Top Flight 07-2019 | Page 117

#07 / 2019 Next year, the festival will celebrate its 65th anniversa- ry. It all began with a small event in the Mayor’s Of- fice where two young entre- preneurs decided to hold a provincial flower exhibi- tion. The event was success- ful, and since then Girona has become a floral art exhi- bition for nine days in May every year: central streets, facades and interiors of pub- lic buildings are decorat- ed with presentations made of live plants, and the imag- ination and innovation of the creators are bound- less — it seems sometimes that the authors of compo- sitions borrowed their cre- ative ideas from the clas- sics of surrealism. The 2019 festival was held at 137 sites and attracted 250,000 tour- ists, and its parallel program included thematic lectures, film screenings, concerts and even tastings of edible flowers. centisme style, including the famous Casa Maso, a house that belonged to the famous architect Rafael Maso. In the last century, the historical houses along the river were restored, and since then the owners have been forbidden to change their tradition- al color palette of different shades of ocher. Girona becomes most beautiful in May when the annual Temps de Flors (Flow- er Festival) takes place here. TF