Though details are still vague, Little Italy is poised to become one of the key staging areas for this year’s Tulip Festival after organizers of the annual attraction ended a decades-old arrangement to use National Capital Commission properties for certain events.
Last month, Tulip Festival chairman David Luxton told Centretown News there have been discussions about Preston Street hosting the festival’s International Pavilion, which in past years has centred on performances and food from different cultures.
The expected relocation comes after failed negotiations on the use of NCC land and concerns about costs charged to the festival by the federal agency forced organizers to find new homes for Tulipfest events for this year’s 60th anniversary.
But the head of the Preston Street Business Improvement Area said the merchants’ association would not comment at this point on Little Italy’s potential involvement in the event.
The BIA’s executive director, Lori Mellor, said she wouldn’t discuss anything until the organization finalized possible arrangements with the Tulip Festival
However, Rosa Pino, co-owner of Simply Biscotti on Preston Street, said the association has contacted business owners about the plans.
“The BIA emailed us and said that they were going to try to put (elements of the pavilion) throughout Preston. I think it would be amazing,” she says. “The more people on the street, the better.”
One person who isn’t happy with the delays in planning the 2012 event is David Smythe, general manager of the Lord Elgin Hotel.
He recently told the CBC that the Tulip Festival’s approach this year seemed to be an “experiment” and that information about the festival has been lacking.
“I just would like the Tulip Festival to communicate with us what their plans are for this year . . . we don’t have anything concrete yet,” said Smythe.
However, he added, that despite the uncertainty surrounding this year’s festival, Ottawa has enough museums and attractions to sustain the estimated 500,000 tourists that come out to see the flowers planted along the NCC parkways and throughout the city.