Weird weather lashes Ottawa tulip festival
Date: 17-May-02
Country: CANADA
Author: David Ljunggren
The rain and wet snow lashing Ottawa were so bad that for the first time in history, the two-week tulip festival - started by the Netherlands' gift of tulips as an expression of gratitude after World War Two - had to be closed for a day earlier this week.
"Certainly it's tough to have this kind of weather when you're an outside festival," sighed Doug Little, the event's communications and marketing manager.
"None of us can ever remember having to (cancel) a whole day...it was really a combination of the rain and the cold," he told Reuters yesterday.
Last year the festival attracted some 105,000 visitors to the main concert arena in central Ottawa and organizers had been hoping for a 25 percent increase this year. That hope has now been washed away by the rain.
"The big increase we're looking for may be starting to fade...We had great advance sales, so that's helping, but we're anxious to get some sunshine," Little said.
The capital's Winterlude festival over the first three weekends in February, was mugged by unseasonably warm weather. The festival usually attracts around a million visits by people eager to skate on Ottawa's frozen Rideau Canal - billed as the world's longest ice rink.
"We broke records for the canal, unfortunately. It was the shortest open season ever," said Laurie Peters of the National Capital Commission, which runs the event.
The skating season this year lasted just 34 days, compared with the average 50 days, and the number of visits plunged to just 400,000.
Environmental activists such as Greenpeace blame the unusual weather on global warming and are urging Canada to stop dithering and ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
Whatever the cause of the incessant rainstorms drenching Ottawa, Little was determined to stay upbeat.
"Global warming has been on our minds for the past few years as the tulips bloomed earlier and earlier. Now we're in a situation where the tulips are great," he said.
"If you're coming here to see the tulips you'll be very happy because they are all still in bloom."
