Tulip Time Festival is here! And what better way to celebrate spring than to dance in wooden shoes and eat dutch food! The Tulip Time Festival is at it's 94th appearance and it has been flagged as one of the top events in all the United States. The people of Holland, Michigan really embraced their heritage to create a unique experience for all of those who attend. To guide us on this adventure is Gwen Auwerda, the executive director of the Tulip Time Festival.
In this episode, we discuss:
Links:
Tulip Time Festival Website: https://www.tuliptime.com/
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in 1928, the city planted 100,000 tulip bulbs.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Bloomed in 1929, and that was really the first year of the festival.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:People came from everywhere.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:I kind of asked myself, how did that happen back in 1929?
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So we didn't have social media, phones at our fingertips, news.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:But people did come to see the tulips.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And every year they planted more and more.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Today there's about four and a half million tulips planted in the
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:city and at the local attractions.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:We have about 500,000 visitors, we estimate that come over nine
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:days to this small community.
Cliff Duvernois:Hello everyone.
Cliff Duvernois:Welcome back to Ordinary People, Extraordinary Things.
Cliff Duvernois:I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois.
Cliff Duvernois:Today we are gonna wrap up our series on the city of Holland.
Cliff Duvernois:If you haven't done so already, take a trip over to total michigan.com.
Cliff Duvernois:Check out the other interviews that we did with Mayor Bocks, Windmill Island Manager
Cliff Duvernois:Matt Helmus, and Linda Hart from the Holland Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Cliff Duvernois:I can think of no better to end this series than to talk about the
Cliff Duvernois:festival that everybody knows about in Holland and is familiar with.
Cliff Duvernois:Not only across the state of Michigan, but across the country as well.
Cliff Duvernois:If you've ever seen an image of Holland, Michigan, we always see the windmill.
Cliff Duvernois:We always see the tulips, and we always see people dancing
Cliff Duvernois:wearing those little wooden shoes.
Cliff Duvernois:And of course I'm talking about the Tulip Time festival.
Cliff Duvernois:The festival this year starts May 6th and continues until May 14th, 2023.
Cliff Duvernois:So make sure to put that on your calendars.
Cliff Duvernois:Now today to guide us through the Tulip Time Festival, we are talking
Cliff Duvernois:with Gwen Awerda and the Executive Director of the Tulip Time Festival.
Cliff Duvernois:Gwen, how are you?
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:I'm great.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Thanks for having me today.
Cliff Duvernois:Excellent.
Cliff Duvernois:And I hope I said your last name right?
Cliff Duvernois:You did excellent.
Cliff Duvernois:Thank you.
Cliff Duvernois:Why don't you tell us a little bit about where you're from and where you.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So I've been in Michigan my entire life.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:I came to Hope College in the seventies and never left.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:I fell in love with this community.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Um, I worked, uh, at a local automotive manufacturer for 25 years and wanted a
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:career shift and ended up, running and leading Tulip Time for the last 13 years.
Cliff Duvernois:What were you studying at Hope College
Cliff Duvernois:Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time: Business Administration.
Cliff Duvernois:Ooh, there you go now
Cliff Duvernois:hope.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:directions you can go with that degree.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:That's why I did that.
Cliff Duvernois:Now, Hope College is actually in the city of Holland.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:It is .It's in the city and it's, you
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:know, two blocks from downtown.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And you, you see the students every day and it's a great place to go to college.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:You learn a lot.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:It's a liberal arts private college and, I enjoyed my time here so much so that I
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:stayed one summer and fell in love with Lake Michigan and then I, I never left.
Cliff Duvernois:Why did you decide to go into the automotive industry?
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:It wasn't necessarily automotive, it was
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:the fact that I was looking for, work after I got out of school.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And the automotive industry, uh, at that time was Prince Corporation,
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:locally in town and small organization, I think it was like 800 people and.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:At its peak, there was over 6,000 employees, in the local area.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So it was great to be part of a growing company.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Um, But I learned a lot about the automotive industry that I had not
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:known because I didn't necessarily study that at, at, Hope college.
Cliff Duvernois:Now, When you were talking about being in automotive
Cliff Duvernois:for 25 years and then you decided to get involved with a Tulip Festival,
Cliff Duvernois:why did you make that decision?
