The 65th Canadian Tulip Festival Launches its 11-Day Celebration

Canadian Tulip Festival (CNW Group/The Canadian Tulip Festival)

May 12 – 22, 2017
Four Locations Celebrate Everything Tulip

Hundreds of artists, photographers, florists and local performers
Millions of tulips blooming inside and out

OTTAWA, May 15, 2017 /CNW/ - The Canadian Tulip Festival opened its four venue-doors today, inviting the community, visitors and the world-at-large to come and join the Festival in celebrating its 65^th anniversary. For 11 days, four Ottawa locations will host one of the biggest tulip garden parties in the world:

Lansdowne Park Tulip Gallery – The Friendship, Floral and Art Tulip Experience presented by CapitalTek, features an indoor display of over 10,000 tulips in bloom, over 200 floral, art and photography exhibits and installations, an artisan marketplace, dozens of performers on stage, plus family programming and crafts created by hundreds of local school children; ByWard Tulip Park(ing) – The Urban Tulip Experience presented by Sterling Ford showcases the stylized tulips by Pop-artist Bex,  creator of the Festival's One Tulip One Canada flag icon and the first ever wrap of Ottawa's ByWard Market parkade with tons of interactivity and "urban tulip" photo opportunities; Tulips on the Garden Promenade – The City Tulip Tour Experience connects Ottawa and Gatineau's best tulip displays with a host of escorted and self-guided tour opportunities and Commissioners Park, at Dow's Lake , Canada's most renowned tulip garden display.

Ottawa's beloved tulipmania began in 1953 with internationally acclaimed photographer, Malak Karsh, whose pride of Canada and Ottawa and love for the tulip, prompted him to push for an annual Tulip Festival with the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce. Eventually, the tulip was adopted as Ottawa's official flower.

" Who could have thought that 65 years later the Festival is still with us – not only locally known and loved but acclaimed throughout the world?" commented Executive Director Michel Gauthier. "The tulip continues to cross borders as an international symbol of friendship and peace as it first did when gifted to Canada by the Dutch after that country's liberation.  We welcome everyone to come out and celebrate this legacy – a one-of-a-kind historical moment for a truly one-of-a-kind Festival."

Key event highlights of the Festival include:

• Lansdowne Park Tulip Gallery, the  indoor/outdoor Festival hub presented by CapitalTek, pays homage to Malak's 65 year legacy with an exhibit of his iconic tulip photos along with 65 juried artist photos, a 65-bouquet floral exposition and a 65-tulip artworks display
• Tulip Wow artistic installations created by floral and landscape designers 
• Signatures Handmade Market presented by Canada's largest producer of Craft Shows from coast to coast bringing 18 juried Canadian artisans to the Festival
• Friendship Village, an international marketplace and outdoor stage including "Blooming Artist" Young Talent Showcase featuring top-notch emerging Ottawa-area singers and musicians (Alanis Morrisette and Kathleen Edwards played the "TulipFest" early in their careers)
• Family Tulip Park with Canada Children's Tulip Garden presented by Home Hardware housing a wooden tulip installation  hand painted by local elementary school children with the opportunity for kids and families to add to the installation throughout the Festival
• Tulip Café open daily with fresh fare, premium cocktails and Canadian wine, Tulip Festival Label craft beer and tulip cookies all provided  by local suppliers
• Odawa 150, an Algonquin Nation living history exhibit featuring curated displays and live animation, a birch bark wigwam, baskets, hides, tools and live birch bark crafts
• 300-guest Mother's Day Brunch in the Aberdeen Pavilion presented by Egg Farmers of Canada with proceeds going to the Bruyère Foundation 
• Canada's Capital A's car club "parade",  dozens of vintage automobiles (1928-1931) along the Garden Promenade from Lansdowne Park, past Dow's Lake Pavilion to the Experimental Farm with "show and tell" before and after at Lansdowne Park
• Victory Encampment hosting A Tribute to Our Veterans with vehicles and personnel in period uniforms on the Great Lawn at Lansdowne Park
• Local ensembles and high school bands perform for park visitors at Commissioners Park, Dow's Lake

A series of evening special events will raise money for charitable causes topped off by the Tulipmania Fireworks set to music that takes place at TD Place in Lansdowne Park on May 21. Ticket information for all events can be found at www.tulipfestival.ca.  Desjardins Info Centres located onsite at all 4 Festival locations will include the Tulip Festival Boutique, program information and guided tour registration.

Daily passes ($15 per person with children 12 and under free) to the Lansdowne Park Tulip Gallery can be purchased at www.tulipfestival.ca as well as onsite. The other Festival locations have free access.

Canadian Tulip Festival is produced with support from generous corporate and community partners including: Capital Tek, ABI, Desjardins, Sterling Ford, Egg Farmers of Canada, Bloomex, KPMG, Gabriel Pizza, Signatures Shows, President's Choice, Roots, Lord Elgin Hotel, KPMG, Vesey's Bulbs, Federal Limousine, Used.ca, Whole Foods Market, Costco, Love Ottawa, The Royal Canadian Mint, National Capital Commission, Ottawa Festivals, Fairytale Princess Parties, Ecology Ottawa, Landscape Ontario, Creekside Wines, Lowertown Brewery, Top Shelf Distillers, Biagio's Catering, Flow Water, Urban Turf,  Byward Market , Glebe and Sparks Street BIAs,  Dows Lake Pavilion and  Ottawa Chamber of Commerce and many more, as well as tourism, restaurant and hotel partners, media sponsors and hundreds of volunteers. 

Our thanks to CNW Group for sponsoring this announcement

SOURCE The Canadian Tulip Festival

Media Contact: Kita Szpak, Canadian Tulip Festival. [email protected], 613-725-3063/613-864-9571; Khaled Azaouzi, Canadian Tulip Festival, [email protected], 819-329-6623