Everything you need to know about the 2017 Canadian Tulip Festival

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What: The Canadian Tulip Festival takes place May 12 to 22.

History: The Canadian Tulip Festival, launched in 1953, celebrates the Capital’s official flower as a symbol of international friendship and peace. The festival is produced by the Canadian Tulip Legacy, a non-profit charitable organization established to celebrate the historic Royal gift of tulips from the Dutch to Canadians while preserving the legacy of the role of the Canadian troops in the liberation of Europe, and during the Second World War— as well as the birth of Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, born at the Ottawa Hospital’s Civic Campus on 19 January 1943. Princess Margriet is the only royal born North America, a historic birth that sealed a bond between Canada and the Netherlands.

The Festival is celebrating this year with four distinct venues across Ottawa-Gatineau:

• Dow’s Lake/Commissioners Park – Take in more than 250,000 colourful tulip beds — including the Queen Juliana Gift Bed and many of the Canada 150 tulips, the official tulip of Canada’s 150th Anniversary — while enjoying live music and watch artist among the tulip beds. Interpretive signage and, new this year, free guided half hour tours offer an opportunity to learn about the tulips and the history of the annual spring festival.

• Byward Tulip Park(ing) – This tulip experience brings the festival back to its downtown roots with an urban tulip park. Pop artist, Bex, creator of the Festival’s One Tulip One Canada flag icon, brings his stylized tulip art to the market with a massive art installation wrap around the third floor of the City Parkade on York Street. There’s also, interactive, artist-led creative workshops, animation throughout the streets and courtyards, and a host of merchant promotions throughout the neighborhood.

• Lansdowne Park Tulip Gallery – This venue — the only site the requires an admission fee ($15, free for children under 12 years old) — features vast floral exhibits and installations on the south lawn and inside Aberdeen Pavilion. Some of the features include a tribute to photographer Malak Karsh, the festival’s founder, which includes an exhibit of 65 photographers’ photos that celebrate Karsh. Also, there will be a tulip gallery with 65 works of art created by artists and visuals artists, as well as a tulip memory wall of photos from members of the public to share personal memories of the festival over the past 65 years. The Tulip Café in Aberdeen with food, wine and craft beer, interactive family programming, live music, and a marketplace with Canadian artisans.

• Garden Promenade Tulips – Enjoy a self-guided or escorted tour of Ottawa’s public gardens brimming with thousands of tulips in bloom along this new garden promenade that stretches from the Governor General’s Residence to the Central Experimental Farm and back to Parliament Hill via Gatineau. Look for special activities in gardens such as Yoga in the Tulips.

Some special events:

• Opening Night Vernissage – On Friday May 12 at 6 p.m. at the Lansdowne Park Tulip Gallery. Enjoy an elegant catered evening while learning about the history of the festival, created by photographer Malak Karsh, who inspired the Ottawa Board of Trade to create the Tulip Festival in 1953. During the event, representatives from the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce will be officially inducted into the ‘Order of the Tulip’, an honour bestowed on Ottawa Mayors and Chamber Chairs since 1953, all of whom were specially acknowledged and inducted during the Festival’s 50th Anniversary. Tickets are $65.

• Swing Dance – On May 19 at Lansdowne Park Tulip Gallery. The second Annual Canadian Tulip Festival Swing Dance kicks off at 7:30 p.m. with a one-hour beginner swing dance lesson with live music provided by the SRO Snippets Sextet. Vintage big band, Standing Room Only with vocalist Pauline Proulx, take the stage for the evening at 8:30 p.m. This is an all-ages event with a variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and food available for sale inside Aberdeen Pavilion. Swing dancers are encouraged to wear Second World War period dress. $15 entry fee.

• Tulipmania Fireworks – Watch the 65th Anniversary Tulipmania Fireworks on Sunday, May 21 from the stadium field at TD Place. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., 65th Anniversary celebration at 8 p.m. and fireworks at approximately 9 p.m. General admission only. Don’t forget your blankets. Tickets on sale now for $20. Free for kids 12 and under (a free ticket is still required).

How to buy tickets: Tickets are available online and at the Aberdeen Pavillion, the only venue that requires an entry fee. The other three sites are open to the public. A Day pass for adults is $15. Events free for children under 12 years old. For more information about the events visit: www.tulipfestival.ca

Festival facts by the numbers:

• 100 varieties of tulips.
• 3,000 tulip bulbs given to the Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus where Princess Margriet of the Netherlands was born in 1943.
• 20,000 bulbs given to Canada by the Netherlands annually.
• 500,000 annual visitors.
• $2,000,000 tulips on display around the city.

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