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:One of the programs that our local
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Chamber of Commerce has is called West Coast Leadership.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And it's a nine month program.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:You learn a lot about the community, social services,
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:education, government, and.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Nonprofits was one of our days and we learned a lot about local nonprofits,
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:and I thought if I could run a nonprofit one day, that would just be great.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Um, So I had a lot of skills that I learned working at Johnson Controls
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:that really led me into this role.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Well, In 2008 ish that when the automotive industry kind of fell, we had a recession.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:It was kind of the time when I said, all right, now is a
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:good time to make this shift.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Uh, Make the jump.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:My children were older, in high school and and married.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So it seemed like a good time to do that.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And I didn't realize that Tulip Time was looking for someone.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:I was doing some work done in Kalamazoo at the time.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And they were like looking nationally for an executive director and
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:here I was in their backyard.
Cliff Duvernois:The, and I gotta ask the f I gotta ask the question
Cliff Duvernois:because this is actually one of the key reasons why people come to Holland.
Cliff Duvernois:And whenever they see Holland, it's always the tulips.
Cliff Duvernois:We're always thinking of the Tulip Festival.
Cliff Duvernois:So when we're, And it's my understanding and in the research we're, we're like
Cliff Duvernois:in the top 100 events in the nation.
Cliff Duvernois:Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time: Yes, Tulip Time is one of the
Cliff Duvernois:top 100 events in the nation.
Cliff Duvernois:We are celebrating our 94th festival this year, which is really amazing to
Cliff Duvernois:have an organization be around that long.
Cliff Duvernois:We were founded by a, a woman named Lida Rogers.
Cliff Duvernois:She was a biology teacher at a local high school.
Cliff Duvernois:She was not from this area.
Cliff Duvernois:But she recognized there were a lot of kids in her class from of a Dutch
Cliff Duvernois:descent, which is how our city was originally formed was from some people
Cliff Duvernois:that immigrated here from the Netherlands.
Cliff Duvernois:Uh, Albertus van Raalte and his followers, he was a preacher.
Cliff Duvernois:And so she thought, well, let's do a project that could beautify the
Cliff Duvernois:city, and how do we tie Holland today to Holland in the Netherlands.
Cliff Duvernois:And let's plant tulips.
Cliff Duvernois:So she kind of pitched her idea to the women's literary club,
Cliff Duvernois:the city council at the time.
Cliff Duvernois:And in 1928, the city planted 100,000 tulip bulbs.
Cliff Duvernois:Bloomed in 1929, and that was really the first year of the festival.
Cliff Duvernois:People came from everywhere.
Cliff Duvernois:I kind of asked myself, how did that happen back in 1929?
Cliff Duvernois:So we didn't have social media, phones at our fingertips, news.
Cliff Duvernois:Uh, But people did come to see the tulips.
Cliff Duvernois:And every year they planted more and more.
Cliff Duvernois:Today there's about four and a half million tulips planted in the
Cliff Duvernois:city and at the local attractions.
Cliff Duvernois:So you can see tulips everywhere and they're just beautiful.
Cliff Duvernois:I people come from all over.
Cliff Duvernois:Every year I get emails and calls from people.
Cliff Duvernois:This has been on my bucket list.
Cliff Duvernois:My mother wants to come.
Cliff Duvernois:We're coming from Florida.
Cliff Duvernois:Uh, How accessible is the city cuz she's 80 years old?
Cliff Duvernois:And people just love the flowers.
Cliff Duvernois:And so our mission is to welcome the world, to celebrate our Dutch
Cliff Duvernois:heritage, tulips, and our community today, which is not all Dutch.
Cliff Duvernois:Uh,
Cliff Duvernois:So we really have three components of things that we celebrate about the
Cliff Duvernois:festival uh, when the tulips are blooming.
Cliff Duvernois:The city plants most of the tulips.
Cliff Duvernois:I sometimes laugh and say, well, we're the Tulip Time Festival, but
Cliff Duvernois:we don't buy our plant one tulip.
Cliff Duvernois:We put the fun around when the tulips bloom.
Cliff Duvernois:So we produce the parades, artisan markets, runs,
Cliff Duvernois:entertainment shows at night.
Cliff Duvernois:We have historic, um, costumed dancers that dance, a folk
Cliff Duvernois:dance called Dutch Dancing.
Cliff Duvernois:So lots of fun things around the time when the tulips bloom and like we have about
Cliff Duvernois:500,000 visitors, we estimate that come over nine days to this small community.
