HOLLAND, Mich. — The opening days of Holland's Tulip Time festival have been marked by beautiful conditions, vibrant hues and, organizers say, record attendance.
"Windmill Island Gardens had their best ever day in their entire history on Saturday," Tulip Time Executive Director Gwen Auwerda said. "They had 15,000 visitors in one day, and they've been open for over 50 years."
But while the festival has seen continued success in the first few days, many of its show-stealing tulips don't seem to be having as good a time, with many either already having finished their bloom or wrapping up their petals for the season.
While some concerns had stirred on social media over the weekend, festival-goers on Monday didn't seem to let the many tulips calling it quits dampen their spirits.
"I think it's lovely," Marilyn Myers of Byron Center said. "It's too bad that it's over the hill, but it's still there's plenty of color. You can see that the people who are the gardeners must have realized that you might miss some of the tulip bulbs. So, they've got some there in crates that they must be replacing and I think that's such a nice idea that they make sure that somebody gets to see some flowers."
While organizers just weeks ago had anticipated for the tulips to shine their brightest for the festival, they said there's one main factor that quickly changed the outlook in recent days.
"The warm weather and the rain and wind definitely has taken them out a little sooner," Auwerda said. "We were expecting to have really nice blooms through the end of the week and it just didn't happen."
According to the festival's history, organizers did move up the festival one week and shortened it in 2001 to account for warm weather trends and global warming.
But even with many of this year's tulips falling victim to warmer conditions, Auwerda believes it's unlikely to immediately impact plans for the rest of this year's festival, or even next year's.
"Because the school systems especially plan well over a year in advance, if we made a change in the timing, it would have to be a couple years down the road," Auwerda said. "It would not happen by next year would be my prediction. But, we have not talked about it at all with our board or with our city partners yet."
Because of their activity that spans beyond Tulip Time, Auwerda also said admission fees for things like Windmill Island are unlikely to change.
Organizers are now hoping to highlight all else that comes with the festival to still capture the spirit for those who attend, even if their prized tulips may be calling it a year.
"There's plenty to do here in town, iconic Dutch dancers are dancing every evening, you can take Dutch dance lessons," Auwerda said.
Auwerda also made mention of the festival's Tulip Immersion Garden, with tulips still in bloom due to their controlled environment.
"We try to weatherproof what we do so that you can see tulips, they're just not planted in the ground," Auwerda said.
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