The 72nd Canadian Tulip Festival Takes Flight in Collaboration with the Royal Canadian Air Force to mark its 100 years.

Historic Fly-By and 200 Drone Night Show will both take to the sky over Ottawa 

OTTAWA, ON, April 5, 2024 /CNW/ - The Canadian Tulip Festival is celebrating a century of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) over 11 days and nights from Friday May 10^th to Monday May 20^th (Victoria Day), 2024.

A tourist favourite, the festival bloomed from its roots at the original Ottawa Civic Hospital, where Princess Margriet of the Netherlands was born during World War II. The royal family gifted to Ottawa our now famous symbol, tulips. It was a thank you, and continues to be, for sheltering the family and for the role Canada played in the liberation of the Netherlands. At Commissioners Park, Dow's Lake, more than 300,000 tulips in Ottawa will be featured of the million that bloom in the Capital.

Highlights:

Opening Ceremonies begin at 10:30am(EDT) Saturday, May 11^th and will include this year's honoured Second World War Veteran, RCAF Second World War Lancaster Tail Gunner, Ronald "Shorty" Moyes.

The parade with the Canadian Armed Forces Central Band will travel along Queen Elizabeth Driveway starting at Preston Street at 10:40 am parade past "The Man with Two Hats" Monument at Dow's Lake, and form into position at the Movies & More Screen for the ceremony start at 11:00 am.

Following remarks from dignitaries and the ceremonial sponsor, Calian Group, the festival opening will be marked by both a cannon salute from HMCS Carleton, and an RCAF fly past at 11:40 am.

The Festival is free and ungated and offers a new self-guided Tulip Legacy Tour using seven stops with QR Codes. While telling Ottawa's history, it allows visitors to travel back in time over eight millennia.

Family-friendly movies in the park are available at 2:00 pm, and 7:00 pm daily, weather permitting. High-flying fun continues on the Mother's Day Weekend with mini planes and a runway from the Edenvale Classic Aircraft Foundation for children. The RCAF Flower Fun Run, starts at noon Sunday, May 12^th.

Food Trucks will be open from 10 am - 9 pm daily serving festival favourites such as popcorn, fudge and beavertails. The Tulip Market features regional artisans offering tulip-themed treasures, along with the Tulip Boutique, offering official merchandise and souvenirs, with proceeds supporting the Canadian Tulip Legacy.

Free nightly programming includes the ever-popular Blacklight Boardwalk at Dow's Lake with more than 2000 tulips and daffodils lit in UV light, to experience how pollinator's see them.

At 9 pm every night the Sound & Light Story at the movie screen "Operation Manna" will make audiences feel they are part of the heroic RCAF effort to save the starving people of the Netherlands. Adapted from the memoirs of "Shorty" Moyes, this humanitarian operation of incredibly dangerous, low-flying food drops, forged a bond of friendship for over seven decades.

The closing ceremonies will begin at 8:30pm(EDT) on Sunday, May 19th beginning at the Movie Screen in the Main Festival Field. It will be capped off with a new 10-minute, 200-Drone "Drone Show" over Dow's Lake, at 9:30 pm.

Festival Parking is available at Carleton University, P7 Lot, for $12 daily. The festival is an eight (8) minute walk with stairs and the route will be clearly marked. New this year, Ekeau's Tulip Water Taxi Service with a historical audio tour is available, loading just north of the Carleton Parking Lot, and taking guests directly to the Festival's Blacklight Boardwalk, for $12 per person, per ride, plus tax and fees. 

Also new, the Chartwell People Mover provides limited golf cart shuttle service, available daily from 10 am to 6 pm, running the 1.2 km length of Commissioners Park. Priority will be given to those with mobility issues, and the cost is $2 per person, per ride.

For those in need of accessible options, Dows Lake Road will be marked as no parking for the duration of the festival, allowing only those with accessibility permits to park, with two flat, barrier-free points of egress to Commissioners Park. Further, the Dow's Lake Pavilion Roundabout at 1001 Queen Elizabeth Driveway is available for accessible pickup and drop off, and also serves as a ParaTranspo Stop.

Guests are also able to park at the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum, for $9 daily. The walk to the festival site is twenty (20) minutes, through the Experimental Farm and Dominion Arboretum. The walking path is clearly marked, with an audio tour available for download.

The Queen Elizabeth Driveway will be closed from Preston St. to Torrington Avenue on Saturday, May 11, Sunday, May 12, and Saturday, May 18 from 10 am to 6 pm. On Sunday, May 19 the road will remain closed from 10 am to 10 pm, to accommodate the grand finale drone show.

Expanding into the ByWard Market, Mother's Day weekend will also be in full bloom downtown. With tulips in every planter around the historic ByWard Market Building, steps away from Major's Hill Park, where there are over 10 tulip gardens for viewing. Arteast Artists will be Plein Air painting in the Park and also painting in the George St. Plaza.

Tulip Palooza is on from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm on Saturday, May 18th. Guests are encouraged to party in a pollinator's paradise at the York Street OTTAWA Letters. With a giant 8-foot-tall spring garden, with huge bees and butterflies glowing brightly in blacklight, guests will feel the flower funk with DJ performances and a street party.

Catch the Hop On Hop Off Tulip Tour on York St. for only $5 return and get a ride down to the main festival site at Commissioners Park, and back again running daily, May 10 - 20, from 10 am to 6 pm. 

For more information on the Canadian Tulip Festival and its exciting lineup of events, visit www.tulipfestival.ca.

The Canadian Tulip Festival is an annual celebration of the return of Spring, featuring more than a million tulips across Ottawa. Established in 1953, the festival commemorates the gift of tulips from the Netherlands to Canada following the Second World War, symbolizing international friendship and peace.

April 1^st 2024 marks 100 years of service for the Royal Canadian Air Force as a distinct military element. The RCAF Centennial is an opportunity to showcase Air Force personnel and their accomplishments, demonstrate air and space power, enhance the reputation of the RCAF, and proudly honour its distinguished history and heritage. Events of all types, including your favourite Air Shows, will be held across Canada throughout 2024 to commemorate this milestone. RCAF Centennial Website

SOURCE Canadian Tulip Festival