thank you all for being here tonight welcome to this evening's event i'm quite an hour to the executive director of two time and we are here tonight to share some very exciting news with all of you we've been celebrating laps for a very long time in two thousand and fourteen we will celebrate our eighty fifth anniversary the celebration of tulips and the beauty of our community is recognized worldwide i was recently named one of the america fifteen prettiest towns by forbes magazine and for the third consecutive year holland received top honors in the national america in bloom award dutch heritage and traditions in which to live time is deeply rooted we partner with over eighty nonprofit organizations that have a huge positive impact on the community we also partner with several local art and culture organizations to raise funds and awareness for their programs we help provide donations to many youth and world mission programs and we look forward to continuing these partnerships in two thousand and fourteen is also a transition mean it's more than a festival it's a state of mind we're working on more year round events such as the one today the blessing of the bulbs which includes community planting and the five k run that i think many of you are going to our national entertainer will be we are very very excited to have him join our festival he will be doing two shows on friday evening at central was leon we also have a banger ing circus who is performing for us tonight with the new exciting performance they will get the knickerbocker on monday to stop when vocal trash takes the stage with their urban themed show for two performances on the second weekend the killer bees will present their innovative interpretations of the beatles feeling joel and barry manilow most popular songs second city will be returning with the new hilarious review happily ever after and still fire returns after a sold out show last year we continue to have three great parades art and craft fair tried very hard to be a good part of the downtown business community we've tried to impact culture through creative communication we've tried to have an impact both in this community but nationwide and we have a real special affinity for it to a time a lot of our team lives and works right here in holland and we love being on a street watching the parades out of our windows of our office and this year it was a real honor to partner with took time to figure out what the future of the festival could be one of might look like so our last few months we've worked collaboratively with the to a time team to look at what a new visual identity for two time could be one that we hope honors the last eighty five years what it was and has been and is and what it can be in the  even when a stem fast it's still part of the d n a of this thing and we believe that the different colors and textures that are represented in this mark really represent the different variety of people of cultures the diversity of of this town of this community and what to a time can be in the future and so the next few weeks are going to start to see this identity take place all over the place both on the web site through all different elements within the community or excited about that and we hope that you are too so i i also want to say thanks to the over eight hundred people that volunteer their time and energy to be part of the festival as well as our sponsors that donate time and i guess sometimes it's a big deal it is how they join the danc how we hope you'll join the dance as well get involved with your community get involved with your families get involved with your friends and next up i'd like to introduce you to nathan box he's the chairman the board for the  it is an absolute pleasure and honor here to be to be here today to celebrate to lips tradition and transition today we're going to be celebrating the blessing of the bulbs and the running of the bulbs before i turn it over to vicki in the run committee i w each and every one of you to plant a tulip bulb in the bed that fits just behind you and to your left in one thousand thirty five the first blessing of the bulbs occurred here in holland at tulip time in the fall and there was a were local clergy here to bless the balls after this event it was deemed sacrilegious to bless an object so it was never done again but every year we hope that spring comes on time not too early not too late we hope that the bulbs survive the winter and that the tulips bloom in time for the festival so today we are going to be blessing the fall planting season and ask that you bless the balls in the spring blooms in a way that is fitting to you so please as soon as we're we're done here all bless it in a manner that you deem appropriate and place it in the ground in the duck trench don't worry you don't need to put it right side up or upside down the tulip will find its way to the surface in the spring either way