Amsterdam tulip festival starts! 500,000 tulips throughout the city

In the coming weeks Amsterdam will be extra bright and colorful thanks to over half a million tulips. The fifth Tulip Festival Amsterdam kicked off on Thursday and from this weekend the tulips should be visible in around 90 locations in the city, in the open ground and in pots, Het Parool reports.

The festival kicked off on Apollolaan on Thursday, where 25 thousand sustainably grown tulip bulbs were planted in November. The start included the baptism of a white 'Peace' tulip, in honor of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's bed-in protest in the nearby Hilton Hotel 50 years ago.

Schools, shopkeepers, companies, institutions and museums are all participating in the festival. They already planted tulip bulbs, or are now placing pots of tulips in their gardens, flower beds, balconies or entrances. Pots of tulips are also floating in the pond near the Museumplein, and the flowers were planted along parts of the IJ banks.