Orange City hosts Tulip Festival

Iowa has two big tulip festivals just a few weeks apart, but make no mistake, they’re very different events. Don VanderWel is helping organize the Orange City bash which is now in the second of its three days. He says the people who settled that northwestern Iowa community came from a different part of Holland than those in the Pella area. Both festivals feature tulips and street scrubbers, but the dances are different, as are the parades, some of the native food and the locally-produced shows. VanderWel says the goal of the Orange City Tulip Festival is to showcase Dutch heritage and hospitality.VanderWel said he couldn’t try to estimate the number of tulips in bloom, other than saying “many, many.” He says they’re expecting 125-thousand people over the festival’s three-day run, which concludes Saturday. For more information, call (712) 707-4510 or surf to “www.octulipfestival.com”.