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“The most spectacular time of Keukenhof 2020 is coming soon, join us to admire the flowers online” - This is the opening statement by Bart Siemerink, Managing Director of the Keukenhof Flower Society, in the Keukenhof Open Virtueel video clip.
The Keukenhof Flower Festival management team came up with the idea of creating online videos to introduce the flower season to visitors: "If visitors cannot come in person, we will bring the Keukenhof Flower Festival 2020 to your home."
The tulip festival at Keukenhof Gardens is one of the biggest attractions for tourists visiting the Netherlands. Spanning 32 hectares, Keukenhof Gardens boasts over 7 million tulip bulbs of various colors and varieties. During the blooming season, the garden transforms into a giant, vibrant carpet of flowers. Every year at this time, the gardens welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors who come to admire the flowers and take photos.
This year, the mild winter and warm spring sunshine caused the tulips to bloom early, but due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the gardens could not open to visitors. The Keukenhof Flower Show management came up with the idea of creating online videos to introduce the flower season to visitors: “If you can’t come in person, we’ll bring the Keukenhof Flower Show 2020 to your home.” Director Bart Siemerink became the live guide in the gardens.
Viewers can support the Flower Festival by watching the official Keukenhof 2020 clips on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. While they may not be able to see the flowers in person as in previous years, visitors will still enjoy viewing them through the clips, which showcase the impressive achievements the festival has accomplished in previous years.
Similar to the Keukenhof Flower Festival in the Netherlands, Belgium also has the Hallerbos Flower Festival – the Bluebell Forest – held annually in April. This flower festival takes place in a beautiful forest on the outskirts of Brussels. Carpets of bluebells bloom beneath ancient trees, creating a rare and peaceful atmosphere, making it an unmissable event for tourists and photographers. However, this year, people can only admire the bluebells through photos and videos because the forest is closed to visitors.
To date, the Netherlands and Belgium have closed most tourist attractions since the beginning of March due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Many types of flowers prepared for festivals or flower markets have been donated to hospitals for doctors and nurses, or sent to elderly people in nursing homes. This is considered a practical and beautiful gesture in the arduous fight against Covid-19 in Europe.
