A revival of interest in gardening has spawned a new generation of gardening events, including the International Flower and Garden Festival being held in Istanbul's lively Beşiktaş district from this Friday until May 15.Aiming to raise awareness of the vital role parks play in our daily lives, the nearly two-week-long festival will bring a new level of understanding of gardening to the public with creative gardening installations, ecology workshops and entertaining events for both children and adults. Under the auspices of Beşiktaş Municipality, the festival will create a space that promotes interpersonal activity and free movement. Alongside national and international partners and participants, the main program will deal with nature, having a greener environment and gardening design. In addition, arts and cultural activities will be held along with events in science and education, bringing a cheerful, open-air atmosphere to Beşiktaş.The festival's debut will be made with the motto, "Making Peace in Beşiktaş." Local and international garden designers, artists, architects and landscape designers will all come together for projects at the festival. The creative works that have been developed in collaboration with companies, private organizations, international offices, consulates, and universities will transform Beşiktaş into a dynamic space with festival projects being based on five fundamental concepts; namely, "scene," "space," "making peace," "mankind," and "sharing." The event will kick off with a peace-themed parade.The International Flower and Garden Festival's principal supervisor Stephen Bennett has been the director of the "Chelsea Flower Show," for the past three years, with Andrew Tomlin-Fishier, the head of the London College of Garden Design, serving as festival curator. "Gardens have a great ability to bring people together. Wherever I travel around the world, I meet people who want to talk about plants and flowers; share their experiences of gardens and landscapes and, especially, tell their stories through their own gardens. It never fails to impress me how gardens can teach us things not just about nature but also about ourselves that we never knew before," shares Tomlin-Fishier about his connection to gardening.Some of the botanical artworks on display for visitors were designed by a wide range of international names in gardening, including Adam Kalinowski, Pip Probert, Damien Michel, Erwin Stam, Graham Bodle, Kate Gould, Sarah Wilson, Tony Smith and Josh Chapman, among many others. Five parks in Beşiktaş - Dünya Barış Parkı (World Peace Park), Aykut Barka Park, Sanatçılar Parkı (The Park of Artists), Yahya Kemal Park, Şairler Sofrası Parkı (Park of the Poet's Table) are the main venues of the festival along with Ortaköy Orphanage.At Dünya Barış Parkı, you will closely examine the participating designers' botanical artworks. Tony Smith will introduce his "Shelter from the Storm" with references to war and peace, while Sarah Wilson's "The Haven," a peaceful garden inspired by the traditional English countryside where lush lawns, voluminous flower beds and cool, still ponds are commonly found. A clever blend of color, scent and texture makes this garden feel like the perfect place to escape to from the outside world.An open-air cinema will be set up at Aykut Barka Park for guests who will be watching movies at night under the beautiful smell of spring flowers and plants. Samet Tuna from MizarLabs will be holding science workshops for children that can make experiments on soil and plants. Some trainers at the Beşiktaş Public Education Center will also give gardening workshops. A fashion and design event has also been scheduled there.At Yahya Kemal Park, a Persian garden will be designed by Urmia Peyzaj. Damien Michel, a French designer, will be participating in the festival with his "Liberty and Freedom" installation at the same park. The garden is designed in the spirit of the Parisian public garden (as the Tuileries Garden) in a modern way. The idea is to represent liberty and freedom, a family-friendly place to rest in a busy city and environment.Praxis Landscape Architecture and Urban Design will also participate with its "Light Field" display at Şairler Sofrası Park, an installation consisting of transparent globes filled with low energy fiber cables. Fiber cables make each globe to look different, providing a unique image for visitors who can move freely in the installation and feel the lighting experience inside the park. Evening music performances will be taking place there, too.Also around Beşiktaş, an open-air bazaar will be open, offering food, drinks and even more fun. A flower market will also be open during the festival. Exotic blooms and scents will be waiting for visitors. Sustainable green walls will be applied to certain buildings around the district's highlighted venues, while different designs of seating areas will be placed in key areas to turn the venue into an "urban living room." In short, architecture and unique ideas will bring five very different regions of Turkey together into the same pot, growing together under the concept of "peace vases." An ecology panel will be organized at Yıldız Technical University's Beşiktaş campus.