welcome to the april episode of city connections and today we are going to talk about one of the most most historic events in the highlands history and that is that celebration of tulip time how can we not get excited about till the time and today we are here with nathan backs who is a native holland you know and i'm actually not a me you're not you know i'm not i'm a transplant but i came here to go to college and decided to stay because it's such a wonderful place perfect and i'm a transplant too so we'll take originals and transplants and we are so happy about being here and talking about to look time the first part of the program we're going to be talking with nathan and the next part of the program we're going to talk with one of our howland's really families that often performs during  i'm a local attorney actually ended up on the tulip time board because i started out as a target i've been a step on tour guide for twenty years now so i've been driving around in motor coaches with you know forty to fifty folks from out of town from all over the country and showing them the sights and i've been so excited about to look time that somebody finally said you know you probably ought to be on the board of directors so you have seen the city through the tourists i i have i have i think it gives me kind of a unique perspective on the board because i'm looking at it from that tourist perspective and i get to see how wonderful this place is as you said through the eyes of people who have not been here before and i get the chance to see what a special place this really is yeah why that is so cool so did you start that when you were at help or you know you know i went to i went to whole college i went to law school and came back and opened up an office right on eighth street downtown in the very first spring during tulip time i found that it was very difficult to get clients to come into the office during the stood staring out the window at parades going by underneath me and i thought you know maybe i ought to get involved in this tulip time thing yeah and my my mother had been a dutch dancer my wife is a dutch dancer in my sister in law was a tour guide and she said you know you probably be a pretty good tour guide and so the next year i started stepping out and ever since then even though i've moved my office from downtown atlanta so short drive i still shut the office down for the week and spend the week doing to the time activities because i love it so much so you are a quick study on the history thing through the time thing for quite a few years you must have some kind of special moments or memories that kind of stand out in your mind i do there's a you know the be the moment i like of every single festival there's every year there's a point that is actually my favorite and that is i go down and watch the chance and frequently because my wife's a dancer and there's that point in the dance where all of the dancers are paired up in a line down a street and you can look three or four blocks down and see them all dancing synchronized and i think this up you know that's that moment for me is really what tulip time is about it's about the volunteers that are down that have been working really hard it is the tradition of the costumes and the wooden shoes it's the community support because you look to the sides of the street and you see all of the families that are there watching their wives their daughters their sons and husbands out there dancing and it's those folks that have come to see the festival and i think when i don't think i know i know when people come to this town they think oh dutch dancing i'm go see half a dozen people out there dancing and they look and they see a thousand dancers all lined up dancing all synchronized and beautiful and and there is this look of off on their faces and i say to myself that for me is what tulip time is about now that's my every year my favorite part of tulip time but as a as a tulip time tour guide i have had many many great experiences and the one that that people always ask me ask me about is special and when will i last it can you tell us about the time you lost the to the tourist in the canal and why i had a motor coach group from i believe it was in alabama from alabama that was up and there was a a lovely little old lady who was was out there and wanted to take a picture of the windmill and so she took her walker and she kind of set it to the side and was a windy blustery day and she was about to take a picture of the of the windmill from right next to the canal in a gust of wind came blew her walker into the canal and this was at a time when there was a significant amount of water in that  and she no little lady with a walker should lunge for her walker but she did and she ended up tipping into the canal herself tipped her purse open and dropped her medication her glasses her wallet all into the water and as a good tour guide i wasn't anywhere nearby i was at the window with the rest of the group and a staff member from the fest from the island came up to me said nathan i think that one of your tourists is in the canal and so i went went running over and by the time i got there this is i think this is a the epitome of what holland is like by the time i got there there were three or four staff people from the from the island in the water they'd already retrieve her from the water but they were they had ra and shovels and nets and they retrieved her her medication they retrieved her glasses they retrieved her wallet we took her to the hospital because she was scraped up a little bit my boss met her at the hospital took all of her clothing took that clothing home washed it dried it while the woman was being taken care of at the hospital and brought it back to the hospital our motor coach several hours later pulled up through the hospital picked her up we had a gift basket for her from one