welcome to city connections i'm your host nancy tibor and we are here to have a little wrap up from two of time twenty fourteen we're going to start by talking with gwen our that who is the executive director of t have all that data yet in so many of the things people come to see are free and so we don't get a count but i know that the saturday parade people were lined up from the edge of the story all the way to the stores and busiest i've seen and the four years i've been in this job rea i when i was in the parade on wednesday and saturday i was just sick rows of people they could hardly breathe together basically which was so awesome it was so great so if you're a tourist and you come to tulip time what is like the most popular event there's three or four things people tend to call us about that they want to do first of all they want to come see the beautiful tulips and they want to know where they are when they're in bloom and what day of the week of the red one is going to bloom because that's what they're here for right then secondar ily they come to the parades the that's dancing is always a huge hit people love that and you know some who are here for a number of days begin to pick up on you know what do i do while i'm here so is that a show or  yeah so like attraction do they always buy like a ticket for several things or do they just kind of wander around and find attractions that they like or typically they buy tickets for several things when they're here we encouraged to come out here to the beautiful wood mill island gardens and that's village of bell hears and so we give them all that detail of things that they can do while they're in town and most people do take us up on all those ideas cool so what kind of new things i know you guys are really working hard with all types of revamping of to look time and trying new stuff what did you launch this year this year we tried to find a few things that engage the community so our that's dogs on parade on wednesday was linked to this thing we had over thirty five dogs and their owners in the parade and that was great and that went over really well at the tail and at the right because that was perfect we also had a pig in the blanket contest so we all love picking the blankets and so it was bring your favorite recipe and we had judges that got to select their favorite so that's always fun yeah that was smart what a great idea we've been doing pigs in the blankets for how many years years and people move here saying what is that and never heard of i heard of it so important do you think it is that like the city and tulip time kind of work together in making this festival happen for everybody it's extremely important we couldn't do what we do without the city you know although we don't own any land and we don't plant any tulips and so for tulip time to be really a community event and be part of the city and the parks that all have tulips planted really makes it a great partnership between our organization and the city yeah it is everybody turns out every age right we probably have what five to ninety in participating in some capacity it's great so i mean it this is huge it doesn't happen by itself i mean it's doesn't like all wake up this week and when i have a festival the other week you know it takes some planning when do you start working on next year i started three weeks ago actually before the festival started we started thinking through next year and looking at our entertainment lie and we're currently going through the d brief process so we meet with all the organizations that provided entertainment we look at our ticket sales and all those things we have to have the schedule done by the first of august because we go to print with our fall preview brochure as well as the group  market in october tickets go on sale the first of november so it really is a year round process and we we don't stop and yeah regroup but when we regroup and start the next one all at the same time so everybody thinks well tho that committee they're all in adirondack chairs kind of sitting there lemonade looking over stuff from last year no you're still running and we're still running and there's a lot of cleanup to me we had signs all over the city and banners and things that we had to clean up last week and now we're starting to get you know kind of get a feet back on the ground and think think ahead and that's part of what this job is is year round and many people don't think about it that way because again they show up they don't think about the possible to the snow is gone right but we're as it is  fifteen minutes to go right so you had to we have tulips planted all over the place like you said that the city does and also a builders of some two lips and a lot of two ups and so dutch village and how many tulips do you think are planted throughout this whole area for people to enjoy six million is the number that we have from all the attractions in the city and in terms of what they plant so you as you can see behind us that are just beautiful i know there's is there anything like the color of a field of two looks it's just so dramatic that they are such a regal flower and each one is like its own book a so i hope how about volunteers you get six million tulips we have what a half a million visitors probably and how do you handle that when we can't just do that with staff we can't possibly pay that many people so how many volunteers are you doing this year we had about a thousand thousand mountaineers that is a lot into days world that is a lot and you know thankfully this community in the spirit around the community to help host this festival is wonderful because we really can do it without that i mean they're doing things from helping people get on the bleachers to pick up and pick up trash you know hosting  shows and being ushers so it's really a very broad community effort to get everything done wow so if people are watching this and