Canadian Tulip Festival
2013 marks the 61st edition of the Canadian Tulip Festival taking place May 3rd through May 20th.
This festival is a celebration founded on international friendship with the 1945 presentation of 100,000 tulip bulbs from Princess Juliana of the Netherlands to Ottawa, Canada’s capital, given in appreciation of the safe haven that members of Holland’s exiled royal family received during World War II in Ottawa and in recognition of the role which Canadian troops played in the liberation of the Netherlands.
The Canadian Tulip Festival is also a celebration of the return of spring, with over a million tulips in 50 varieties blooming in public spaces across the National Capital Region. The highest concentration of tulips can be viewed in the flower beds of Commissioners Park, on the banks of Dow’s Lake, where 300,000 flowers bloom.
Experience the festival at sites throughout the city. Visit www.tulipfestival.ca for more details.
Fast Facts
- The Canadian Tulip Festival is the largest of its kind in the world, attracting some 600,000 visitors annually.
- The first Canadian Tulip Festival was held in 1953 led by the Ottawa Board of Trade, at the suggestion of world renowned photographer Malak Karsh. Karsh is considered the founder of the Festival and his photographs have immortalized the tulip.
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Tulip Celebration
Visit the Ottawa this May and see the city come alive with colour when a million tulips create an exotic mosaic throughout the city.
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