Orange City, Iowa — Last-minute preparations continue in Orange City for the first Tulip Festival since 2019. The annual festival was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Orange City Tulip Festival Marketing Manager Jenon Scallon says they’re getting ready to make the poffertjes, Dutch letters, and saucijsjes and get the streets scrubbed for the arrival of the Tulip Queen. She says the volunteers and prospective visitors seem to be even more excited than normal.
It was even more of a bummer last year than it would otherwise have been for a Tulip Festival to be canceled, as the festival was to have been the 80th Tulip Festival. Scallon says that this year will, instead, be the 80th.
Speaking of the parade, Scallon says to watch for their new Tulip Festival float this year. She tells us some other events and attractions to which people can look forward.
Scallon tells us that the actors started preparing for this show in 2020, but, of course, could not perform it. She says some people were not able to take part, so some roles had to be re-cast, but the majority of the people performing are the ones who you would have seen, had there been a Night Show in 2020.
She says the persistence of COVID has forced a limited number of changes.
The Orange City Tulip Festival starts with a ride night and car show on Wednesday, May 12th, and starts in earnest on Thursday, May 13th. It runs through Saturday, May 15th. Find more information on the festival website.
