2019 Adult Dance practices dates are set for Tulip Festival

The Tulip Festival Steering Committee invites adults, college-age and older, to participate in the Adult Dutch Dance portion of this year’s Straat Feest. Both new and returning dancers are welcome and encouraged to join.

Adult Dutch Dance Practice dates are set for six Monday evenings, beginning in April. The dates include April 8, 15, 22, 29, as well as May 6, 13. Each practice will be held from 6:00 to 6:45 p.m. at the Orange City Town Hall.

Authentic Dutch costumes are required for participants. If you’re new to the group, we encourage you to come to all of the practices. If you are a returner, feel free to join us as your schedule permits, but we’d love to have everyone on the final Monday before Tulip Festival.

Questions? Contact Kris McDonald at 712.541.3636 or via email: kmcdonal@nwciowa.edu

2019 Tulip Court Costumes Revealed

This year our Tulip Court costumes come from the fishing village of Marken in Noord-Holland on the Zuiderzee. With the men out to sea fishing, the women, isolated on the island, had lots of time to devote to embellishing their brightly colored costumes with ornate fabrics, trims and embroidery. This year’s costume has a total of 35 different fabrics, laces and other trims and each represents dozens of hours of sewing and other handwork by Tulip Festival volunteers.

At the Extravaganza, the 2019 Tulip Court presented their traveling road show for the first time. The road show, which the festival royalty wrote and will present to various organizations, schools, and residential facilities this spring, tells of the events and attractions at Tulip Festival and gives a detailed overview of their costumes from Marken.

ABOUT THE MARKEN COSTUMES

The underskirt is made of a multi-colored striped fabric. The skirt, made of black wool, has a three-inch row of hand shirring around the waist, finished with a red braid on the bottom.

Marken women wore a blue apron with a red-checked top on special occasions, with a wide braid sewn on at the waistband and a second decorative wide braid around the back.

The sleeves of the Marken costume typically have red, white and black stripes like the court’s costume. Over top of the sleeves, the court is wearing two wool vests—the first is made of navy wool, while the red wool vest with a blue, green or purple sateen back is layered over top the navy one. Pinned over top the red vest is the brightly colored floral print called a plastron.

An ornately hand-embroidered navy wool vest, like the one Queen Allison is wearing, was worn by Marken women on special occasions. A total of 200 volunteer hours were dedicated to the embroidery on Queen Allison’s vest. Instead of striped sleeves, Allison’s are bright red with a metallic gold trim. Allison also has the option to wear sleeve covers made of purple taffeta to keep her red sleeves clean while working (or while eating poffertjes).

Queen Allison also has a white linen neckerchief, while the court’s everyday scarf is made of a red checked cotton. Each scarf is personalized with the court member’s initials and embellished with small tassels known as “akertjes” (ay-ker-cheese), made from multiple strings of tiny white beads wrapped around a white or red cord.

The multi-layered cap is made of the same floral print as the plastron and white lace and trims with an embroidered, initialed chinstrap.

Beautifully decorated wooden shoes complete the costume. The dark green klompen were hand painted by a local community volunteer with leaves and roses, with the individual court member’s initials personalizing each pair.

The women of Marken certainly put their leisure time to good use. The results were the richly embellished costumes that have become today’s heirlooms. Our court is honored to be wearing replicas of such treasures.

2019 Tulip Festival Parade Marshal Announced

The Tulip Festival Steering Committee is very pleased to honor Scott Mulder as the parade marshal for the 79th annual event.

Each year a parade marshal is chosen for the festival.  This honor is given to recognize someone for the contributions he or she made to the festival in past years.

Scott has been involved in the Tulip Festival ever since he was a little boy; he can remember helping his father with the street organ back in the early 1970s. As Scott grew older, he continued to participate in the parade by marching in the band from 5th grade until 12th grade. Scott was also the fiddler in the play production in the 1990s.

When Scott attended college, he was still committed to the Tulip Festival tradition and decided to help Gerry Korver with the floats in the parade. In the 1980s, Mulder Oil assumed the position of making sure floats and trolleys were kept rolling. If there was an issue with the floats during the parade, Scott or his crew members were always there to help. Scott has enjoyed working with the many different people over the years, but his favorite part is working with people he may not normally interact with during the rest of the year. His family have been involved in the tradition and taking on the family legacy. His children Kenzie, Parker, and Madi have all marched in the band and been involved with the dutch dance. Kenzie was also Tulip Festival Queen in 2013.  His wife, Jill, was on the queens committee and chaired the committee in 2017. Thank you Scott for your contributions throughout the years.

2019 Tulip Festival brochures have arrived

The Orange City Tulip Festival is pleased to announce the annual Tulip Festival brochures have arrived at the Tulip Festival office.

The brochure includes a daily schedule of the Tulip Festival, information on festival activities, attractions and special events such as Straatfeest and the Night Show. Also included is information on food, travel, and lodging at and around the Tulip Festival.

Questions about the brochure can be directed to the Tulip Festival office at 712-707-4510.

2019 Dutch Costume Exchange set for April 3

The 2018 Tulip Festival Dutch costume exchange is set for Wednesday, Apr. 4. The event will take place from 2 to 6:30 p.m. at Stadscentrum, located on the corner of Central Avenue and Second Street North in Orange City.

Individuals interested in selling Dutch costumes can bring them to the Orange City Tulip Festival office, located at 509 8th Street SE, on Monday, Apr. 2 or Tuesday, Apr. 3.

Sellers should determine the price of their costumes and are asked to print and fill out the seller’s form. Please note that the Tulip Festival Steering Committee only accepts authentic Dutch costumes for the exchange.

Individuals interested in purchasing Dutch costumes don’t need to have an authentic Dutch costume to sell, and individuals interested in selling authentic Dutch costumes don’t need to purchase others.

A variety of costumes will be available for purchase for children and adults.