The final touches are being made to the world-famous flower carpet on the Grand Place, Brussels' main square. Over 100 volunteers started working early on Thursday to decorate the cobblestones with flowers in all shapes and colours.
The biennial event attracts thousands of visitors and the full design was completed at around 14:00. Even before the final sections were put in place hundreds of tourists were already gathering around the artwork.
"In 2022 during the last edition, the flower carpet attracted some 150,000 people in just four days," Delphine Houba, the City's Councillor for Culture, Tourism and Major Events, told The Brussels Times. This year marks the 23rd edition of the unique initiative.
The carpet was already drawing big crowds before it was even finished. Credit: The Brussels Times
"We can already see the effect it has. It doesn't just make the city more beautiful, it also supports our economy as people from all over come to see it and then have a drink in one of our bars, visit a nearby museum, maybe even stay the night."
For the first time since its creation in 1971, the floral piece (measuring 1,680 square metres) will consist mainly of dahlias. 470,000 of the bright flowers will make up 62% of the entire carpet (measuring 70 x 24 metres). Each square metre has around 450 dahlias.
Credit: The Brussels Times
"Usually we use begonias but this year we went for dahlias," Houba said. "This is a very strong flower that exists in many different colours, which is easier to use for the design of the flower carpet." The dahlias are all grown locally in Flanders. Tree bark is used for the darker colours in the floral motif, designed by a street art artist from Liège, Océane Cornille (under the pseudonym 'Whoups').
Passionate volunteers
The breathtaking end result is possible thanks to the hard work of some 100 volunteers, mostly from Belgium but some from as far as Spain and the United States. Busloads of them arrived on the square around 07:00 on Thursday morning.
The majority travelled from Loenhout, a village in the province of Antwerp near the Dutch border, and left home at around 05:30. They are linked to the Loenhout Bloemencorso (Flower Parade), an organisation which also supplied the flowers for the carpet.
Kelly, whose father is on the board of Loenhout Bloemencorso, is a first-time volunteer. "The system works with codes and it can be compared to painting by numbers," she told The Brussels Times. "The numbers correspond to flowers or to bark, so we look at the digit before us and pass that on to other volunteers who then bring us a box of flowers or a bag of bark, which we lay down between the lines."
But the excessive rainfall that Belgium has experienced in recent months has led to a shortage of flowers. "This means a lot of puzzling is involved. We don't have enough of each type of flower so there's a lot of going back and forth and thinking how to fill the gaps."
The numbers on the carpet correspond to the colour of flowers or bark. Credit: The Brussels Times
Volunteers kneel on padded foam mats. But it still is quite tiring, Kelly admitted. "I change positions frequently. I kneeled, stood up, just now I was on my stomach. Then I went back to sitting. I think we will have sore muscles tomorrow but the pain will be worth it!"
One of the older volunteers, Marcel from the nearby Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, said being on his knees all day was "not that bad, especially with the sunny weather." Also his first time, he told The Brussels Times: "I already know I want to volunteer again, this is such a unique experience."
Louise (11) was one of the youngest volunteers: "It's quite exhausting, especially in the sun, but luckily we are given plenty of water."
Credit: The Brussels Times
The flower carpet can be viewed for free until Sunday 18 August at 22:00 (final entry at 21:30). A light and audio show will also take place every 30 minutes in the evening (between 21:00 and 23:00).
Visitors can also buy tickets to admire it from the City Hall balcony, while the building's tower is also open to the public for the occasion to offer even more impressive views of the artwork. All tickets for this are now sold out. Tickets for viewings from the balcony can still be bought on the site.
