Tulip Festival pops open Monday

It’s no joke: the 35th annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival runs the month of April. Expect to see folks on greater La Conner roads this weekend. They will be fooled: only daffodils are now in bloom.

Started as a three-day festival in 1984, it has grown to 10, then 17 days and, for more than five years, into a 30-day event.

The activities are many and assorted: art shows, gala celebrations, concerts, tours of local shellfish and cheese operations and an open house at PACCAR. The Downtown Mount Vernon Street Fair and the Kiwanis Salmon Barbecue are signature fundraiser for each organization. You can run, or bike 20- 40- and 60-miles. Of course, there is a youth basketball tournament.

Farmers and staff have no control over when any of the millions of tulips will burst into bloom. The busiest, most car-filled-roads day will be a sunny Saturday or Sunday. The “festival” is a driving tour, with no one point of entry. The tulip fields are the crops of RoozenGaarde/Washington Bulb Co., Inc. and Tulip Town. Due to crop rotation, the fields are in different locations each year. Both RoozenGaarde and Tulip Town also have displays of tulips in gardens for visitors to view and photograph. Both companies charge a seven-dollar entrance fee.

People will come from all 50 states and perhaps 100 countries.

The biggest local highlight is La Conner’s Not So Impromptu Tulip Parade April 14. US Bank sponsors this 32nd annual Kiwanis Club of La Conner parade. Entry forms are needed to participate in the 2 p.m. event.

For more information: http://tulipfestival.org/