Tulip Festival

[Abby Brown] When the weather starts to warm and the flowers start to bloom, an entire town welcomes visitors from near and far to lead in the celebration of the Dutch heritage.

(Map marking Sioux County in northwest Iowa.)

This is Orange City in Sioux County, lots of the people who live here are Dutch. That means their ancestors are from the Netherlands, which is a country in Europe.

(A map of Europe shows the Netherlands situated in Northwestern Europe. A smaller country than most, it is bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Germany to the east and Belgium to the south.)

In the mid-1850s, people immigrated from the Netherlands to Iowa. Some settled in Orange City.

(A sign with bright tulips on it that reads Welcome to the Orange City Tulip Festival!)

(Traditional Dutch music playing.)

(Two people in wooden clogs dancing.)

(Young girls dressed in long colorful dresses and white bonnets perform a dance in the town square.)

Every year for over 80 years, Dutch heritage is celebrated over several days with the Orange City Tulip Festival. There's a parade with street scrubbers to make sure everything is clean.

(Children and adults push water with long-handled brushes as a young boy holds a metal bucket in two hands and pours water on the street.)

Cleanliness is a Dutch tradition. People show off traditional costumes.

(A woman in a dark blue dress with a long skirt and a blue and white checked pattern scarf and a linen cap waves at people along the parade route.)

(A young boy in black trousers with button-hole suspenders and a long sleeved navy shirt and black wool cap waves at the crowd along the parade route.)

There are beautiful floats, music, dancing and of course, the Tulip Queen and her court.

One of the biggest parts of this festival is something near and dear to the Dutch heritage. Tulips.

(Vibrant pink and white cup-shaped blooms on slender stems.)

Tulips are everywhere at the Tulip Festival. They are the national flower in the Netherlands. So it's no surprise that the tulips are honored here too. Whoever grows tulips in this town must be a really good gardener.

[Jennie Droog] Tulips love to be planted close together, but not too close. So you'll notice in the park behind us, there is a good amount in each bed. But they're not super crowded. And you place them in the winter, you get them down there. And then in the spring, you really get to see the fruits of your labor when come late April, early May, all the different beautiful varieties are popping up.

(A set of three hydraulic chisels hollow out the inside of a set of wooden clogs.)

[Abby] The Orange City Tulip Festival showcases other important artifacts from the Dutch heritage too like wooden shoes. Windmills are also a big symbol of the Netherlands and famous foods like these Dutch letters are all part of the Orange City Tulip Festival.

Every county in Iowa has a delicious story to tell. Thanks for discovering Sioux County with me. Mmmmm.

Funding for FIND Iowa has been provided by The Coons Foundation, Pella and the Gilchrist Foundation.