By Charelle Evelyn
The Canadian Tulip Festival is trying something new this year and hoping to boost attendance, but Centretown businesses are not holding their breath for a notable increase in customers during the festival’s run.
Even though Sparks Street vendors can see the tulips on Parliament Hill from their windows, they do not benefit substantially from festival goers.
“[The Tulip Festival] has brought in some business, but not a great deal,” says Ian Wright, co-owner of Snow Goose, an Inuit and Native art store.
The festival, billed as a celebration of ideas runs, May 4 to 21, and will feature notable personalities presenting ideas on art, science and civilization.
Now in its 55th year, the festival has a new board of directors and a new operating principle after nearly going under last year. The festival has lost money for three out of the last four years and was $750,000 in debt, according to festival spokesman Doug Little.
“The debt had gone so high it strangled the festival,” says Little. The new board of directors’ chair, local businessman David Luxton, provided money to help clear the festival’s debt and give it a clean start.
This year, there is no admission charge to events held at Major’s Hill Park. In previous years attendees paid between $10 and $15 to enter, which Little says will dramatically increase attendance.
The Tulip Festival is also doing away with their outdoor concert series, a move which organizers expect will not affect tourist attendance.
Little says it is local residents who make up most of the concert audience, and that their attendance consistently declines in the face of competition from other music events and frequent bad weather in May.
In the place of the concert stage, an International Pavilion will be set up, consisting of 16 different countries and community groups showcasing their food and culture under four large tents.
The tents ensure that inclement weather will not prevent people from attending the festivities. Over the years, a peak attendance of 90,000 visitors to the park dropped to below 40,000 as the weather became increasingly unreliable, says Little.
While Little acknowledges that the musical performances staged at the International Pavilion will not attract the same audience as the rock concerts, he stresses that tourists who do come to town come for the flowers and not the music.
As always, thousands of tulips will be planted and showcased at main festival sites such as Dow’s Lake, along Confederation Boulevard and at Parliament Hill. Organizers are expecting more than half a million visitors.
Despite Sparks Street’s proximity to the Hill, its businesses often get overlooked because it is not linked to the festival by the National Capital Commission, says Wright. Sparks Street Mall would have to pay the NCC for any promotional signage, but Wright is unsure if such a move would bring in enough business to justify the cost.
“It hard to say whether it would be worth it,” he says, adding that restaurants and hotels in the area are more likely to be affected during the festival season.
The main activity during the festival is too far from Sparks Street to make a real difference to business, says John Araujo, bar manager at Yesterday’s Restaurant.
Araujo, who has been with the restaurant for 35 years, has seen a steady decline in tourism revenue over the years and does not expect the new format of the festival to make any difference. He attributes the decline to multiple factors, ranging from bad weather during the summer, to the rising Canadian dollar, to the American war against Iraq.
“Americans are mad at Canadians for not going to war with them,” he says.
When tourists come to town they want to go where the action is. Araujo says they may stop in for a quick drink, but are usually pointed in the direction of the Byward Market, a direction he admits to giving.
“Business is not what it used to be,” he says.
Festival organizers want to return the focus of the festival to bridging international communities. The tulips are a sign of friendship between Canada and the Netherlands after Canada provided the Dutch royal family with a safe haven during the Second World War.
The festival will kick off with the Tulip Ball, its new signature event, on May 4 at the National Art Gallery. Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit War Child Canada.
Governor-General Michaëlle Jean will officially open festivities from Rideau Hall May 5.