Tulip Festival moving to Armstrong

Abbotsford’s loss will be Armstrong’s gain.

The founder of The Abbotsford Tulip Festival, known as Bloom, says the land where the event has been held since 2016 has been sold, and her family has moved to Armstrong.

Alexis Szarek said they hope to “rebloom” in the North Okanagan, and she has been in discussions with officials in Armstrong for some time.

The focus will be on holding the event in Armstrong in the spring of 2022.

“Our chamber staff has been working with Alexis and her family for over a year now and keeping this exciting news under our hats has been hard,” Patti Noonan, executive director of the Armstrong Spallumcheen Chamber of Commerce said. “We are happy they found our community to be a good fit for their family and their business. This is a great addition to what we already have to offer residents and visitors and we look forward to them being a valuable part of our chamber and business community.”

Noonan said the news is one of the reasons they feel strongly about the importance of being involved in economic development in Armstrong and Spallumcheen.

The Abbotsford Tulip Festival was first held in the spring of 2016 with the goal of bringing four generations of Szarek’s family’s passion for growing tulips to a broader audience, according to a news release issued.

The outdoor event attracted up to 100,000 visitors each year over six weeks from April to May who gathered to see 2.5 million rainbow coloured tulips in full bloom. The event employed dozens of staff and volunteers, and had a significant impact on the local economy while boosting tourism and helping to solidify Abbotsford’s global reputation as an agri-tourism destination. The festival was featured on dozens of international publications and programs including CBC’s The Nature of Things with David Suzuki.

“Several recent factors impacted the decision to permanently close the Abbotsford Tulip Festival, including the forced cancellation of the 2020 event last April due to the pandemic, as well as the uncertainty of the 2021 season. In addition, earlier this year the land where the festival had been held for four consecutive years was sold to new owners,” the news release stated.

Szarek, her husband Marc, and their family have relocated to Armstrong.