The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is a month-long spring event in Washington’s Skagit Valley built around tulip fields and display gardens, but its importance rests on a much older bulb-growing tradition. That tradition began with George Gibbs’s bulb experiments in the late 19th century, expanded through federal test plantings and the earlier Bellingham Tulip Festival, and shifted into Skagit County after freezes and the Great Depression. William Roozen and his family became central to this newer phase through major bulb production and the Roozengaarde display garden. Since its formal launch in 1984, the festival has grown into a major regional attraction and economic force closely tied to the valley’s agricultural identity.