Mold Remediation in Holland, MI

Get ready to embrace west Michigan's millions of blooming tulips this spring with Holland's annual tulip festival.

The Tulip Time Festival returns to Holland May 2-11, combining Holland's Dutch heritage and bountiful tulip gardens with live music, art and dancing.

"Tulip Time celebrates tulips, Dutch heritage, and the Holland, Michigan community today. Throughout the last 96 years, millions of people have gathered to enjoy Tulip Time in Holland, Michigan," the festival's website states. "The festival is a 10-day experience like no other with over 6 million tulips blooming throughout the city and area attractions."

Here's what to know.

When is Tulip Time in 2025?

Tulip Time runs May 2-11, 2025.

Where are Tulip Time Festival events?

The Tulip Time Festival takes place throughout the Holland area, with most events within 4 miles of downtown Holland, the festival website notes.

Where can I find the schedule of events?

The Tulip Time website lists events taking place each day.

Where can I see tulips in Holland?

Visitors can enjoy observing tulips in bloom at the following locations throughout Holland, the festival website says:

What activities does the festival feature?

The festival lineup includes a variety of events over the 10 days, the festival website says. Here's a look at some activities visitors can take part in:

When are the festival parades?

There will be two parades through downtown Holland during the festival.

First is the Gentex Kinderparade (children's parade) at 2 p.m. May 8, featuring students from area schools. The parade starts with street scrubbing where the mayor and city council wear white gloves to inspect the parade route.

The parade will start at Eighth Street and Columbia Avenue, continuing down Eighth Street to Kollen Park, ending at the intersection of Van Raalte Avenue and 11th Street.

The Quality Car Wash Volksparade (people's parade) starts at 2 p.m. May 10. The parade includes music, Dutch dance and participants from across the state.

In a change from previous years, the Volksparade will follow the same route as the Kinderparade, ending at Kollen Park. The change was made due to safety concerns, Tulip Time officials said. Previously, the parade continued down Van Raalte Avenue to Holland High School.

Does Tulip Time offer guided tours?

Tulip Time offers a variety of guided tours to get the most out of Holland’s blooms.

VIP tours will be offered May 2, 4, 5 and 6 starting at 8 a.m. at Beachwood Church. As of the morning of May 1, tickets were available for May 2.

Tours cost $150 and include lunch, tickets to Windmill Island Gardens and the Tulip Immersion Garden, city tour stops at local landmarks and Hope college and a trip to Holland State Park to see Big Red.

Historic walking tours will be offered every day of the festival starting at 8:30 a.m. at Window at the Waterfront. Tickets are $35 and include a costumed local guide to see historic sites, tulip beds and local sites. Tours last about an hour and 15 minutes.

Where should I park when I visit the festival?

The Tulip Time website lists numerous parking locations in and around Holland for those who attend the festival.

Contact Jenna Prestininzi: jprestininzi@freepress.com.

HOLLAND, MI -- The historic replica tall ship, ‘Friends Good Will’ will not voyage up the Lake Michigan coast to make an appearance at the Tulip Time Festival this year. Due to low water levels, the ship is stuck at its South Haven harbor.

The water levels are down across the Great Lakes. In the past two years the Michigan Maritime Museum, which is home to the tall ship, has dredged out its harbor to make room for the ship to set sail in time for the Holland festival.

This year with high demand for dredging, the timing just didn’t align to deepen the waterways for safe passage, said Brent Paige, director of member and marketing at the museum.

“We’re disappointed we couldn’t bring ‘Friends Good Will’ up to Holland but safety is always top of mind for our passengers, our crew and the vessel itself,” Paige said to MLive.

The tall ship tours have been a popular feature at the Holland festival. Tulip Time had nine days for tours scheduled for this year.

To make up for its absence in Holland, the Michigan Maritime Museum is encouraging visitors to come see the ships in South Haven where they dock year-round.

The museum is offering special dockside tours ‘Friends Good Will’ during the festival from May 2–10.

The dockside tours will give guests the same opportunity to explore the ship’s decks, learn about its fascinating history, and experience maritime life in the Age of Sail.

The tall ship is an accurate historical replica of the sloop that was built in 1810 and was captured by British troops on Mackinac Island in the War of 1812.

