The inaugural Harrison Tulip Festival will open for the season on April 8 in Agassiz.
The event is presented by the visionary Onos family, renowned for beloved legacy festivals including the Chilliwack Tulip Festival and Tulips of the Valley. This year’s event (the 18th annual tulip festival organized by the Onos family) promises to be the biggest, best and most colourful yet, boasting a breathtaking display of 10 million bulbs planted over 35 acres, including 50 tulip varieties, 15 types of daffodils and twelve types of hyacinths.
The festival offers wide pedestrian pathways alongside the flowers, perfect for capturing beautiful photos. The careful spacing is no accident: using specialized bulb-planting equipment, the Onos family is able to grow the widest rows in Canada, creating vast vistas of blooms. In addition, this style of planting allows the sustainability-minded farming family to maximize the number of bulbs per acre, for efficient land use.
In addition, a two-acre show garden features mature fruit and nut trees, flowering shrubs and grassy pathways, all brightened by thousands of tulips, hyacinths and other blooms that herald the arrival of spring.
The inaugural kick-off days will feature early-blooming tulip varieties (including the ever-popular bright orange, yellow-tipped “World’s Favourite”), plus colourful double daffodils and fragrant hyacinths adjacent to the tulip fields. Depending on the weather, mid-season frequently offers even more diversity with tulips, hyacinths and daffodils in full glory, with late season reverting to the familiar sunny, bright hues of tulips and daffodils.
Behind the festival’s dazzling display is the integrity of a year-round working family farm. Onos Greenhouses grows the tulips on the Agassiz field that becomes the annual festival grounds. After the festival, Onos Greenhouses collects the bulbs and then uses them in their greenhouse operation, which currently supplies 85 per cent of the cut tulips that are sold throughout Western Canada.
Dotted among the blooms, selfie spots and photo opportunities abound. Swing sets, antique tractors and horse carts, vintage bicycles, a 1950s convertible, a 1965 Airstream trailer and raised platforms for photo-staging make group portraits and capturing sun-dappled memorable moments easy.
Plus, two food trucks will be onsite daily, offering food for purchase, including authentic Dutch stroopwafels. A farm store also offers souvenirs, fresh cut and potted flowers, and refreshments for purchase.
The Harrison Tulip Festival acknowledges and is honoured to be located on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Cheam, Sts’ailes, Sq’éwlets and Seabird Island Peoples.
- Location: The Harrison Tulip Festival is located at 5039 Lougheed Highway in Agassiz, BC. harrisontulipfest.com/getting-here.
- Hours: Open daily starting April 8, for approximately four weeks. Monday to Friday: 10 am to 6:30 pm and Saturday & Sunday: 6 am to 6:30 pm.
- Parking: Free parking is located right next to the entrance and fields.
- Tickets: Prices start at $12 for adults, $9 for seniors, and $7 for kids ages 3-12. For complete details and to purchase tickets, please visit harrisontulipfest.com.