Canadian Tulip Festival

Ottawa’s award-winning flagship festival since 1953, the Canadian Tulip Festival is one of the largest events of its kind in the world celebrating Ottawa’s official flower as a symbol of international friendship and peace. The Canadian Tulip Festival is an event of the Canadian Tulip Legacy, a non-profit charitable organization established to celebrate the historic Royal gift of tulips from the Dutch to Canadians after World War II.

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THINGS TO DO AT THE CANADIAN TULIP FESTIVAL

Explore Ottawa’s Greenspace

Delight in a self-guided tour of Ottawa’s public gardens exploding with millions of tulips in bloom from the Governor General’s residence to the Central Experimental Farm and back to Parliament Hill via Gatineau.

• Opening Ceremonies begin at 10:30am(EDT) Saturday, May 11th 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 12th.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

HOW MUCH

Free and ticketed events.

 

How to get tickets?

Buy Online

Festival: May 10-20, 2024 | 10 AM – 10 PM – Schedule

Venue:

Commissioners Park – Dow’s Lake
and
Ottawa’s public gardens

 

Trip Planning

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.

Water Taxi Service: Running from Carleton University Parking Lot 7 to Dow’s Lake Pavillion. $12 per person, per ride, plus tax and fees.

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.

Parking:

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.

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.