What to expect at this year's Tulip Time parades
HOLLAND — The return of parades to Tulip Time marks the festival's full "return to normal" this year after the pandemic-constrained festival in 2021.
One of Tulip Time's most popular events, the parades put Holland's Dutch heritage on display, featuring Dutch costumes and musical favorites from local school bands.
Breaking with tradition, Tulip Time will have two parades this year instead of three.
The Volksparade, or People's Parade, typically the first parade of the festival on Wednesday, will be combined with the Muziekparade, or Music Parade, to create a big finale on the final Saturday of the festival.
The Gentex-sponsored Kinderparade, or Children's Parade, is at 2 p.m. Thursday, May 12, and features schoolchildren from area elementary schools and their teachers, who dress in Dutch traditional garb.
Each grade at each school represents a different theme related to the Netherlands, from Dutch agriculture to the art of the Dutch Masters.
The parade route proceeds west on Eighth Street from Columbia Avenue to Kollen Park.
Students have a half day off from school to participate.
The Holland Rotary Club and Alumni Dutch Dance directors Anne Mulder and Elizabeth TerHaar are the Kinderparade's grand marshals.
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On Saturday, what is usually the biggest parade of the festival gets bigger with the combination of two parades into one.
Before the Volksparade can begin, a time-honored Tulip Time tradition must take place: at 1 p.m., Holland's mayor and city council perform a white glove inspection of the parade route at Eighth Street and Columbia Avenue and the town crier declares that the streets need scrubbing.
Residents in Dutch costume do a bit of spring cleaning, bringing their own buckets and brooms to join in the street scrubbing to ready the streets for the upcoming parade.
There will be Dutch Dance performances along Eighth Street at 1:30 and 1:45 p.m. before the parade kicks off at 2 p.m.
The Volksparade, this year sponsored by Quality Car Wash, includes floats from community organizations and businesses and West Michigan high school and middle school marching bands showcasing their talents.
The parade route proceeds from Eighth Street and Columbia west on Eighth Street, past Kollen Park and south on Van Raalte Avenue to Holland High School.
The NCAA national champion Hope College Women's Basketball Team is co-marshal for the parade alongside the Holland American Legion Band, which is celebrating more than 100 years of making music and is the longest performing American Legion band in the country.
Most spots for viewing along the parade routes are first-come, first-serve, but there are also tickets available for $18 for grandstand and "marketside" seating at the Holland Civic Center Place for those who want a reserved seat with a guaranteed view. Tickets can be purchased at tuliptime.com/events.
It can be competitive to get a great curbside spot for a chair or blanket on Eighth Street, but the city asks that spots be claimed no earlier than 6 a.m. the morning of the parade.
In the event of rain, the Kinderparade will be postponed to Friday, May 13.
The Volksparade goes on rain or shine. In the event of severe weather, cancellation announcements will be posted on Tulip Time's social media pages and communicated through local news media.
For those who can't make it to the parades, check hollandsentinel.com for photo galleries recapping the parade highlights. Video coverage of the parades will be provided by the city of Holland, youtube.com.user/cityofholland.
— Contact reporter Carolyn Muyskens at cmuyskens@hollandsentinel.com and follow her on Twitter at @cjmuyskens.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: What to expect at this year's Tulip Time parades