Cliff Duvernois:Um, And so it's just a great time to celebrate spring, the warm weather.
Cliff Duvernois:Learn a little bit about Dutch history and the community today,
Cliff Duvernois:and it's just a great time.
Cliff Duvernois:So we're talking a little bit about the history of the festival.
Cliff Duvernois:If you would share with us a little bit about how the festival has evolved
Cliff Duvernois:from when it started, let's say 94 years, you said 94 years 94 years
Cliff Duvernois:ago versus like where it is today.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Well, back in the early, the thirties and
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:into the forties, about every couple years they added something new.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So they would add one parade.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Then they would add a musical show.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:In the seventies, they added more national entertainment, um, from
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Hollywood, which was the first time that they'd really expanded outside of some
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:local art and culture organizations.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And over the years, we just always are looking for new programming.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:What's new and different?
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:What do people want to come and see?
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Um, I've had a passion to kind of work culturally with the Netherlands and
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:bring artists here from the Netherlands that people wouldn't normally have
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:exposure to unless you would go there.
Cliff Duvernois:And that's actually an interesting question, and I did, I did
Cliff Duvernois:explore this, uh, with, with Matt Helmus.
Cliff Duvernois:Talk to us a little bit about the relationship that you have
Cliff Duvernois:with the Holland in Netherlands.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So the relationship that I and our
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:organization has is, really through the World Tulip Summit Society.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:It's a nonprofit organized out of Canada.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:It's been in existence for over 20 years.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Their goal is to bring together people who are doing programming around
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:the tulip as a sign of friendship.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So we have in this organization, uh, Botanical Gardens.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:People that are doing, like we are a festival.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:We have growers up in Canada that grow tulips that, you know, also are doing
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:some programming, uh, around that.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:I've met people from Asia and Australia and Europe.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So it's just really amazing.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And there's a summit every two years.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And the last one that they've had was in 2019 in the Netherlands.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And since Covid, we've not gotten together again.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Um, And that's where I've met, IBO Goldson, who is bringing
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:for the second year, tulip Ins Immersion Garden into the community.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And so normally your tulips are built and are planted in the ground.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:He builds up about three, four feet off the ground and then
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:puts tulips in pots into this.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So that you can take Instagramable pictures with tulips behind your head.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:He also designs these to be immersive, that you can walk through them.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So it's a little bit like the maze that you see, especially the
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:corn mazes in the, the fall time.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Um And it tells a story.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So tulips were actually a flower that was found in Turkey.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Most people think of tulips coming from the Netherlands.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:I didn't either until I got this job and you learn a lot about it.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So the tulips initially were wildflower in Turkey.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:A botanist, Clusius.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:From the Netherlands was in Turkey.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And he found this flower.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:He brought it back to the Netherlands and helped it propagate
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:into the crop that it is today.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And what Holland is known for, or the Netherlands are known for
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:is tulips and tulip production from an agricultural standpoint.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:All the tulips that the city plants come every year from the Netherlands.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Um, They're fresh bulbs that are planted every year in all the parks.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And so I met IBO at the summit.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And he's like, let's talk about the story.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So the installation has a turbine.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:It has the Le and Garden where Clusius was from in the Netherlands.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And then it has the City of Holland logo, which tells a story of how
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:the tulip ended up here in Holland.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And this year we have a fourth, uh, new installation that will showcase
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:how Delft became the pottery of the Netherlands and the story
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:behind Delft and the hand painting.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:I mean, everybody thinks Delft in the blue and white, pottery, which it is.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:But he will, he'll help tell the story of where that came from and, and what it is.
Cliff Duvernois:I did not know that was the name of it.
Cliff Duvernois:Delft for the white and blue pottery.
Cliff Duvernois:Cuz I, I see that in a lot of the stores around here that are carrying
Cliff Duvernois:more of the the tourist fair.
Cliff Duvernois:So to say.
Cliff Duvernois:I didn't know that was its name.
Cliff Duvernois:Okay, well that's really cool.
Cliff Duvernois:now with regards to when you come on board to become the, the executive
Cliff Duvernois:director of the Tulip Festival.
Cliff Duvernois:Why don't you talk to us about a couple of the challenges that, that you had to
Cliff Duvernois:face when you were coming into this role?
