Today we headed off to Pella, IA for the first day of the Tulip Time festival. At the Grand Stage, a whole celebration of the town's Dutch heritage occurred. The original Dutch settlers of Pella came in 1847, many for religious freedom. This show displays the result of the immigrants' dream and celebrates Dutch culture and roots. This is the 87th Tulip Festival, the first one starting in 1935. The theme for this year is Parades, Pedals, and Poffertjes. (Poffertjes are Dutch Pancakes).
First, we saw a reenactment of a Dutch cheese market. This included the hand slaps between the inspector and seller while they said prices to determine the price the cheese sold for and the cheese carriers which stacked up rounds of cheese and carried them on the inside of part of a barrel. The cheese carriers raced against each other. I was cheering for the red team, but the green team won in a landslide.
Then, the fashion show of the Parade of Proveniences and Costumes. There are 250 styles of dress in the Netherlands! I didn't know that the many island and communities in the Netherlands had such a diverse range of clothing. It was cool to see that fashion heritage here and the flags from these communities as well. I like vexillology, the study of flags, and each of the flags was really cool. Here is a Wikipedia article that shows the different flags of the Netherlands Proveniences if you are interested.
We also saw a lot of Dutch dancers. Elementary school-aged kids to high school kids and even a few retired dancers joined in. They asked for volunteers and our own David Guetzlaff and Matt Reis both joined in on the fun.
The queen of the tulip festival was also crowned. She is an ambassador for the Tulip Festival. All hail the queen!
Then, it was time for the big parade. It was so long. A lot of Dutch merchants were displayed. There were at least 4 marching bands! There were a lot of cool floats as well including a pirate Santa, who is called Sinterklaas in the Dutch tradition, a lego house, and a treehouse.
It was a long show, but it was cool to see how much the people of Pella cherished and celebrated their Dutch heritage. And I sure learned a lot more about Dutch culture!
Jenna S.