Today the ship is rigged and sailed in a traditional manor to its timeframe, creating a nautical time machine, Paige said.

“That’s an allure to a lot of people - to be abroad a vessel that is sailing the exact same way that it sailed in the early 1800s,” he said. “We had one of our historians say that it’s so accurate you could probably put the original crew from 1810 abroad and they’d be hard pressed to tell they were not on the original boat.”

The ‘Friends of Goodwill’ is forever in history books for its significance in the Battle of Lake Erie. Commodore Oliver Perry’s now famous dispatch alludes to the ship, “We have met the enemy and they are ours: Two Ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop.” That sloop was Friends Good Will.

The original Great Lakes sloop was burned by the British upon being captured a second time.

To give a full immersive experience, the crew dresses in period clothing as they describe the ship’s voyage from Fort Dearborn in Chicago to the harbor of Mackinac Island where the ship became embroiled in the war.

Dockside tours are free with paid museum admission during normal operating hours of 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Guests are encouraged to explore the full Michigan Maritime Museum campus during their visit.

Sailing season, which starts after Memorial Day weekend, is expected to be on schedule, Paige said.

READ MORE: Dredging at Lake Michigan harbor scheduled to begin in Holland

READ MORE: Army Corps balks at testing Michigan harbor sediments for pollution

HOLLAND, MI - Dredging will begin this week at the entrance of Holland Harbor.

The U.S. Corps of Engineers Detroit District will start dredging the entrance to Holland Harbor as early as Thursday, April 24 to remove shoaling across the federal channel, a press release stated.

Shoaling is a wave pattern that causes sediment to increase in an area, resulting in underwater accumulation of sand and debris.

The Army Corps said a shoal formed in the winter months across the entrance to the harbor that, if not addressed, could potentially impact commercial dredging and the local shipping industry in general.

Dredging is the removal of that increased sediment.

If the sediment is too high and ships cannot enter the harbor carrying their maximum load, they are forced to take less freight.

A loss of just 4 to 5 feet of channel depth, which would force “light loading,” would result in a loss of about $1.4 to $1.9 million per year to the shipping industry at Holland Harbor, according to Corps of Engineers’ Great Lakes – System Analysis of Navigation Depths.

Holland Harbor was already scheduled for dredging in the 2025 maintenance work plan.

King Co. Inc., based in Holland, will dredge about 12,400 cubic yards of sediment hydraulically.

Hydraulic dredging essentially vacuums sand from the bottom and pipes it to a nearby spot offshore.

Dredged sediment will be placed 8 to 12 feet deep on the lake bottom, south of the harbor.

The Army Corps said this allows the beach to be nourished by replacing eroded sediment without the impacts of heavy machinery or pipes onshore.

The project will cost $344,480 out of a three-project contract that also includes Grand Haven and St. Joseph Harbors.

“After finding the shoaling in Holland, we asked the contractor to prioritize the harbor in their spring schedule to keep commercial vessel traffic moving without impact,” said Liz Newell Wilkinson, the operations manager at the Grand Haven Office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District. “Our staff works hard to get out early after ice out to survey and identify potential problem areas in the Great Lakes Navigation System.”

Holland Harbor is considered a “deep draft commercial harbor” with a federally authorized channel depth of 23 feet at the entrance.

Dredging is authorized for 24-hours a day operation.

The public is asked to adhere to all safety signage, public notices and broadcast warnings to mariners.

Grand Haven dredging stalls

The Grand Haven dredging project was rescheduled to 2026 after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pushed back against a mandate from the state to test for pollution.

READ MORE: Army Corps balks at testing Michigan harbor sediments for pollution

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) wants the sediment tested for PFAS chemicals.

The state agency is concerned that sediment dredged from Michigan harbors may inadvertently contaminate drinking water supplies, depending on where it ultimately ends up being deposited.

On March 26, the U.S. Army Corps rejected an internal request for funding for the testing. They say PFAS testing in Grand Haven and elsewhere threatens to drive up dredging costs if the sediment is toxic enough to require landfilling.

In Grand Haven, harbor businesses say the dredging delay threatens to drive up road construction costs if cargo deliveries cost more because ships can’t float-in as much material.

