Tulip festival Noordoostpolder

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FAQ (frequently asked questions)

About the Tulip Festival Noordoostpolder

The Profytodsd Tulip Festival starts on Friday 17 April 2026 and ends on Sunday 3 May 2026

By organising the Profytodsd Tulip Festival, we aim to introduce visitors from home and abroad to a beautiful product and a unique part of the Netherlands.

The Noordoostpolder municipality is number one nationally when it comes to growing tulips. Around 2,000 hectares of tulips are grown here every year. That is about 5% of the total agricultural area. There are about 150 farms engaged in growing tulips. Besides tulips, other flower bulbs are also grown, such as lilies, gladioli and blue grapes.

Profytodsd Tulip Festival is organised by Tulip Festival Noordoostpolder Foundation. This foundation is dedicated to promoting the Northeast Polder and making visible everything that makes this region special.

The organisation and execution of the festival are in the hands of a large group of committed volunteers. They work together within a board and various committees to make the festival possible every year.

Routes

Click here for an overview of the routes.

If you drive the autoroute, you can start at any point along the route. The map shows how the route runs. Then follow the signs. You can stop at the following points for toilets and a snack and/or drink:

- At Ons in the Wellerwaard, Friesepad 4a, Emmeloord

- Renne Regional Products, Domineesweg 11, Nagele

- Tulip experience field, Creilerpad 14, Creil

Because of road safety, 1 driving direction has been chosen. This is indicated on the map with arrows. And if you follow the signs, you know you are driving in the right direction.

You can also follow the route using the Tulip Festival app. More information about the app can be found at here.

Activities

There are lots of fun activities during the Tulip Festival! There are wonderful car and cycling routes that visit all the beautiful tulip fields. Furthermore, there is Bollie the Bear route for the little ones in the back seat. This package contains all kinds of presents, snacks and a little activity book for the road. Finally, there is an app for driving the tulip route. It can be downloaded for free via the App Store and Google Play Store.

Click here for an overview of all activities.

Especially for the children, there is Bollie the Bear.
Bollie the Bear is the children's mascot of the Tulip Festival Noordoostpolder and he has devised all kinds of games to take the children into the world of the tulip

Click here for more information.

Check out the Website of VVV Noordoostpolder what else there is to do in the Northeast Polder. A visit to Urk is also great fun. See the Urk Tourist Info website.

Practicalities

During the Profytodsd Tulip Festival, snacks and/or drinks will be available at the following points:

- At Ons in the Wellerwaard, Friesepad 4a, Emmeloord

- Renne Regional Products, Domineesweg 11, Nagele

- Tulip experience field, Creilerpad 14, Creil

You can also check out the Website of Visit Noordoostpolder for other restaurants.

Along the route, disabled toilets are available at the following Tulip Festival locations:

  • Renne Streekproducten, Domineesweg 11, Nagele (enter through the shop)
  • At Ons in the Wellerwaard, Friesepad 4a, Emmeloord

No, the Profytodsd Tulip Festival Noordoostpolder is free to visit.

There are only a few activities that incur costs, such as the helicopter ride and balloon ride.

It is forbidden to park in growers'/residents' yards and/or enter tulip fields. This may cause damage to the flowers and bulbs. Please respect our crops! Thank you!

There is no need to register in advance to ride the autoroute.

The Tulip Festival app can be downloaded for free in advance. More information about the app can be found here

There are also certain activities you have to sign up for, such as the helicopter flight and balloon ride. More information on these activities can be found on our activity page

Without a car or bicycle, it is unfortunately difficult to get to the tulip fields.

You can go to the following addresses to hire bikes:

Cosy hotel in the centre of Emmeloord: Hotel ‘t Voorhuys: https://www.voorhuys.nl

Van der Valk Emmeloord: www.hotelemmeloord.nl

There are also several hotels, bed and breakfasts, RV parks and campsites where you can stay overnight. These can be found on the Visit Noordoostpolder website.

During the Profytodsd Tulip Festival, these will be present at the following points:

- At Ons in the Wellerwaard, Friesepad 4a, Emmeloord

- Renne Regional Products, Domineesweg 11, Nagele

- Tulip experience field, Creilerpad 14, Creil

Pets are welcome along the routes, but entering the tulip fields is not allowed. This is for the welfare of the tulips and your pet.

This is how we keep the fields beautiful and safe for everyone.

About cultivation

In the 16th century, the tulip came to the Netherlands from Turkey. The botanist Carolus Clusius played an important role in this. Through his network, the tulip reached many wealthy people in our country. In the 17th century, the tulip became so popular that a real wind trade developed, in which a lot of money was paid for a single tulip. After that wind trade, the tulip remained popular in the Netherlands. Commercial cultivation expanded in the nineteenth century from Haarlem towards the Flower Bulb Region, and in the twentieth century it also reached other parts of the Netherlands.

The polder officially fell dry on 9 September 1942. After that, Northeast Polder was laid out and developed at lightning speed. This created a unique agricultural area. In the early 1960s, the first tulips were planted in the polder. The soil in Northeast Polder is particularly suitable for this.

The farmland in the Northeast Polder is very fertile. The former seabed is full of minerals that the tulips use as nutrients.

When tulips flower depends on the weather. Besides, there are early and late varieties. And however unfortunate it is, at some point the tulips will be cut again. During the Profytodsd Tulip Festival, we will mention on the home page of this website what percentage of the tulip fields are in bloom.

Tulips can be grown on light soil and on heavier soil. To enable cultivation on heavier soil, they are grown in nets. Those white piles you see are nets.

Those people are doing selection work. They look for abnormal varieties in the plot, or tulips with a virus. These tulips are taken out, or are sprayed with an agent that makes these tulips die. This keeps the lot clean and virus-free. Sometimes selection trolleys are used. When you sit in such a trolley, no sunlight falls on the plant, making it easier to distinguish certain viruses.

Once the selection has taken place and the plot is found to be clean, the flowers are taken off with headers. This ensures that no more energy goes to the flower. All energy that the plant then draws in through sunlight, water and nutrition from the soil goes to the bulbs from then on.

Bulbs are uprooted with harvesters in late June. They then go to the shed to be washed clean or vibrated. They are also sorted by size. Some of the bulbs are then large enough to be sold to greenhouse growers who turn them into tulip flowers. The other part is smaller and is planted again in autumn for a new crop.

To complement the car route, you can download the Tulip Festival App. During the car and bike route, it provides additional information about the Northeast Polder and tulip cultivation. As you drive along the route, audio fragments will occasionally appear, telling you something about tulip cultivation and the area you are driving through.

More information about the Tulip Festival app can be found at here