato, a city in the south of Guanajuato, residents decorate the streets with colored sawdust to create ephemeral carpets and honor St. Michael. Guanajuato, much like Brussels, is “known for its rich floral culture and tradition,” organizers said.
Over 100 hard-working volunteers painstakingly laid down the Brussels masterpiece with more than 2,000 square yards of begonias, dahlias, grass and bark in less than four hours. The carpet is also composed of nearly 1 million begonias.
The first flower carpet in Brussels was created back in 1971 by landscape architect Etienne Stautema. Floral designer Ana Rosa Aguilar Aguado from Uriangato created this year’s design.
The Grand-Place is also marking two decades as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Visitors who wish to get the best view can do so from the City Hall balcony for a small entrance fee of about $7. But victors should do so soon as the floral carpet will only be on display until Sunday.
By: Maytinee Kraymer
