The Canadian Tulip Festival (french: Festival Canadien des Tulipes; nl, Canadees Festival van de Tulp) is a tulip festival, held annually in May in

Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, Canada. The festival claims to be the world's largest tulip festival, displaying over one million

tulip Tulips (''Tulipa'') are a genus of spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes (having bulbs as storage organs). The flowers are usually large, showy and brightly coloured, generally red, pink, yellow, or white (usually in warm ...

s, with attendance of over 650,000 visitors annually. Large displays of tulips are planted throughout the city, and the largest display of tulips is found in Commissioners Park on the shores of

Dow's Lake Dow's Lake in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada is a small man-made lake on the Rideau Canal, situated two kilometres north of Hog's Back Falls in the middle of Ottawa. It is at the south end of Preston Street, just south of Carling Avenue, and just to ...

, and along the

Rideau Canal The Rideau Canal, also known unofficially as the Rideau Waterway, connects Canada's capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, to Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River at Kingston. It is 202 kilometres long. The name ''Rideau'', French for "curtain" ...

with 300,000 tulips planted there alone.

History

In 1945, the

Dutch royal family The monarchy of the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy. As such, the role and position of the monarch are governed by the Constitution of the Netherlands. Consequently, a large portion of it is devoted to the monarch. Roughly a third of ...

sent 100,000

bulbs to

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

in gratitude for Canadians having sheltered the future

Queen Juliana Juliana (; Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina; 30 April 1909 – 20 March 2004) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1948 until her abdication in 1980. Juliana was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Sh ...

and her family for the preceding three years during the

Nazi occupation of the Netherlands Despite Dutch neutrality, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940 as part of Fall Gelb (Case Yellow). On 15 May 1940, one day after the bombing of Rotterdam, the Dutch forces surrendered. The Dutch government and the royal family r ...

in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. The most noteworthy event during their time in Canada was the birth in 1943 of Princess Margriet at the

Ottawa Civic Hospital The Ottawa Civic Hospital is one of three main campuses of The Ottawa Hospital – along with the General and Riverside campuses. With 549 beds (including the Heart Institute), the Civic Campus has the region's only adult-care trauma centre, servi ...

. The maternity ward was temporarily declared to be extraterritorial by the Canadian government, thereby allowing Princess Margriet's citizenship to be solely influenced by her mother's Dutch citizenship. In 1946, Juliana sent another 20,500 bulbs requesting that a display be created for the hospital, and promised to send 10,000 more bulbs each year.

The festival begins

Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands in Ottawa

In the years following Queen Juliana's original donation, Ottawa became famous for its tulips and in 1953 the Ottawa Board of Trade and photographer

Malak Karsh Malak Karsh, MPA. (March 1, 1915 – November 8, 2001) was a Canadian photographer of Armenian heritage best known for his photographs of Canada and the Ottawa region. Career Born in Mardin, Ottoman Empire, a few months before the Armenian gen ...

organized the first "Canadian Tulip Festival". Queen Juliana returned to celebrate the festival in 1967, and Princess Margriet returned in 2002 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the festival. For many years, the festival featured a series of outdoor

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

concerts in addition to the tulips. The 1972 festival saw

Liberace Władziu Valentino Liberace (May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987) was an American pianist, singer, and actor. A child prodigy born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin, he enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordi ...

give an opening concert, and at the 1987 festival, Canadian singer Alanis Morissette made her first appearance at the age of 12.

The Trews The Trews are a Canadian rock band from Antigonish, Nova Scotia, consisting of vocalist Colin MacDonald, guitarist John-Angus MacDonald, bassist Jack Syperek, and drummer Chris Gormley. The band is currently based in Hamilton, Ontario. From t ...

first became widely known after opening for Big Sugar at the 2003 festival. Montreal's General Rudie also gained valuable exposure early in their career with a performance at the 2000 festival.

1994–2006: World Friendship

For a dozen years, the Canadian Tulip Festival celebrated countries all across the world, who have also adopted the Tulip as a Symbol of International Friendship.

2007: Reorganisation & ''Celebridée''

In 2007, the festival was reorganised under new leadership. Park admission charges were eliminated and a new feature called ''Celebridée: a Celebration of Ideas'' was introduced. Another component of the 2007 festival was a fund-raising effort in support of War Child Canada. Beyond celebrating the tulip as a symbol of beauty and friendship, the Canadian Tulip Festival, through Celebridée, aims to present some of the most brilliant thinkers of our time speaking about ideas that matter. Celebridée continued to grow since its inception in 2007. 2008's speakers included Sir

Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Wes ...

