Skagit festival can draw 400K tourists. This year? Nearly 0.

MOUNT VERNON — Rows of snipped red blooms lay crumbled on the ground at RoozenGaarde Tuesday — remnants of a Skagit Valley Tulip Festival that never happened.

With sunnier-than-average weather, third-generation tulip farmer Brent Roozen thinks 2020 would have been a record-breaking year for the event, which annually draws roughly 400,000 people from all over the world to rural Skagit County.

This year, the acres of vibrant pink, yellow and red flowers, normally buzzing with tourists and selfie-takers, lay silent.

The festival was called off last month amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Stubbly stems are all that remain of RoozenGaarde’s renowned sea of blooms.

Roozen said they had to cut the flowers to keep people from driving out to see them.

“With people coming up here and asking to use the bathroom or whatnot, this is why we’re asking people to stay home,” Roozen said.

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/skagit-festival-can-draw-400k-tourists-this-year-nearly-0/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=7aad9ec0b7-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-7aad9ec0b7-228635337