When she read the script for “Holland,” Nicole Kidman must have seen a little of “To Die For,” the dark comedy that was her big break, the movie that set her up for Hollywood fame, Oscars and all that went with that.

There’s a frustrated woman stuck in small town “provincial” life who glimpses a way out of that trap via a younger man, and dark twists that suggest what people will do to achieve their short term aims.

Her character Nancy Vandergroot may be a lot less mercenary and a tad more “Stepford Wives” in her kitschy life in a “Groundhog Day” city that’s all about its corny Olde Country roots. The similarites are obvious and give this film’s abrupt shifts in tone and stakes some justification, even if director Mimi Cave (“Fresh”) and screenwriter Andrew Sodroski (TV’s “Manhunt”) are anything but subtle in trying to pull those off.

Nancy is a high school “Life Management” (Home Ec) teacher, mother of a spoiled, just-turned-13 son, wife of a popular optometrist (Matthew Macfadyen) and one of those cornerstones who make life and the mundane priorities of it work in her small city.

She’s all about the tulips, the local windmill tourist attraction, the native Dutch costumes and the festivals celebrating the Netherlanders who settled the Holland, Michigan, back in the day.

But Nancy married into all this — the Dutch maid costume with wooden shoes that comes out periodically, speaking Dutch with husband Fred at the dinner table, the Dutch reserve and Dutch “community,” the feeling that “I get to wake up in the best place on Earth,” she narrates.

And even if she realizes that “Fred rescued me” from whatever life she was leading before, even if she accepts how her husband teaches their son (Jude Hill) about “dealing” with women supposedly behind her back — Obsessive? Highly strung? “This is how women are.” — Nancy knows there’s got to be more to life than community pancake breakfasts and knowing the best place to get bitterballen in Holland, Michigan.

Her one confidante at school is the “new” shop teacher, Dave (Gale Garcia Bernal). But their friendship takes a turn when Nancy turns her hyper-focused attention on the latest “little mystery” she’s determined to “investigate.”

Fred takes an awful lot of weekend “junkets” for an optometrist. Credit cards she’s never seen, that parking ticket crumpled in his pants pocket to a town she’s sure he never mentioned visiting, that secret stash of Polaroid film she finds hidden in the vast model railroad complex he and son Harry are building in a workshop out back suggest Harry’s up to something.

With the usually-guarded Dave as her accomplice, Nancy starts sniffing around.

“Sometimes in life, you’ve just gotta follow the clues, no matter where they take you.”

As the mystery deepens, the woman determined to uncover her husband’s affair starts having one of her own.

The script takes an abrupt turn from light and kitschy to something darker, even as it throws fresh tropes at the wall to see what sticks.

The movie is set in the year 2000 and tries to wring humor out of the dated cell phones and limited nature of the Internet. Dave is Latino, and gets a taste of small town bigotry from a (probable) child-beating single parent. Nancy’s connection to the community doesn’t seem to include “real” friends, just cozy acquaintances with kids the same age, and she accepts the more helpful than fulfilling nature of the relationships that provides.

The cartoonish “investigation” stunts are straight out of 2477 earlier thrillers, and don’t offer anything that’s new or suspenseful or funny.

Kidman is committed and on pointe, as always, as are Macfadyen and Bernal. But their world is myopic (no outside characters of interest) and the situations they find themselves in are trite right up to the moment they aren’t.

The stakes are abruptly raised. “Darkly funny” settles into simply “dark,” much to the picture’s third act detriment.

A parade, a smattering of Dutch food and Dutch phrasing, a little dance demonstration and a tour of the windmill is all the “local color” the writer and director reach for, none of it connected to any sort of insights into this sort of town and the culture it clings to and the situation Nancy and Dave find themselves stumbling into.

It’s watchable and maintains just enough interest to get us to the end. But “Holland” never rises above featherweight, an incomplete “Dutch Treat” that is nothing “To Die For.”

Rating: R, sexual situations, violence, profanity

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Matthew Macfadyen and Gael Garcia Bernal

Credits: Directed by Mimi Cave, scripted by Andrew Sodroski. An MGM/Amazon Prime release.