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Well, one challenge coming from a large
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:manufacturing company to a small nonprofit is you don't have all the support systems.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Your computer doesn't work.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:It's up to you to fix.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:You can't call IT.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So it was much more a challenge on the business side of things to
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:run an organization of 10 people.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Um, and you have to be self-sufficient.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So that was one challenge.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:The other challenge was learning and communicating and collaborating with
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:so many partners um, in the community, which is one of the things I love to do.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So it was pretty easy for me.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:But yet I had to learn who was who.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Because as I said earlier, the tulips are all planted by the city.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:By the Parks department.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So you need to build a relationship with them.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:With Windmill Island, um, sponsors.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:We have over 100 sponsor corporate sponsors that help sponsor what we do.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And so it's a lot of relationship building.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Not a challenge for me.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:But yet something that was different and something that I had to focus on
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:the first couple of years, to be able to help create the festival as it is today.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:We're an independent nonprofit organization.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Many people do think we're part of the city.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:We're not.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:We just collaborate well with them, uh, um, to plant the tulips
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:and help do the programming.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:But, um, we are an independent organization.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So running it fiscally, and being able to, you know, make a little money every
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:year so you can reinvest into things the following year is always a challenge.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Many things we do, in terms of programming are free to attend.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So you've gotta find a way to help manage those expenses cuz they
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:still are expenses, um, for those items like fireworks and parades
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:do have a budget impact for us.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So it's trying to manage the difference between where you're making your money
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:on ticketed events and, and providing the free things that the community can enjoy.
Cliff Duvernois:And for our audience, we're gonna take a
Cliff Duvernois:quick break to thank our sponsors.
Cliff Duvernois:When we come back, we're gonna dive into much more what it takes
Cliff Duvernois:to make Tulip Time so special.
Cliff Duvernois:What are the staples of Tulip Time and what you can expect
Cliff Duvernois:at this year's festival.
Cliff Duvernois:We'll see you after the break.
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Cliff Duvernois:Hello everyone and welcome back to Ordinary People, Extraordinary Things.
Cliff Duvernois:I'm your host, Cliff DuVernois.
Cliff Duvernois:Today we're talking all things Tulip Time, the biggest festival,
Cliff Duvernois:not only for the city of Holland, but as Gwen shared one of the top
Cliff Duvernois:100 festivals in the United States.
Cliff Duvernois:Which is quite a feat.
Cliff Duvernois:Continuing to take us on this journey today as Gwen Auwerda, Executive
Cliff Duvernois:Director of the Tulip Time Festival.
Cliff Duvernois:Gwen, what I'd like to do is explore a little bit more about what the
Cliff Duvernois:Tulip Time Festival is and some of the staples of the festival that
Cliff Duvernois:makes Tulip Time well, Tulip Time.
Cliff Duvernois:Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time: Yeah, great question.
Cliff Duvernois:We have done a number of programming things that have
Cliff Duvernois:been around for 20, 30, 40 years.
Cliff Duvernois:Um, And so those are what we call our legacy events
Cliff Duvernois:because they happen every year.
Cliff Duvernois:We do a five 10 K run through tulip lanes and the historic
Cliff Duvernois:district, which is beautiful.
Cliff Duvernois:it's a great run.
Cliff Duvernois:It's in the city, um, an artisan market.
Cliff Duvernois:We have over 300 artisans that come and work in that market and sell their wares.
Cliff Duvernois:It's really a great opportunity to see some, uh, handmade homemade things.
Cliff Duvernois:Those are two of our great events.
Cliff Duvernois:We have parades.
Cliff Duvernois:So right now we have two parades, a Kinder parade and a Volks parade.
Cliff Duvernois:So Kinder Parade means Children's Parade in Dutch.
Cliff Duvernois:So all the school children work on different Dutch themed items.
Cliff Duvernois:So fishing is big in the Netherlands.
Cliff Duvernois:So they work in their art class and they make different things relative to fishing.
Cliff Duvernois:Dutch Masters, the, um, painters, um, van Gogh and so forth, are all, they
Cliff Duvernois:carry different things around that.
Cliff Duvernois:So the children march in the parade, all in Dutch costume and carrying
Cliff Duvernois:some of the wears that they've, they've worked on along with
Cliff Duvernois:our local bands and some floats.
Cliff Duvernois:The Saturday parade, the Volks Parade is called the People's Parade.
Cliff Duvernois:And they'll, you'll find bands there.
