Girona's Temps de Flors flower festival draws 380,000 visitors

Sunny skies after a wet spring made for glorious conditions at the 70th Temps de Flors flower festival in Girona.

Almost 380,000 people visited the displays in the northern Catalan city, which wrapped up on Sunday.

The opening day, Saturday, May 10, was the busiest, with 66,500 attending.

The busiest weekday was Monday, May 12, with 42,307 visitors.

Improved visitor flow ensured that those attending did not experience overcrowding, according to Girona Deputy Mayor and Councillor for Economic Promotion, Gemma Geis.

"The locations chosen for the floral installations and the extended visiting hours, which ran until 11pm, allowed for better visitor distribution and helped avoid overcrowding."

Based on data from the start of the festival until lunchtime on the final day, the city council estimates that around 380,000 people attended.

The most popular locations were, in order: Sant Lluc Church, the Cathedral cloister, and Girona City Hall, each receiving around 7% of total visits.

One of the most common remarks from attendees this year was that they could comfortably enjoy the displays, without major crowding.

"One of our goals was to better manage foot traffic around the exhibitions. To achieve that, we opened new sites and extended the visiting hours. Feedback from Girona residents has been positive," said Geis.

The flower installations were open daily from 9.30am, as in previous years, but remained open two hours later, until 11pm, and until midnight on the festival's two Saturdays.

Visitors Isabel Pagès and Santi Eguiagaray appreciated the return of natural flowers after the drought.

"There are many more real flowers than last year, when they used a lot of dried flowers – we like that," they said.

For the couple, attending Temps de Flors is a tradition. Even though they waited until the last day this year, they said it was "quite crowded," but still "comfortable to walk around."