Despite slashed budget, Tulip Festival kicks off in the capital, vowing to continue

The Canadian Tulip Festival kicked off Friday, despite a cash-strapped budget.

"We are down about 50 per cent in our government funding levels, which means that our staff is down about 50 per cent," said Jo Riding, the festival's executive director.

• Sign up now for daily CTV News Ottawa newsletters
• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

The 11-day festival will be held at Commissioners Park, with events also happening in the ByWard Market. This is the 72nd edition of the festival.

Riding said they have had to make changes to programming to accommodate funding cuts from all levels of government.

"We are always trying to do more with less as we're all in a very tight economy and festival and events have been hit pretty hard. But what we've done is we've switched from live concerts that we used to do pre-pandemic, now we do movies in the park, so that is a lot easier on the budget," said Riding.

The festival, which commemorates the role of the Canadian troops in the liberation of the Netherlands and Europe, has been held every year since 1953.

Another big change this year — a drone show will replace the firework show, for budgetary reasons.

Each May, more than one million tulips blanket in Commissioner's Park, along the Rideau Canal, and in various parts of the city. The event typically sees around 500,000 visitors and costs around $800,000. Riding said the festival has an economic impact of over $40 million for the city.

"Last year we saw 416,000 people through this park over 11 days and nights," said Riding. "About half of that is tourists and the other half is locals that usually come in the weekdays because they know how busy it can get on the weekend. But we really want folks to come down."

While the organizers are actively finding new sources of funding, Riding is assuring residents the festival will always remain free of charge.

"Because we have such wonderful partners like Veterans Affairs Canada who really understand the commemorative aspect of this event and how we are committed to commemorating the liberation of the Netherlands, our service members, and the sacrifice that they made, we'll be able to keep going. The question is how big can we grow?"

Riding said the city of Ottawa has cut its funding contribution in half to $50,000 and they have not been able to secure any funding yet for next year.

"We are welcome to apply to festival funding, but the big difference about the Tulip Festival is we're free. We are free, ungated, no tickets, and we're barrier-free to so many people — young folks, students, low-income, new Canadians — they can all come down to the park, learn a little bit about our history and learn a whole lot about the tulips and have a great time doing it."

Many families were out on the first day of the festival, including Erika Adams and her mom Laura Mozata.

"I love the tulips. I always make a point of coming home with my mom every year," said Adams.

"We are from Ottawa, but I love taking the picture of the tulips. It's very special. I think we're very lucky to have it in Ottawa."

Mozata hopes the festival can continue. "We have this kind of long standing tradition with Holland, so I really hope that we can continue to have this tradition in Ottawa."

--With files from CTV News Ottawa's Josh Pringle and William Eltherington