thinking yeah you know that doesn't sound like such a bad job i bet i could help assure people at a program or i could put up a sign or i could help with cleanup and but i don't know when i don't know how to do that when to do that what should they do there's a color office and talk to us and we like to match people up with where their skill sets are some people want to be behind the scenes others want to be ushering they've got the gift of hospitality so we try to look at what you want to do and match you up with an event or a job that would fit that people not only come here one year but they may repeat repeatedly come here what's that attraction do you think people say to me this community is amazing and and how welcoming it is and people stop in the street if they were lost and can i help you find something in a restaurant or whatever in the community is this gorgeous i mean i look at what the parks department does downtown holland and you never would know that there was a parade the day before when you're back downtown at seven a m the next morning it's spotless it is unbelievable isn't it it's the disney factor going on everywhere absolutely and you kind of feel it through the whole population all of us whether we have a role as an official role or not we're here to make the place was good and to help the people feel good right yeah and what more do you want you know so many people say to me i want to retire here this is really a lovely community and then i say well have you even gotten out to lake michigan nowheres that offers a whole nother piece of what the community offers outside of the travel really that people really thoroughly enjoy so when people come here and enjoy being here and want to remember it what kind of things do they buy like for a little mementos you have any idea on that people buy a variety of things we've got you know our annual poster contest and so we always have merchandise around that people buy that are coffee mugs fly off the shelves and people buy delft which you can get both you know in many places a lot of the get stores and that's what people tend to take home are things that will remind them of their time spent here you know something uniquely   and he did two fabulous shows we contracted for ninety minutes he did over two hours at both of them and i took him back to the airport and it was another comedy machine in the car i was just here and all the time he was so funny i had tears r you know my guess as i drove in the road as i drove him back because he's just he is a wonderful person and i got to spend a little time with him and he was great how special is that i know i he just seemed to be so much himself when he is that he comes out in a and they were a little different it was too fun and i just love being a part of it and it's a kind of show you can go to and just relax and enjoy being there and you could feel that whole auditorium feeling that way and i bet you had great reactions from other shows as well that were selling out i i heard people saying yeah i try to get a ticket for federal fire or whatever it's all gone a lot of pac real or show live are still left sold out again this year and you know we're blessed with that in we're trying to attract all ages in our programming and that can be challenging to know what people want because we're playing into your head sometimes you don't know if a musical group is popular or not yet surely it ages every fifteen minutes ago so it is challenging but yet we we do offer things for all generations and i think bill cosby was an example of that he's really timeless right either you saw reruns or the you saw the original and the laughter both of the right right that's cool so what new events i know this is probably t secret and this is from the inner sanctum of to look by committee verily leaking out but is there anything you plan for next year you can release not yet oh ok i got this i wish but we just haven't even gotten to that point  of engaging in any conversation specifically to know what that's going to be but i can be hard to top this year honestly but they're going to try hard you know you always try to get like one real headline are correct there's one and then the local art and culture organizations are being a very big piece of what we do and that are tame at that they provide along with what i'll call purchased entertainment you vocal trash was here this year and they put on a fabulous show people said i wish i really knew what they did because i went and it was high energy and great you know we may bring them back i don't know so when this year was a little different in that we had the dutch embassador here actually flew in by helicopter for the governor's lunch and i was pretty dramatic not everybody five baez how far on is that and how neat to have someone actually from the netherlands come in for this how do you arrange that would to have time and all that well thanks to mayor dykstra he extended an invitation to him he knows him and said you really need to come to holland in appreciate what we look at is our heritage from the netherlands and we toured in through the when mail we went to the whole museum and looked at the thing the paintings the lovely paintings that are at the museum and he was really impressed with how we valued the tradition in the old in our heritage we also took him to the johnson controls battery plant all cool with the new and yet innovation and look at our workforce and talk about the work ethic of the dutch settlers and then the were ethic that is still here in holland today right and so we had a great visit with him i don't know the last time that level of official from the netherlands has been here but we just thoroughly enjoyed having him that is great and it's always good to make sure that we have those ties and make him tighter and i know business in the netherlands is interested in business in the united states and vice versa so when we talk