A WORLD OF TULIPS: 5 THINGS
New theme, new blooms, new art
Get ready to welcome the world — A World of Tulips — at this year’s 66th annual tulip festival.
“There’s many new and exciting things for this year,” Canadian Tulip Festival executive director Michel Gauthier said at a media event Thursday.
The new stuff starts with the World of Tulips theme: It was inspired this past October when tulipists from 34 countries came to Ottawa to participate in the seventh World Tulip Summit.
To highlight this year’s theme, there will be several cultural and heritage learning experiences at the May 11-21 festival where you can learn about 27 Tulip Friendship Countries (including Russia, China and Turkey) that promote friendship and peace through the tulip.
The festival has four locations showcasing tulips, hosting events and running activities: Dow’s Lake, Lansdowne Park, the ByWard Market and the Garden Promenade.
Although organizers add new attractions each year, Gauthier said he is particularly excited for this year’s additions. Here are some of the highlights: 1
At Lansdowne Park, more than 50,000 tulips will be put together to create a Turkish Tulip Carpet. These tulips range in colour, with yellow and purple tulips standing out, and the carpet is created to highlight the friendship between Canada and Turkey.
2
Also at Lansdowne Park, 5,000 tulip drawings submitted by elementary school kids in Ottawa and Gatineau cover about 300 feet of wall space at the Aberdeen Pavilion. These drawings will be a representation of what the kids believe tulip friendship means. 3
At Dow’s Lake, there will be tulip gardens in the water — something commonly found in Japan but new to Ottawa. In previous years, the gardens were set along the boardwalk, but if the festival gets permission from the city, this year it will set them up in the water and it will appear as if the gardens are floating.
4
The festival will also be adding tulip chairs — chairs shaped like a tulip that allow you to pull down the petal and take a seat. There will be six of them painted in spring colours set up along the boardwalk at Dow’s Lake.
5
At the ByWard Market, visitors can “Tiptoe Through a World of Tulips” in an installation curated by the festival’s 2018 featured artist, Monique Martin. There will also be culinary tours by C’est Bon and special menus by participating restaurants.
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