December vs August

Best match

Alumbrado season — Medellín's Christmas light festival transforms the valley into one of the world's most extraordinary illuminated cities.

• ↑Alumbrado Navideño (from 7 December): the Medellín Christmas lights festival is the largest illuminated Christmas event in Latin America and among the most spectacular in the world — 30km of riverfront esplanade, public parks, bridges, and comunas transformed by millions of lights, with a different theme every year
• ↑Día de las Velitas (7 December): the night the lights turn on is the most festive evening of the Colombian calendar — the entire city turns out, candles are lit outside every home, and the atmosphere is extraordinary

Best match

Feria de las Flores — the most extraordinary flower festival in South America, and the year's most expensive week.

• ↑Feria de las Flores (first or second week of August): the silleteros parade down Avenida El Poblado carrying backpack-mounted flower arrangements of extraordinary complexity — a 60-year tradition that has grown into a ten-day event with concerts, horse parades, antique car exhibitions, and the orchid competition at the Jardin Botánico
• ↑The Desfile de Silleteros: 500 silleteros bearing flower arrangements weighing up to 80kg in the most visually extraordinary parade in Latin America — a living art form rooted in the city's indigenous flower-farming heritage