mil island and sent her on her way and took what could have been a real tragedy and turn it into a a great moment for her and a great moment for the festival so for me that that's the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me during the two of time first and that was a maybe fifteen years ago and no one ever lets me all of that is an amazing story and i'm sure people mela bam are all coming because they heard about our i think the out on the on the message boards in alabama they say come to holland and if you tip yourself into the canal you might get a gift basket while that if you had is an amazing s how you got connected to two of time would go back to your wife and you're my family my wife and me and my mother and my sister in law and you know it was really just the excitement of being out there and being able to be with the groups and be with the tourists that it might have ended up being just a two or three year thing while my office was on eighth street but really because it was such a great experience for me to be involved that i said you know even though i don't have to close the office i'm going to still close the office and be involved in this way to have that patriotic fertility time i  so if you're on the board you're probably aware of what's going on this year with kind of the actions the entertainment we have a we have a lot of great things going on this year that and if you go to the website there's there's way too much for me to explain to everybody all of the things that are going out there is just try to focus on a few of them one of the most exciting things that i think people are aware of is we have kenny rogers coming into town but i'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about that because ticket sales have been so wonderful for that that there are just a few sporadic seats here and there people came early we had a people lined up in the morning that the tickets went on sale waiting for those tickets to go our our philosophy at the festival is we want everyone to join the dance we want not only people from out of the out of town to come and have a great experience we want locals to have a great experience too so we've really been working on that locals experience and we've come up with what we think is it a really good set of activities or events for people to go to ri downtown this year will be the first year we have all of the dutch dancers performing at the same time downtown so the high school the alumni dancers will be performing downtown together which people some people say why don't you go downtown during tulip time it's just too hard to get parking it's not hard to park downtown we've got a great parking structure it's all free and what you can do is you can come down you can watch people die chance you can go to the beer time which is our beer garden that we have there is free live entertainment all week long at the beer garden we have bands we have the main squeeze coming to play we have the detroit pistons drum line that is going to be performing at the beer time a big big hit from last year the pitofsky steel drum band is going to be at the beer t watch the dutch dancers go to the beer time have one of our local beers or local wine see some free entertainment there and then go to the knickerbocker theatre and catch a show there we've got great events going on there as well fiddle fire the panning family is going to be  little bit later so you get a great preview of that they'll be performing at the nick kristof linda who's a comedian slash musician is going to be performing as well and then in two nights thursday and friday night we have second city coming back they were a big hit last year if you went last year you'll want to go this year don't think you've seen the show it is a brand new completely different show that is going to be taking place there we've also really tried to focus on local arts and culture we've that's one of the wonderful things about holland is this is an area that has a lot of talent yes we bring in acts from outside we bring in national acts from outside but we've got great local acts as well and we have been working with third bank to try to encourage locals to come to those shows and so we have a deal for locals and this is probably the one of the first places that folks will be able to hear about it now that we have we have a special discount code for those locals who are coming if you if when you order your tickets either on the website or if you call the office in order to kits and use the code five three l a c s which stands for a local arts and culture series five three a c s you get two dollars off of every single ticket that is part of that local arts and culture series which includes the windmill chorus breaking up is hard to do the dutch celebration dinner show the holland corral the the tulip time salute the wouldn't be doing a big band and the big band jazz experience so for anybody who wants to see a great show have some great entertainment a great experience downtown they really need to come down to the festa for that because we've got a lot of things that are going to be going on for them this year wow that sounds like great variety and i didn't even mention dutch dancing or parades or fireworks or all of those other things that we've got going on as well but those are the entertainment things that we've got people travel all over to see shows and here it is right downtown exactly exactly it's and it's easy to get to easy to get in easy to get out like i said free parking if you want to break one of the one of the nice things for i was i would say to my guy friends you know who santa monica down there you know i want to i don't want to go down to the festival so you know what on saturday when your kids are in the parade you can go to the beer time because it opens at two and sit and have a beer at the beer time while the parade is