An annual event that brings together hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world, both tourists and professional gardeners, to Istanbul.

The Tulip Festival in Istanbultakes place every year in April. It begins in the first days of the month and lasts until the beginning of May. The festival was first held in 2005 and since then this tradition has never been broken.

The main events of the festival take place in Emirgan Park, which for 1 month is almost entirely covered with various compositions of tulips. The park is located quite far from the city center (it is located on the banks of the Bosphorus behind the second bridge across the strait), but getting to it is not a problem. There are several buses from Kabatash station to the park: No. 25E, No. 22, No. 22RE. It’s a long drive, but it’s worth it. During the holiday, more than 2 million tulips are planted in Emirgan Park!

Emirgan Park in Istanbul is the main venue for the tulip festival in the city

In addition to this park, city services and ordinary citizens also plant flower beds and simply beds of these flowers everywhere throughout the city. Tulips, the bulbs of which are distributed free of charge to citizens, decorate alleys, roads, residential courtyards, and city parks. Istanbul is simply transforming. Many flowers are also planted on the large green area between Aya Sofia and Blue Mosque in the historical center of the city.

Nowadays the Netherlands, the world’s largest exporter of these flowers, is considered to be the country of tulips. However, few people know that tulips came to Holland in the 16th century from Turkey, where this flower was very popular since the times of the Ottoman Empire. And now the authorities of Istanbul are trying their best to restore their image as the tulip capital of the world.

During the festival, there is a fair in the city where you can buy rare varieties of tulips; in the central square of the city there is a festive stage where various events and concerts are held, artists and designers compete in creating bright compositions and sculptures.