You can visit the Netherlands without leaving central Iowa with Pella's 2025 Tulip Time festival.
Experience Dutch culture and more than 300,000 blooming tulips during the three-day event consisting of crafts and food vendors, parades and tours. The Tulip Times Festival in Pella started in 1935 as an impromptu gathering of those with Dutch ancestry. From that meeting, a tradition blossomed.
Pella is located in Marion County and only a 50-minute drive from Des Moines.
When you visit Pella during Tulip Time, expect to see people in traditional Dutch clothing, eating Dutch foods and participating in street scrubbing and coffee time. Here is a guide to this year's 2025 Tulip Time in Pella.
When is Tulip Time 2025?
Pella's 2025 Tulip Time is from May 1 to May 3.
Your day can start as early as 8 a.m. with the Pella Rolscreen Depot Museum and Vermeer Corporation Museum. By 8:30 a.m. the Dutch Masters Antique Auto Display starts, as does the Pella City Tours.
To find the entire schedule for Tulip Time's three-day event, visit the Pella Historical Museum's website, pellahistorical.org.
Where to find tulips in Pella, Iowa
The city is covered with flower gardens displaying thousands of tulips for free.
For the 2025 bloom, the Pella Parks Department planted 120,000 tulips in the parks and street flower beds. There are more than 250 beds in total, according to the city's Bloom Status Map.
Multiple locations offer displays and tulip fields:
Early tulip blooms won't dampen color for Tulip Time 2025
Recent visitors to Pella may have noticed some blooms offering an "explosion of color" across Pella. While the city's plantings have entered peak bloom already, there will be plenty of tulips for Tulip Time, said Jessi Galligan, executive director of the Pella Historical Museums.
Each year, the city plants varieties that bloom at different times. Warmer weather over the last few weeks caused some of the early blooming varieties to open up, which means they'll reach the end of their life before Tulip Time, she said. The late blooming varieties are just opening and the mid-bloomers "are looking perfect."
Where to get tickets for Pella Tulip Time
Tickets are not required to visit Pella's Tulip Time festival. Events like the grandstand show, museum tours and historic city wagon tours do require admission.
Tickets can be found at the gate for all activities. If you are looking to purchase tickets ahead of time, visit Pella Historical website.
How to park at Tulip Time?
There are parking lots available from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. for $10 per vehicle cash or $11 Venmo. There is also a shuttle that takes visitors to downtown Pella and back. It will run frequently until 10 p.m.
For Thursday, there will be street parking on the outskirts of the downtown area.
Other places to park on a first-come, first-served basis include:
There is limited handicap parking available on a first-come, first-served basis at the Pella Public Library. It is free to park for those with handicap permits. There are no reservations. Find a map for paid parking lots on the Pella Historical Museum's website.
What are the shuttle hours for Tulip Time in Pella?
There are golf cart shuttles available from Scholte Church to the Dutch Market from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Single rides and day-long passes are purchased from the shuttle cart drivers. Single rides are $2 and all-day passes are $5. The golf cart shuttles only pick up and drop off passengers at designated stops.
What's at the Dutch Craft Market?
What's a trip to Pella without a little local shopping? The Dutch Craft Booth offers more than 100 booths with a variety of goods sold at each shop.
The sale starts at 9 a.m. and closes at 7 p.m. at the West Market Park, 1002 Franklin St.
When is the Tulip Time Parade?
The Volks Parade is at 2:45 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. There is an evening lights parade at 8:30 p.m. on Friday and fireworks will also follow the parade.
For a full schedule of all events at the Pella Tulip Time festival, visit the Pella Historical website.
Where to stay in Pella near Tulip Time
It is hard to fit all of Tulip Time into one day. So, making plans for lodging will allow you to soak in every bit of the festival. VistPella.com offers a list of hotels, bed and breakfasts, Airbnbs, campgrounds and more in the area.
Kate Kealey is a general assignment reporter for the Register. Reach her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter at @Kkealey17.