Running time: 1:48

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About Roger Moore

Movie Critic, formerly with McClatchy-Tribune News Service, Orlando Sentinel, published in Spin Magazine, The World and now published here, Orlando Magazine, Autoweek Magazine

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Holland

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Critics Consensus

Overloaded with quirk and recycled twists, Holland's impressive style can't paper over a hollow script.

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Critics Reviews

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Robbie Collin Daily Telegraph (UK) The journey there is worth taking, but it’s hard not to wish that Holland had gone a little madder, or attacked its themes a little harder, rather than building itself such a neat escape route. Rated: 3/5 • Apr 4, 2025 Full Review Clarisse Loughrey Independent (UK) Andrew Sodorski’s script, which has bounced around Hollywood for a decade, has come out a half-baked mess. Cave’s role is to toss a layer of visual irony over it all and hope no one notices. Rated: 2/5 • Apr 1, 2025 Full Review Alison Willmore New York Magazine/Vulture No one involved with Holland seems to understand what they’re up to at all... Full Review Morris Yang In Review Online Woozy, oneiric, and ultimately incoherent, the film’s boxed-in environs attempt to mimic the fragile psychology of its childlike protagonist, and — given a tighter and meatier screenplay — might have succeeded. Apr 4, 2025 Full Review Amelia Harvey Frame Rated At some point, the film abandons the creepy tone and takes a cheap, obvious direction. If you’re someone who likes to guess the plot twist, the version in your head is likely more compelling than the choices Sodorski and Cave make. Rated: 2/5 • Apr 4, 2025 Full Review Shawn Edwards Fox 4 Kansas City It's mostly, unfunny, unfocused and un-logical. Rated: 1/5 • Apr 3, 2025 Full Review Read all reviews

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Sherry V I made it through the movie but it was painfully slow. Awkward acting! The last 30 minutes was the best part. The story line was decent but I feel that the movie could have been so much better if they had a different director. It could have been an actual good thriller/mystery! Rated 2/5 Stars • 04/06/25 Full Review J D it's worth the watch. You are intrigued, and curious as to where it will all end. But it's also weird and feels like the whole movie is a dream or the characters are from another dimension: and * spoiler* they are not. I actually thought she was going to wake up and it was all going to be a dream/nightmare. I didn't get the not so subtle and constant image glitches- why was that? Nicole and Gael's romance feels forced- not a likely couple. I enjoy their respective acting separately- but not together romantically- didn't buy that. I did enjoy Matthew Macfadyen's acting, he was just the right amount of sly and evil. Rated 3.5/5 Stars • 04/06/25 Full Review Karin F This is a painfull to watch movie that captures you with a few truly intriguing pieces of film but bores you with slow meandering, hard to understand long boring parts that are far too blah. Do you want to care about the characters? NO, Do you feel any empathy for them? No,,. Overall, - what on earth this film is all about beats me. Rated 1.5/5 Stars • 04/06/25 Full Review Eye C A good thriller, about the “great life” in a small town from USA. The three actors make a wonderful job, and takes to the audience right to edge of our seats. I enjoy it a lot. Rated 4/5 Stars • 04/06/25 Full Review Brian B Promising concept, confusing delivery. What begins as a potentially rich, character-driven story quickly unravels into a mess of abandoned subplots, lifeless dialogue, and uneven performances. The film introduces several intriguing storylines but none are given the time or care they deserve. Characters appear with compelling backstories only to vanish without explanation. It feels like a patchwork of ideas that were never fully developed or connected. The dialogue doesn’t help matters either. Much of it feels forced, overly expository, or simply unnatural. Rather than advancing the plot or deepening character relationships, conversations often meander or fall flat, making it difficult to invest in what’s happening on screen. Despite its scenic visuals and a few glimmers of potential, Holland ultimately drowns in its own ambition. With clearer storytelling, sharper writing, and more consistent acting, it could have been something special. Bad. Rated 1/5 Stars • 04/05/25 Full Review Ign E at the end of the movie they just make fun of on the viewer of the movie and give them the finger for wasting time watchin this wet fart , its a shame that nicole cant get good movies anymore :( Rated 0.5/5 Stars • 04/05/25 Full Review Read all reviews

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