, Wired Magazine's Chris Anderson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of '' Guns, Germs and Steel''

Jared Diamond Jared Mason Diamond (born September 10, 1937) is an American geographer, historian, ornithologist, and author best known for his popular science books ''The Third Chimpanzee'' (1991); '' Guns, Germs, and Steel'' (1997, awarded a Pulitzer Prize); ...

, and pianist

Angela Hewitt Angela Hewitt, (born July 26, 1958) is a Canadian classical pianist. She is best known for her Bach interpretations. Career Hewitt was born in Ottawa, Ontario, daughter of the Yorkshire-born Godfrey Hewitt (thus she also has British nationality ...

2019: Present: Re-Rooted

In 2019, the festival once again changed leadership and management, into the hands of a younger board and management team. The goal of this most recent team is to Re-Root the festival in its history and horticulture. The festival has been returned to a single-site at Commissioners Park, with a Veterans Day Ceremony at Beechwood National Military Cemetery. In 2020, the planned celebrations for the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Netherlands had to pivot to a Virtual Experience, due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. The Festival once again put forth a stunning display of horticulture including the use of aerial photography and 360-degree image capture of hundreds of breeds of tulips. Official Sites * Commissioners Park – Dow's Lake *Beechwood National Military Cemetery Attraction Sites *

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the l ...

Royal Canadian Mint }) is the mint of Canada and a Crown corporation, operating under the ''Royal Canadian Mint Act''. The shares of the Mint are held in trust for the Crown in right of Canada. The Mint produces all of Canada's circulation coins, and manufactures ...

Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is t ...

Canadian War Museum The Canadian War Museum (french: link=no, Musée canadien de la guerre; CWM) is a national museum on the country's military history in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The museum serves as both an educational facility on Canadian military history, in a ...

Themes

* 1994: A Tribute to the Origin Country of the Tulip - Turkey * 1995: The Friendship That Flowered - 50th anniversary of the Liberation of the Netherlands * 1996: Floral Tribute to Nice * 1997: Floral Artistry of Japan * 1998: A Celebration of Canada's Provinces and Territories * 1999: Between Friends * 2000: Tulips 2000: A Capital Celebration! * 2001: Tulips Forever! A Salute to Britain * 2002: Tulipmania! 50th Anniversary * 2003: G'day Australia – Tulips Down Under * 2004: Canada's Tulip Experience * 2005: A Celebration of Peace and Friendship * 2006: Tulips 2006 – World Flower Rendezvous! * 2007: "CelebrIDÉE A Celebration of Ideas" inaugural year * 2008: Where Ideas Bloom * 2009: The Tulip Route * 2010: "Liberation" - The 65th anniversary of the liberation of Europe * 2011: "Kaleidoscope" - A celebration of Spring awakening through colour, culture and community * 2012: The Festival celebrates its 60th anniversary with “60 years of Tulip Friendship”. * 2013: “Cirque de Liberation” * 2014: “Floral Extravaganza” * 2015: “Tulip Liberation” celebrates the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Holland through colour, culture and community! * 2016: "Urban Tulip" - at Aberdeen Pavilion * 2017: “One Tulip – One Canada” The Festival's 65th edition takes place during Canada's 150th * 2018: "A World of Tulips" * 2019: Canadian Tulip Festival; ReRooted * 2020: Canadian Tulip Festival; Liberation75 (Held Online during CoVid19) * 2021: Canadian Tulip Festival; Liberation 75+1 and Rembrandt & Dutch Masters

Trivia

Because of the ongoing Canadian support for the Netherlands during the war, Seymour Cobley of the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ( ...

actually donated 83,000 tulips to Canada from 1941–1943, several years before the Royal Family followed suit. While the Netherlands continues to send 20,000 bulbs to Canada each year (10,000 from the Royal Family and 10,000 from the Dutch Bulb Growers Association), by 1963 the festival featured more than 2 million, and today sees nearly 3 million tulips purchased from Dutch and Canadian distributors. Photographer

became widely known for his photographs of the Tulip Festival.

Official Festival Site

Commissioner's Park - Dow's Lake

Commissioner's Park, on the shores of Dow's Lake is a major centre of activity for the Tulip Festival. The largest concentration of tulips in the

National Capital Region A capital region, also called a capital district or capital territory, is a region or district surrounding a capital city. It is not always the official term for the region, but may sometimes be used as an informal synonym. Capital regions can exis ...

— some 300,000 — can be found planted along a 1.2 km section of the lakeshore.

References

External links

*
"The Story of the Ottawa Tulip Festival"
{{Authority control Festivals in Ottawa Gardening in Canada 1953 establishments in Ontario Festivals established in 1953 Annual events in Canada Flower festivals in Canada Spring (season) events in Canada Annual events in Ottawa