Introduction:
The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is one of the destination events for the Pacific Northwest. It is celebrated from April 1-30, celebrating millions of tulips bursting into bloom. As with all things governed by Mother Nature. The tulips bloom according to their own schedule sometime during the festival. Moreover, the tulips allow us to share our corner of the world and showcase Skagit Valley agriculture.
The administration depends on a strong volunteer base to keep our office up and running and to put on our festival activities.
This festival is designed as a driving tour as there is no one “site” to enter. The fields of tulips are scattered throughout the Skagit Valley. Just like the many events and activities that comprise the festival. The tulip fields are the crops of RoozenGaarde/Washington Bulb Co., Inc. and Tulip Town. Due to crop rotation, the fields are in different locations each year. Both RoozenGaarde and Tulip Town also have displays of tulips in gardens for visitors to view and photograph.
Hopefully, you will enjoy taking in one of the many events and activities that happen only during April.
As the festival continues on its journey – they look forward to welcoming people from across the United States and from around the world. In a “normal” year, they proudly greet visitors from all 50 states and from 85+ foreign countries.
History of the Festival:
Around 1883, George Gibbs, a settler from England, moved to Orcas Island. That is where he started to develop apples and hazelnuts. After nine years, he bought five dollars of bloom bulbs to develop. And when he uncovered a few years after the fact and perceived how they had increased. He understood the potential for bulb-filling in the Puget Sound area.
Dutch:
He reached Dutch cultivators in Holland to find out about the business. It was just to view the Dutch as profoundly mysterious about their business rehearses. In any case, when he delivered off two or three a bulbs to Holland. The intrigued Dutch producers made a trip to Orcas Island to see with their own eyes how tulips could develop outside Holland.
In 1899, Gibbs kept in touch with the United States Department of Agriculture. He did it in regards to the business possibilities of bulb-filling in the locale, and they took interest. In 1905, they sent Gibbs 15,000 imported bulbs from Holland to develop as a trial, under an agreement. The test was effective to such an extent that the United States Department of Agriculture laid out its own 10-section. Moreover, the section was of land test garden in 1908 around Bellingham. Subsequently, it demonstrated fruitful enough for the Bellingham Tulip Festival to start in 1920. It was to feature and commend the outcome of the bulb business.
The Bellingham Tulip Festival:
The Bellingham Tulip Festival was suspended in 1930. Because of the Great Depression and bulb freezes in 1916, 1925, and 1929 that carried weighty misfortunes to the cultivators. Thusly, the producers moved south into Skagit County.
In 1946, William Roozen showed up in the United States, leaving behind a fruitful bulb-developing business spreading over six ages in Holland. Subsequent to dealing with a few unique homesteads, Roozen began his own in Skagit County in 1950. In 1955, he bought the Washington Bulb Company, making him the pioneer among the four bloom developing families nearby. And making the Washington Bulb Company the main producer of tulip, daffodil, and iris bulbs in North America. The ranch works a public showcase nursery and gift shop called Roozengaarde. That close by the DeGoede family’s Tulip Town, is a significant fascination during the Tulip Festival.
Nearby tulip producers showed their bulbs through show gardens for a really long time after the arrangement of an authority celebration. The Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce laid out the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival as a three-day occasion. It was announced in 1984 to add celebrations during the sprout month. The event has since developed to an attractive occasion and concurs with road fairs, art shows and donning events.
The 2020 celebration
The 2020 celebration was dropped on March 25 due to the Covid pandemic. That had impacted Skagit County. Festival coordinators had at first made arrangements for a more modest event. Furthermore, it has restricted quantities of individuals permitted at show gardens. And later vehicle just visits. However, dropped after the state government provided a stay-at-home order.
Tulip Town is a significant celebration setting. It has declared plans to involve virtual visits and blossom gifts for emergency clinic laborers to recover their lost revenue. Several tulip fields were rashly sliced to keep individuals from visiting the area.
Attendance:
The celebration professes to be Washington’s biggest, with north of 1,000,000 visitors. Something like one news source expressed participation was 350,000 for 2008. Travel + Leisure put the figure at 500,000 of every 2003.