Cliff Duvernois:We probably have 14, 15 bands that March a two and a half mile route,
Cliff Duvernois:which is one of the longest parades in the state, um, along with floats
Cliff Duvernois:and different walking groups.
Cliff Duvernois:And, and that's always a really fun thing.
Cliff Duvernois:We have street scrubbing.
Cliff Duvernois:Most people will say, what is street scrubbing?
Cliff Duvernois:Well, in the Netherlands, they used to manually scrub the streets to get
Cliff Duvernois:ready for a festival or a special event.
Cliff Duvernois:So we do street scrubbing prior to the Thursday parade.
Cliff Duvernois:And we get out the city council members and the dignitaries and
Cliff Duvernois:invited guests and the community.
Cliff Duvernois:And we scrubbed the streets.
Cliff Duvernois:So someone from the mayor's office will have a white glove.
Cliff Duvernois:Sweep the street and say it's dirty.
Cliff Duvernois:We must clean the streets.
Cliff Duvernois:And so the fire hydrants are turned on and people can fill their buckets with
Cliff Duvernois:water and brooms, and we walk down the parade route, scrubbing the street,
Cliff Duvernois:getting ready for the first parade.
Cliff Duvernois:So there's a little ceremonial there thing there, but it's really fun.
Cliff Duvernois:Um, People enjoy coming and, and scrubbing the streets.
Cliff Duvernois:We have Dutch Dancing, a program that's been around about 55 years.
Cliff Duvernois:So we dress our dancers in period clothing from the late 18
Cliff Duvernois:hundreds to the early 19 hundreds.
Cliff Duvernois:They dance to a folk dance.
Cliff Duvernois:It's about 15 minutes long.
Cliff Duvernois:This program starts with kids in third grade.
Cliff Duvernois:And you can go until you just choose not to dance anymore,
Cliff Duvernois:until the alumni program.
Cliff Duvernois:We have mothers and daughters that dance together, um, aunts and cousins.
Cliff Duvernois:And many people, you know, even into their sixties and
Cliff Duvernois:seventies are still dancing today.
Cliff Duvernois:Um, And that's a really neat program.
Cliff Duvernois:They volunteer their time to learn the dance and participate
Cliff Duvernois:in the dance, and there's over 50 performances during the nine days.
Cliff Duvernois:Actually, that was something that just popped
Cliff Duvernois:into my head, is that if you're, especially if you're talking about
Cliff Duvernois:kids dancing, is this something that they primarily learn at home?
Cliff Duvernois:Do you have classes around here where people can go and learn that
Cliff Duvernois:Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time: There are classes.
Cliff Duvernois:So you would sign up to be part of the, the dancing program.
Cliff Duvernois:Parents teach the grade school and middle school kids.
Cliff Duvernois:Um, The costuming is very precise.
Cliff Duvernois:It's made just for you.
Cliff Duvernois:You can't walk into a store and buy one.
Cliff Duvernois:And there's some pretty strict guidelines around the costuming
Cliff Duvernois:because back in the early 1900's, they didn't have zippers in Velcro.
Cliff Duvernois:So the whole costume is put together with buttons and hooks and eyes.
Cliff Duvernois:It's very authentic.
Cliff Duvernois:And part of that authenticity comes with how it's constructed, not so
Cliff Duvernois:much what you can see on the outside.
Cliff Duvernois:Um, Although we do try to stay very close to patterns.
Cliff Duvernois:I learned when I was in the Netherlands that if you're wearing a blue dress as
Cliff Duvernois:a woman, that means you're in mourning.
Cliff Duvernois:Not black.
Cliff Duvernois:Most of us think of black, but blue.
Cliff Duvernois:Blue is the mourning color.
Cliff Duvernois:So it means there was a death in your family.
Cliff Duvernois:Some provinces wear a specific costume.
Cliff Duvernois:If you're a fisherman, the men might wear knickers.
Cliff Duvernois:Because they're in the water and they're fishing.
Cliff Duvernois:Um, So there's a, every province that we have, a costume that's represented
Cliff Duvernois:from all, has a story behind it and why it is, the way that it is.
Cliff Duvernois:We have, there's no patterns for those.
Cliff Duvernois:So many of our directors have have made patterns by looking
Cliff Duvernois:at books that are all written in Dutch to see what they look like.
Cliff Duvernois:And then we have modified them a bit so we can dance in them as well.
