What to Do at Ottawa’s Canadian Tulip Festival

Spring is most certainly a time to celebrate and what better place to do so than the annual Canadian Tulip Festival in Ottawa. Here are 10 of our favourite events.

Opening day of the festival will be celebrated with a parade of classic cars, running from Dow's Lake through to the International Pavilion site at City Hall. See the festival website for times and course map.

The Mother's Day Tea has a new location this year: 828 Bank Street in the Glebe (at the Scotiabank). Be sure to attend for crafts, games, sweet treats and movies in the great outdoors.

Returning this year for the second time, the Vintage Wings Airborne Parade features some fantastic older planes cruising over downtown Ottawa. The show will pass over the Market, Centretown, Chinatown, Little Italy and Dow's Lake. Look up!

Of course, the festival wouldn't be complete without Victoria Day fireworks. This year, the fireworks will be at Dow's Lake where they are visible from anywhere around the lake, and since parking at the Pavilion will be at a premium, consider viewing from Commissioner's Park (park in the Glebe), Anniversary Park (park at Carleton U) or the Arboretum (park at the Museum of Agriculture).

The whole family will love exploring the food, traditional games, music and culture of several foreign countries at the International Pavilion. The pavilion has a fantastic new downtown location this year, at Marion Dewar Plaza, outside City Hall—perfect for adding a trip to the flower beds on Parliament Hill, as well.

Pick up a map at various downtown locations, then hunt for special symbols at all the Tulip Festival hot spots. Submit your answers online, and you could win a prize!

For 2013, Little Italy is getting involved with the festival by hosting buskers all up and down Preston Street for the entire duration of the festival. Be sure to check out the flame throwers and jugglers that will be performing May 17 and 18 from 6 to 9 pm, and, as a bonus, grab dinner at one of the great bistros in the area, like Pub Italia, La Dolce Vita or the Nutty Greek Bake Shop.

Don't miss the flowers themselves! The best beds are at Commisioners Park at Dow's Lake, but there are thousands of flowers at Parliament Hill and scattered throughout downtown parks. Plan your own walking tour or take a free guided bike tour, running at 9 am and 1 pm on weekends, hosted by Capital Velofest (registration is required).

The Friendship Stage hosts all kinds of shows, performances and music over the course of the festival, and this year has a new locale at Marion Dewar Plaza outside City Hall. Older kids and teens will love the Capital Sounds concert series—all free—featuring great local bands, like Hollerado.

The Festival's series of interesting guest speakers is back, at their new location in the Glebe—Fourth Avenue Baptist Church, 109 Fourth Avenue. Free events include a panel of women in sports or catch Corporal Mike Trauner, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, give a talk.