This May 8 – 18, 2020, the Canadian Tulip Festival will be celebrated for its 68th year this May, but ONLINE ONLY. While the Tulips will still bloom in Commissioners Park, Tulip Festival programming will be presented on virtual platforms.

The public is asked NOT TO TRAVEL to the Tulip Gardens this year, but instead to allow the Canadian Tulip Festival to bring the tulips, and tulip related activities and entertainment,.into the comfort and safety of their homes. Festival-goers will be asked to visit www.tulipfestival.ca to take a virtual garden tour through the 300,000 tulip blooms in Ottawa’s Commissioner’s Park while also enjoying music, theatre, and memories on the Festival’s TulipTV YouTube channel.

Festival is Online

The Canadian Tulip Festival, a not-for-profit charitable organization, is dedicating it’s programming this year to commemorating the role Canadians played in the Liberation of the Netherlands 75 years ago while celebrating the Gift of Tulips that led to the Festival.

Online visitors from May 8th – 18th will be able to trace the military path of Dutch Liberation, through a new “Project ‘44: The Road to Liberation” program. They will meet Canadian Heros of Liberation and will explore individual towns in the Netherlands along the “Road to Liberation”.

Musical programs relevant to the Second World War experience, have been organized and performed both here in Canada and in the Netherlands. Families will be able to enjoy a new and specially created “TulipToon” each day, based on Dutch Fairy Tales. For shoppers, an online Tulip Boutique presented by The Tulip Team at RE/MAX will feature handcrafted tulip-themed merchandise from a variety of local artisans. Join the Festival’s Facebook and Instagram pages to participate in daily contests, online parades, and share the tulip blooms you find close to home.

Tulips of Thanks for Frontline Workers

For the eleven days of the festival, “Tulips of Thanks” will be delivering over 5,000 tulips as bouquets to hospitals on both sides of the Ottawa River, a program made possible with the generous support of CIBC, and local Green Corners Pick Your Own Tulip Farm. The public will be encouraged to participate in the Tulips of Thanks program on Facebook and Instagram by nominating a Frontline Healthcare or Essential Worker to receive a Tulips of Thanks special delivery during the Festival.