| GEO World | | Annual flowers festival begins Colombia | Updated at: 1355 PST, Saturday, August 08, 2009
 MEDELLIN: More than 400 Colombian flower growers participated in Medellin's
Annual flower festival.
The colourful even features dozens of growers, known as "silleteros," carrying decorative wreaths of flowers in a long parade.
Bent under the weight of the blossoms, participants, like Piedad del Socorro, said it's become a family tradition.
The flowers, placed on large wooden frames call "silletas," can weigh over 100 kilograms. The tradition began in 1957 and attracts numerous tourists, like Jorge Martinez.
Colombia's famed flower industry is the largest in the Western Hemisphere and the second largest in the world, after The Netherlands.
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