The Allariz International Garden Festival, which opened its doors just two weeks ago, is celebrating its 4th edition this year. This year it is the only national festival that brings together national and international landscape designers, after the 2013 edition of Bilbaojardin was postponed until next year.
This fourth edition of the Festival reaffirms it as a solid commitment by the local government, which despite difficulties, values the important impact it has on boosting tourism and local commerce. It is a truly massive event, where the influx of visitors to the site, on the banks of the Arnoia river, in the previous edition reached around 45,000 visits, a very significant figure considering that Allariz's current population is around 6,000 inhabitants.
At the same time, this edition also consolidates the event within the gardening and landscaping sector, both for its continuity and for the level of the proposals presented, which year after year increase their quality and establish it at the national level as a reference Festival.
The current edition is framed under the motto "Allariz, inspiring beauty" and features 12 gardens, approximately 200m2 each, which can be visited from now until the end of October.
Among the proposals presented, it is worth highlighting the commitment of several participating teams to vertical gardens. Others, however, have chosen to evoke legends from local popular tradition or to be inspired by the urban structure or unique elements of Allariz such as the Romanesque bridge or the tannery factory, to create their gardens.
Garden "encounter between nature and reality"
"Both the quality of the proposals, very good, and the quality of execution is superior each year that passes. It is a young competition, and it is gaining more prestige as time goes by. This year they have included a sculpture exhibition, which I found very appropriate, as it further improves the artistic quality of the space and culturally it is a good contribution to attract more public," comments Mercedes de Rada, co-author of the garden "Encounter between nature and reality" and who is participating for the second consecutive year in the Festival.
For more information you can visit the Festival website
Images: El País / Mercedes de Rada