Abbotsford and Chilliwack tulip farmers have announced their festival season won’t go ahead

Tulips, daffodils and hyacinths are all part of the beauty at the Chilliwack Tulip Festival. The 2020 season of tulip festivals in Abbotsford and Chilliwack has been cancelled due to limits on large gatherings for COVID-19. (Submitted photo)

The tulip fields that brighten up the Fraser Valley every spring won’t be open to the public this year.

Both Chilliwack’s Tulips of the Valley, and Abbotsford’s Bloom Tulip Festival announced on Friday, April 3, that their popular annual events would be cancelled. Both drew thousands of visitors, and even required pre-booked times to avoid over-crowding of the fields.

Kate Onos-Gilbert, founder and operator of Tulips of the Valley said their festival will not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The decision to cancel this year’s festival adheres to measures issued by BC’s Provincial Health Officer prohibiting events greater than 50 people,” their website reads. A springtime tradition in the Fraser Valley, this year would have marked the 14th annual Chilliwack Tulip Festival. Typically, the festival takes place over a four-week period, usually in April, sometimes into May, depending on the weather.

READ MORE: Trail density has gone down in Chilliwack from last weekend’s overcrowding

“The health and safety of our guests, staff, and community, is very important to us,” says Onos-Gilbert. “I wish everyone the very best during this challenging time. We hope we will be able to welcome guests back to our fields this summer for the annual Chilliwack Sunflower Festival, currently slated to commence in August.”

Bloom made the statement on their Instagram account.

“At this time, the best advice we can follow is that of B.C.’s health and government officials, to simply ‘stay home,’ wrote owner Alexis Szarek-Warmerdam. “Please remember, even through the cloudiest days we will all bloom again.”

The tulips will still be blooming, of course, as the festivals are off-shoots of the tulip businesses.

READ MORE: Chilliwack business brings blooming bulbs back to Burnaby with one-day I Heart Tulips event

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