The Tulip Festivals are held in several cities including Ottawa, Ontario; Holland, Michigan; and Pella, Iowa. The tulips are considered a welcome harbinger of spring, and a tulip festival permits residents to see them at their best advantage. The festivals are also popular tourist attractions. The tulips are displayed throughout the cities. Certain years climatic conditions occur so the the peak of the tulips does not coincide with the actual festival.
One is an annual event held each May in Ottawa, Ontario. Every spring, Ottawa receives a gift of several hundred thousand tulips from the royal family of the Netherlands. This is in gratitude for the city's having hosted the royal family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War. In particular, Queen Juliana gave birth to her daughter Princess Margriet in the city, in a hospital whose maternity ward was temporarily declared to be officially part of the Netherlands so that the princess might be born on Dutch soil. Tulips are displayed throughout the city but the most important location is around Dow's Lake.
Holland, Michigan's Tulip Festival in early May is based on the town's Dutch heritage. Tulips are planted along many city streets, in city parks and outside munincipal buildings as well as at tourist attractions like Dutch Village and Windmill Island and at a large tulip farm north of the city. The festival lasts for over a week and features three parades the Volksparade, usually led by the state governor with a broom as townspeople in Dutch costume wash the street, the Muzekparade of marching bands and the Kinderparade featuring local children dressed in traditional Dutch costume. The festival began in 1929 when 250,000 tulips were planted for the event. Currently 6,000,000 tulips are used. The festival includes fireworks, musical shows and 1,000-2,000 klompen dancers dancing on city streets in wooden shoes. Churches and schools are used to provide Dutch meals to tour groups. About 1 million tourists visit Tulip Time each year.
Pella, Iowa's Tulip Festival also in early May began in 1935 in celebration of the town's heritage. It is a three day event that features street washing parades, costumed wooden shoe dancers, wooden shoe carving demonstrations, street venders selling poffertjes and an antique Dutch street organ.
