By Coral Gables Gazette staff

Coral Gables will once again give visitors to Giralda Plaza a reason to look up.

The city will debut Giralda in Bloom, a canopy of floral-patterned umbrellas suspended above the pedestrian block, with a ribbon-cutting celebration Friday evening featuring live music and a pop-up market of local retailers.

The installation begins the second half of the city’s 2026 Giralda Sky Series and continues a tradition of suspending colorful public art above the plaza that dates back to 2018.

A ribbon-cutting, live music and Mini Market

The celebration runs from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14, with the ribbon cutting scheduled for 6 p.m. at Giralda Plaza and Galiano Street.

The evening will include live music and a Mini Market featuring local businesses Bliss Imprints & Gifts, Coco Bella Gift & Home, Linen Drama, Blue Serenity Boutique, No Boundaries Sport, In Fashion by Vera and Truffle Temptation, along with Giralda Sky sponsor Ciudad Madera.

The event is free and open to the public.

The second half of the Giralda Sky Series

Giralda in Bloom is the second of two installations in the city’s 2026 Giralda Sky Series, which runs from May through October.

The first, Cielo Tejido: A Woven Sky, covered the plaza from May through July with colorful handwoven textiles created by artisan women from Etzatlán, Mexico. The installation was presented with support from the Consulate of Mexico.

Friday’s unveiling trades those woven panels for umbrellas decorated in floral patterns, which will remain suspended above Giralda Plaza through the fall.

An overhead-art tradition dating to 2018

Coral Gables began its tradition of hanging artwork above the 100 block of Giralda Avenue with the Umbrella Sky Project in July 2018.

Created by Portugal-based creative agency Sextafeira, the concept originated in Águeda, Portugal, in 2011. Its Coral Gables incarnation brought more than 700 colorful umbrellas above Giralda Plaza and made the city the third U.S. location to host the installation.

The project was presented through a partnership involving the city, the Coral Gables Community Foundation and the Business Improvement District of Coral Gables and remained in place through September.

Later that year, the umbrellas gave way to Sunlit Sky, an installation of gold and silver metallic elements suspended above the plaza. Other temporary displays have followed in subsequent years, turning the space above Giralda into another venue for public art.

This year’s Giralda Sky Series formalizes that tradition as a two-part seasonal program while pairing the installations with events designed to draw visitors to downtown businesses.

From street to pedestrian plaza

The setting itself is relatively new.

The 100 block of Giralda Avenue, between Ponce de Leon Boulevard and Galiano Street, reopened as a pedestrian plaza in 2017 following a major streetscape project that removed regular automobile traffic from the block.

Restaurants and shops line both sides of the plaza, with outdoor dining occupying much of the walkway. Since its conversion, the block has become a frequent setting for city events, live music, markets and temporary art installations.

Friday’s unveiling adds another canopy to that history — this time replacing woven artwork inspired by Mexico with a ceiling of flowers and umbrellas for the final months of this year’s series.

If you go…

Giralda in Bloom ribbon-cutting celebration
Friday, Aug. 14, 6 to 8:30 p.m.
Ribbon cutting at 6 p.m.
Giralda Plaza at Galiano Street
100 block of Giralda Avenue, Coral Gables

The celebration, installation and Mini Market are free and open to the public.