Looking back to first Tulip Festival

It is always a trip down Memory Lane for me when tulip season erupts in the Skagit Valley. It was my privilege in 1984 to play a role in the inaugural festival by designing the first Tulip Festival brochure and the first Roozengaarde bulb catalogue. Color printing was expensive, so event sponsor Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce opted to go with a duotone (two-color) image of a single tulip. The Roozens took the full color option for their “Preferred Customer Bulb Catalogue” (with prices including $3.50 for 10 tulips and $4 for 10 daffodils!). These were the days before computer design. The bottom photo shows the progression from concept to draft pasteup to finished product on the Mount Vernon Tulip Festival brochure. One of these days I will make a concerted effort to scan photos I took of festival events during that first exciting year (then a three-day event). A brief history of the festival follows (from the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival website):

The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival was officially inaugurated in 1984 by the Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce. Chamber directors Jerry Diggerness and Joan Houchen saw that people were coming by the thousands to view the tulips and, through a retreat, decided to add events and festivities to enhance the visitors’ trip to the Skagit Valley. In 1994 the Tulip Festival broke off from the Chamber of Commerce and became an entity of its own.

From humble beginnings, the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival grew. It moved from 3 days to 10, then 17 and now, for the past 5+ years, to 30 days. The expansion to 30 days was to ensure that the huge fields of tulips grown in Skagit Valley would actually bloom sometime during the festival, since a shorter festival sometime missed the blooming of the fields.

Today the festival boasts an amazing assortment of events — art shows, gala celebrations, concerts, tours of local shellfish and cheese operations and an open house at PACCAR. Two signature events have grown along with the festival –the Downtown Mount Vernon Street Fair and the Kiwanis Salmon Barbecue – fundraisers for both organizations that have proven highly successful. There are lots of physical activities associated with the festival as well – a run, 20- 40- and 60-mile bike rides, and a youth basketball tournament.