is going by lots of great things for my my philosophy when i came on the board is this is a fantastic festival we've got a lot of great stuff going on but we need to move ourselves into that into this next century and be become a more attractive festival for people my you know i still get people saying you know  lawrence welk coming and i said no we have had the stars lawrence welk for a long time we're going to we have much much more exciting things going on than that and and so next year is it is a big year this year is a big year the people may remember last year we planned the festival about a two or three weeks too late the tulips always come last time but the festival was a little bit late and so we took what we're what a lot of people thought were lemons and made lemonade we had that yeah there was over it wonderful stem fest t shirts and the buttons we sold more than the greatest ideas that ever heard so we were so popular last year we're having to shirt contest this year to come up with a new t shirt people may remember the flash mob from last year was great and was exciting there is going to be something else this year that is going to be great and exciting i cannot tell you what it is you have to show up down at the parades in order to be able to see it but you don't want to miss it we've got the great shows that are going on and then as we look to next year we've got even more exciting things that are coming for next year we've already started planning for next year's festival we're looking at more exciting shows more things to make make it exciting and easy for people to get involved in to join the dance because in our mind joining the dance isn't just being a dutch dancer it's coming down and seeing the parade it's coming down and maybe being a volunteer at a at an information booth we want as many people involved in the festival as possible and so already working for next year for that eighty fifth to try to to try to encourage people to do that i say there are three t's is two for two of time as far as i'm concerned obviously tulips there is the tradition and all of the wonderful things that we have that we don't want to let go of that we definitely want to want to keep the focus on but we also need to transition and we're seeing the next couple of years as transition years to be able to get more people excited about coming to the festival and getting involved in joining the dance yet the whole tillich time festival is such a gift to the community that original idea who would have thought eighty five years almost it's amazing that it is it is it is a it is a wonderful jewel that this city has it is it's also it an economic engine for the community we generate about ten million dollars of economic impact every single year on the community so for those people who are out there who say the time festival doesn't do that much for me they're missing the bigger picture they may not be they may not be manning a food booth or getting money directly from the festival but there is definitely an impact i mean i'm an attorney i'm i don't make any money the week of the tulip time festival matter fact i lose money during the week of the two looked on festival but i know that all of that money that comes in in food that's sold at restaurants and hotel rooms that are booked really drives the economy that ends up actually helping my business as well and we want people to realize that that not only is a fun thing that you can go to but it's also something that's really a big benefit to the community and we're hoping for eighty five more wonderful years absolutely well thank you nathan for taking time out of your busy schedule and coming down here and sharing the joy of all these years of work and for the two of time festival and i can tell it's a part of your heart it's not leave and i would not miss it for the the great well stay tuned and we'll go talk to the panning family any minute or welcome back and here we are with the panning family said we are going to find someone really talented in the highland area and we're so glad to have this whole group with us today and we want to talk to them a little bit because they've been a part of producing music in this area for a long time and we have panning mom and we wondered if you could tell us a little bit about how you guys got started and maybe a little bit about who's with you here ok originally i played the ham and so i had lots of people over to my house we always had views asians in the house playing and singing and having fun when the kids were just little tiny children and it evolved into they wanted to play  they wanted to play music they dance with us when we had our jam sessions and i was also at a at a festival and there was a family band there and they said i want one of those so we i'm very lucky wanted to play music and we'll start playing music together when they were just about five years old they started regular violin lessons luke and eve did and then just i was about five when he started playing the bass and then they all took piano and guitar as well wow so everybody enjoyed being a part of musical expression most of the time i think so yeah i guess music has a little do with it as well for a lot of hard work yeah a lot of i have hard work and a lot of practice yeah so what are  hope and i will graduate in may hopefully with a double major in music and business and i work with the army band too that's my other part time job so  awesome and josiah yeah i was a senior black river and i played bass for twelve years now and i play varsity sports baseball basketball and soccer and we actually have a game tonight after this commons and said we come and participate in their evergreen common show so we had about five minutes and we every year we did something a little different but it was it was similar we would play music  bbs or six or seven tulip time shows we've done with