The 8th edition of the International Istanbul Tulip Festival organized by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) will take place on April 1-30, 2013.
A total of 14 million 420 thousand tulips of 270 different varieties — almost equal to one for each person living in the city have been planted for Istanbul in 2013.
Istanbul is once again preparing to welcome the International Istanbul Tulip Festival. Every April since 2006 the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality has planted nearly 100 million tulips, symbolizing the coming of spring, in İstanbul’s parks, avenues, roundabouts and practically anywhere there is open ground. The result is a tradition of a splendid spring flower festival with bright splashes of color everywhere.
This year, as part of the eighth edition of the International Istanbul Tulip Festival, which will take place on April 1-30, about 14,420,000 tulips — almost equal to one for each person living in the city — of 270 different varieties have been planted in Istanbul.
Typically, work crews arrange the flowers in a number of geometric shapes and figures such as waves, dolphins or the Turkish flag. In addition to parks and gardens, crossroads, rest areas and walking areas in the city have been dotted with the tulips at a cost of TL 13 million. With the addition of other bulbous plants, such as hyacinths and amaryllis, 20 million plants have been planted for the festival with Emirgan Park — a historic urban park located in one of Istanbul’s finest neighborhoods along the Bosporus on the European side — being the main venue for the festival.
This year the biggest novelty from previous tulip festivals is the “Tulip Museum” the municipality has established in Emirgan Park. The museum has rarely found tulip species, and also exhibited are paintings of old Ottoman gardens. Furthermore, the Istanbul City Council has decided to bring together a group of academics to research the role of tulips in Turkish culture as part of the festival.