Cliff Duvernois:But they're really, uh, a special thing to see, that many people out
Cliff Duvernois:dancing and having a great time.
Cliff Duvernois:Let's talk a little bit about, cuz you said before
Cliff Duvernois:about how you try to interject some new things as festivals goes.
Cliff Duvernois:And I'm, And I'm sure that there might even be some one-off
Cliff Duvernois:things, like you're able to get somebody to come from one year.
Cliff Duvernois:talk to us a little bit about like, let's say for instance, for this
Cliff Duvernois:year, for 2023, what would be some things that, that people look forward
Cliff Duvernois:to that they haven't seen before.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So, one of my favorite things, and I saw this group
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:when I was in the Netherlands in 2019, is called the bicycle band crescendo.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So just imagine 50 people wearing a Dutch costume, wooden shoes, riding a
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:bicycle with an instrument, and riding in formation like a marching band.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:It's pretty phenomenal and pretty crazy look at.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:I mean, the sousaphone players have the big round sousaphone.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And they're, they're playing that and steering their bike at the same time.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:The bikes have been adapted for saxophone players, for example.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:They steer their bike with their elbow with a little adaption
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:that comes off the handlebar.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:How you do that.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:I, I was a musician.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:I played flute when I was in school.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And to be able to do that march at the same time was enough of a feat.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:But now put yourself in wooden shoes and on a bicycle.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:I can't imagine.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:But they are coming from the Netherlands.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:This year they'll be six performances, between the Friday and Sunday, the
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:last weekend of the festival, at one of our local football stadiums.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:That they're all free to attend due to the generosity of some sponsors and family.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:They have fam, the bicycle band people that started it, the barron family.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Um, Just celebrated a hundred years of having the band in the small town
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:called Aprenda in the Netherlands.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:But the children of Yang Bar, Jan Barren, live here in Grand Rapids.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:One of them ones out in Linden, Washington.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And they're all coming for a family reunion to watch this band perform because
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:this is their first time in the US.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:They do about 40, 50 performances around Europe every year, and this
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:is all a volunteer group of people.
Cliff Duvernois:Certainly.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And they've been to Japan six times.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:But they've never been to the US.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:So we're thrilled to have them here and to have the family
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:be able to see them and watch.
Cliff Duvernois:Now, for somebody that's coming to the Tulip Time
Cliff Duvernois:Festival, perhaps they've never been here before, maybe they're even hearing
Cliff Duvernois:this and thinking to themselves, man, I'd kinda like to go check this out.
Cliff Duvernois:What would be some of the, let's say maybe like three things.
Cliff Duvernois:That you would recommend if you're coming here, these are three things
Cliff Duvernois:that you should see do or experience.
Cliff Duvernois:Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time: One is Windmill Island.
Cliff Duvernois:It's a treasure.
Cliff Duvernois:It's the very last windmill to leave the Netherlands.
Cliff Duvernois:It's a working gristmill.
Cliff Duvernois:And that it's been here for over 50 years.
Cliff Duvernois:And so that is a great park.
Cliff Duvernois:There's plenty of tulips there.
Cliff Duvernois:It's fun to see the windmill and how it works and operates.
Cliff Duvernois:You can walk through it.
Cliff Duvernois:That's a a must see.
Cliff Duvernois:Tulips throughout the downtown area and the city parks.
Cliff Duvernois:There's two parks that are in walking distance to downtown
Cliff Duvernois:by a couple of blocks.
Cliff Duvernois:Centennial park and window on the waterfront.
Cliff Duvernois:Great ways and places to see the tulips.
Cliff Duvernois:And then depending on the day you're here, I would look at what
Cliff Duvernois:else would you have time to do.
Cliff Duvernois:One thing that we also do is a walking tour.
Cliff Duvernois:It's an hour and a half walking tour through downtown, about
Cliff Duvernois:a mile and a half total.
Cliff Duvernois:All on flatland, so it's wheelchair accessible.
Cliff Duvernois:And you can learn about the history of the community.
Cliff Duvernois:The community today.
Cliff Duvernois:You walk through Hope College.
Cliff Duvernois:You walk through the parks.
Cliff Duvernois:You get to look at tulips as well along the way.
Cliff Duvernois:And that's a really great opportunity to get an overview of our community.
Cliff Duvernois:And those are offered all day, every day.