about how the volunteers all show up and we bring in half a million tourists and there must be some kind of economic impact to all of that i know what's the tulip time budget itself we have over a million dollar budget and we bring in over a million dollars and that's a combination of our ticket sales for our events that do have admission and sponsorship and so if you're a local business we also look for sponsorship from you to help us with our bottom line we also try to help propel to provide you with some exposure for ten million dollar economic impact to the west michigan area five hundred thousand yes you've got an opportunity to get your name out your name out there and to work with a lot of people yeah so have you had any local businesses this year that were a particular example of launching their name and getting response one that is a highlight to me is copper craft distillery we went to them and said hey what your new we'd like to partner with you could you think of a tulip time drink of that we could do and they came up with a fabulous tulip time cocktail using time the spice t h y m e and with them and us we went out to almost twenty restaurants and sold their product as well as saying would you serve this signature drink for two weeks around the festival and it's been an amazing exposure for them and partnership and many of the the restaurants have said we want all of your liquor in our well you know and it's increased their business it gave to a time you know get something fun to taste and try oil was a win win everywhere and while we put on a party we also want to make business connections so what would you recommend people do or see for next year's to look to all of it come and spend the week with us we will keep you entertained and busy and if you want to come and volunteer even we had some ladies from pennsylvania that have come year after year and they called and said we're going to be there for four days we'd like to volunteer what can we do they're not even living in this community so those opportunities as well to make a week of it and come with your family and have a good time well thanks for your time today gwen and helping us learn all about is about to have time thank you for all the hard work that you put into making tulip time such a wonderful time for everybody and now let's take a little more time and look into the hard work that goes into dutch dancing and that dutch cast do making  we are here to select the right fabrics for the right costumes we have eighteen different costumes two of them are for our candor dancers are elementary school dancers nine of them are girls style seven of them are boy style costumes before we get here tonight though there's a lot of work that's actually done by the people here at field fabrics i know we always struggle to find that we don't want or need where they're getting harder and harder to find to be i have compiled a book that shows historical costumes what are dancers long why and then what kind of fabrics are appropriate historically for the costumes that we're working with  enough going the research the thirteen for fabrics goes on all year this is the time of year we get really serious about it and the community becomes aware that you know the tulips may be buried under as it is this year several feet of snow and fit the dancer exactly so that they can be comfortable confident and safe while they're dancing i think everything is going to be cut but they do this magic the magic they do with fabric and the patterns and  tracing and cutting and getting it all ready to go and be sewn that has a colored petticoat we have so many dancers out on the street and learning the dance was part of it but certainly the costumes  you've got a problem for this this is really where the actual construction of a custom begins with this process i wonder how much material we picked out the fabric that's like picking out the paint and now we have the people this is actually the petticoat so like a sl very careful to keep the fabric arch for fabric so that it's not wholly because if it pulls it's hard to make a straight seam for one thing but it also push your fabric and makes the tension proper all of the beads have to be worn and everything has to be worn just as if they're performing dancing and performing in front of a bunch of people the last thing you want is for something to come on snapped or on no wardrobe malfunctions and this good looks beautiful on you but that's the first time we really get to see everything put together  in this is where we really find out are the costumes as danceable as we think they are there's a lot of lot of excitement or some nervousness because it is a performance and i say yes it is a street the whole street is your sta we had our first dress rehearsal last night and it was quite wet and quite rainy we do dance rain or shine and the reward of all that for us is to look out there and see dancers and friends and family just enjoying themselves a stance on the total time festival of holland on the map and people come from all over the states and even internationally to come to our festival and the dancers are huge attraction one of the main reasons people come to the festival on the day the dancers and all that they're very honored and very aware that they are representing not just the two it's the heritage of our community and and we celebrate those who went before us and built what we have here we're grateful for that kind of memory thing that's as i feel like this is a great big community part fun is that all the pageantry and color and excitement of dutch dancing it's just fun to watch every time we're so glad that you joined us this year to listen to i'm watch all that is tulip time two thousand and fourteen for a little recap if you'd like to watch some more please tune into video dot com slash city of how and and you can watch all the other videos as well we'll see you in the next show