Helping Fund a variety of Tulip Festival Projects
Tulip Festival received $25,000 for a wide variety of upcoming projects. A few of these include:
- • Float maintenance, repair, and creation
- • Improving our speaker system and offering an FM transmission option for our accessible parking area
- • A costume and history research trip to the Netherlands
- • Updating our website
Project update: A costume and history research trip to the Netherlands
In June, the Tulip Festival was able to send 4 representatives to the Netherlands for a two-week research trip. During this time, they were able to visit 33 towns and 13 museums. They met with numerous experts, re-established existing connections, and shopped for material and authentic Klederdracht pieces.
Amanda Haverdink and Amanda Lemke represented our costume committee and were able to see authentic pieces up close, learn about the construction and design of many different regional clothing items, and learn techniques firsthand. Jennie Droog and Lauren McDonald represented the festival executive committee and were primarily there to document and catalog the information learned.
“At the end of each day, we would look at each other and say, ‘If we left today, this whole trip would be worth it,’ and then we found ourselves saying that for 13 days straight! We were so fortunate to meet so many incredible individuals who were willing to share their knowledge and love of Klederdracht with us. They were so impressed with the work we are doing here in Orange City and really affirmed the foundation that Denise, Marylis, and others have laid for keeping our costumes as authentic as possible. We are excited about all the information we learned and can’t wait to implement it into our festival in the years to come!”
Project update: 08-27-2025
We are in the process or have completed many items related to our requests for 2025:
Netherlands Trip & Dutch Costumes were addressed early this year and capped off with the trip to the Netherlands, New Website changes are progressing and will be completed in late 2025. We have workong on Floats and made a number of refurbishements to floats for 2025 with new flowers and decorations.
