02:17Blooming marvellous! Namangan hosts Uzbekistan's 62nd International Flower Festival
The 62nd International Flower Festival kicked off in the Uzbek city of Namangan on Sunday, with footage showing colourful parades and performances in the city square.
A procession of motorbikes, trucks and other vehicles, all decorated with flowers, could be seen while locals dressed in traditional costumes danced and marched with national flags.
An eight-hectare square in Babur Park was also decorated with an array of 25 million flowers, according to the region's press service.
250 experts from Uzbekistan, along with landscape gardeners from 50 foreign countries including Germany, India, Poland, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan and Italy will attend, with demonstrations in floristry and floriculture.
The festival takes place from May 21 to June 4 with more than 2.5 million people expected to visit.
The 'Gul Bayrami' traditional flower event in Namangan dates back to the 1960s. It began when local gardeners appealed to the citizens, via radio and newspaper announcements, to 'turn Namangan into a city of roses', and all courtyards and streets of the city were subsequently filled with flowers.
The first festival in 1961 was attended by 16 local gardeners, with florists from neighbouring provinces and countries later joining the event
02:17The 62nd International Flower Festival kicked off in the Uzbek city of Namangan on Sunday, with footage showing colourful parades and performances in the city square.
A procession of motorbikes, trucks and other vehicles, all decorated with flowers, could be seen while locals dressed in traditional costumes danced and marched with national flags.
An eight-hectare square in Babur Park was also decorated with an array of 25 million flowers, according to the region's press service.
250 experts from Uzbekistan, along with landscape gardeners from 50 foreign countries including Germany, India, Poland, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan and Italy will attend, with demonstrations in floristry and floriculture.
The festival takes place from May 21 to June 4 with more than 2.5 million people expected to visit.
The 'Gul Bayrami' traditional flower event in Namangan dates back to the 1960s. It began when local gardeners appealed to the citizens, via radio and newspaper announcements, to 'turn Namangan into a city of roses', and all courtyards and streets of the city were subsequently filled with flowers.
The first festival in 1961 was attended by 16 local gardeners, with florists from neighbouring provinces and countries later joining the event