Cliff Duvernois:And,
Cliff Duvernois:And so you could even get a ticket the day of when you're here if they're not
Cliff Duvernois:sold out, which typically does happen.
Cliff Duvernois:You can get tickets in advance as well.
Cliff Duvernois:So those are some things I would think about doing right away when you're here
Cliff Duvernois:to say, okay, let me understand what's, what's around park walk if you can.
Cliff Duvernois:Like I said, we're a small community, so sometimes parking and getting
Cliff Duvernois:around can be a challenge if you don't know exactly where you're going.
Cliff Duvernois:But there's a few one-way streets downtown, but there's,
Cliff Duvernois:there's plenty of signage.
Cliff Duvernois:You can get your find your way.
Cliff Duvernois:And because this is so Dutch, heavily themed and
Cliff Duvernois:you've got all the artisans that are coming in and I'm a foodie.
Cliff Duvernois:So maybe I'm asking this more for me.
Cliff Duvernois:What would be some cuisine that you would recommend that I try?
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:I would go to Big Lake Brewery.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:They have, um, some great Dutch inspired food.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:They do stamp pot, um, and a couple of other Dutch food
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:items during the festival.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:They also have a Tulip Time lager beer, which is great.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:It's the first time we've done that with them.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:The beer is designed or, or made just for Tulip Time.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:And it's, the cans are wrapped in our poster of that.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:We have an annual poster contest, and so it's a really great souvenir to take home
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:too if you, if you don't really like beer.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:But it's, um, so they've got some great food.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Um, there's also pubs and restaurants up and down eighth Street.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Um, I can, you can just list, they're all on the website as well.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:But New Holland Brewery's a great place to go.
Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time:Paquito is also lovely, has, um, kinda the Spanish cuisine and the tapas.
Cliff Duvernois:And before.
Cliff Duvernois:And so now when you're talking about website, if somebody wants to check out
Cliff Duvernois:more about Tulip time, uh, some of the activities that I got going on, where
Cliff Duvernois:would be the best way for them to connect?
Cliff Duvernois:Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time: Go to tulip time.com.
Cliff Duvernois:Look at the shows and events, click on that link and then it will tell you by day
Cliff Duvernois:all of the activities that are happening.
Cliff Duvernois:What things need tickets.
Cliff Duvernois:What things don't.
Cliff Duvernois:And that you can plan your day based on when you would be here.
Cliff Duvernois:And some of the things I mentioned earlier are open all nine days.
Cliff Duvernois:So those are easy opportunities.
Cliff Duvernois:Some things are only available on one day.
Cliff Duvernois:Uh, One of our evening entertainment shows this year is girl named to Tom.
Cliff Duvernois:They were the trio that won the Voice last year.
Cliff Duvernois:oh yeah.
Cliff Duvernois:That's a show that will be out at one of our local churches, Central Wesleyan.
Cliff Duvernois:So there's ticketed events and they're only here on Thursday.
Cliff Duvernois:So if you're coming Thursday and are interested in that, that
Cliff Duvernois:could be an opportunity for you.
Cliff Duvernois:So kind of look and see what day you think you're coming and then
Cliff Duvernois:what activities are happening.
Cliff Duvernois:Or you can look at it the other way and say, let me see what's happening.
Cliff Duvernois:I wanna see Sarah Evans.
Cliff Duvernois:She's here on friday.
Cliff Duvernois:So then you plan your day around that.
Cliff Duvernois:Excellent.
Cliff Duvernois:Gwen, thank you so much for taking time outta your busy schedule.
Cliff Duvernois:Cause I know a tulip time is just a handful of weeks away.
Cliff Duvernois:So thank you so much for talking with us today.
Cliff Duvernois:Gwen Auwerda, Tulip Time: Thank you for having me.
Cliff Duvernois:And for our audience, you can go to total michigan.com,
Cliff Duvernois:click on Gwen's interview and see all the links that she mentioned above.
Cliff Duvernois:While you're there, make sure to check out the other interviews that we did
Cliff Duvernois:with Holland's Mayor Bach, as well as the Windmill Island manager, Matt
Cliff Duvernois:Helmus, and learn more about the other great festivals and activities that
Cliff Duvernois:Highland has to offer with the interview with Linda Hart from the Holland CVB.
Cliff Duvernois:And don't forget to join our email list while you're there.
Cliff Duvernois:See you again next week with another great episode.