we have to get there early and we always joked that because they were like seven seven nine and eleven when we were doing that up through high school and  they would always go play pool with those seniors wall would wait for our turn to to be on stage and we were so that they were the youngest seniors in the nation because a they fit right in their favorite thing was having their lunch they would provide  people in the in the ever growing chorus so and that we did that up through luke's first year of college but then it just got it was always finals week and it just so we had to step back for a while because it was they'd have to miss exams and it got to be a little crazy because we would do you know nine or ten shows every day for that hour it was it was fun though we have lots of fun memories in the us and we kind of grew up at evergreen commons when they y that is so neat i'm sure they loved having kids there you know it's a great connection of the generations and it's so heartwarming to see a family that cares about each other and is willing to spend time together and perform and share their gifts with people so it's really a rewarding thing for the audience to enjoy year after year and you the name of your group is for the fire little fire that is cool name they've had that all the time we have that when they ever since they were little kids you know when they were little they pick that made that was the name they wanted to be and now if we changed it no one would know who we were so it still works everybody knows who we are and it's a great name with the kind of of summarizes the energy that you want to bring in the variety of types of music that you do not just hammered dulcimer anymore no not much at all i still get that out and play it at times but i  kind of gone to playing back up and rhythm guitar we do a lot of confidence is in the area and dance weekends traditional dances and provide music for that so you need or you can't  is probably as big as they come right no no no seven it's all kind of coming full size so this is one size smaller than the biggest one so you'll probably be getting that eventually i don't know  forever the big brother right right yeah keep on looking up to you yeah perfect so in your involvement in tulip time over the years is anything chemist stand out as a as a favorite thing about the festival for you guys to have time we don't care if it's going to be so long yeah with or without the tulips we're just going to have fun right everybody gets together that's great you guys have any thing that stands out to you i like i mean where else can you finish your last question  just one of every that stands out from the fireworks every years elephant ears a carnival yeah there's always something going on that you can do if you want to yeah i think great feeling any help to appreciate an area you kind of take for granted every day of your life or in all the people come and say wow this is such a beautiful community and people are so friendly and we just love the way this place is sat up in the water and well in the windmill and we could to see the tulips and later when the bloom yeah that's right they were gorgeous last year in april yeah they ran out to the island every sunday to come out and they were beautiful it just prolific and i'll bloomed at the same time it was awesome and then the few tulips that were left they had the hailstorm on thursday right before two  got you know we got to see them in their best take a lot of pictures you know yeah you're right we were in the parade once when you were just little we homeschooled and there was we were in the kids parade where you dressed up in the costumes you  i know you can't help but when you have mobs involved these things happen and that's ok we all have a childhood it's not bad ok well this is great that you guys could all be here and that you have your instruments and we would love to hear like one song if you could play it for us because you're going to be playing during the festival right and when is that we play may seven at seven o'clock at the knickerbocker theater ok st one show for federal fire was want to get there be there then right up there with kenny well great so we'll just sit back and listen to your awesome song we learned the way back when and there are two of our favorite reels we're going to medley two of them together so evil be that great that's awesome that will be a wonderful show all here i hope you guys sell out and they have they put in extra performances of the great would be only right only right yes well thank you so much for being here and for sharing this time with us and helping us to get excited about to look time and we just so appreciate your example to the community and being a family that works together and performs together and grows in your knowledge of music and in you sharing of yourselves with the community thank you so much for you not to say the best thing about it for us i think everyone says how much we've given but we've really reaped a lot we know wonderful people we've had opportunities to again just play places and meet people and make friends that we would never have made so very cool what a blessing to the community suffice for being here today that's great yeah and tune in any time you'd like to watch this show again you can go to the vimeo page for the city of holland then you know dot com slash city of holland and on that page you can also see the city connection shows that we've been doing throughout the year and a half or so and you can enjoy whatever you'd like to learn more about if you'd like to contact the city about anything and this on this program you can go to city of holland slash h c t v dot com and give us whatever comments you would have for future shows so thanks so much for tuning in and we hope that you have a wonderful tulip time please don't stay home come on out and join the