Despite the cold weather, organizers pushed through to bring the inaugural Tulips and Maples – Freedom in Blooms Festival to life at the Canadian Military Heritage Museum on Saturday, May 2, 2026.
The event was part of a five-day Dutch-Canadian Liberation Celebration designed to commemorate the liberation of the Netherlands by Canadian soldiers during the Second World War and to celebrate the lasting friendship between the two countries.
Will Veldhuis-Prinzen, chair of Tulips and Maples, said the idea for the event came together after he visited the Netherlands with his father and brother last year.
“My mom is from the Holten area and in Holten there is a Canadian War Cemetery. There are 1,394 people buried there, the majority of which are Canadians, though there are some British too,” he said. “Last year was the 80th anniversary of the Netherlands’ liberation and when I was there, I met a father and son on the bus whose grandfather was in the war, but he had pneumonia and couldn’t make the trip from Burlington. That moment, as well as some other things that happened in Holten, kind of got me thinking, ‘how could we make something happen here?’ I came back and started to talk to Bob Ion from the Canadian Military Heritage Museum and secured the location.”
Prinzen soon began getting in touch with different musicians and putting out various calls, and what started out as a small idea soon snowballed into a community-wide initiative involving local organizations, businesses, artists and international connections.
On Saturday, the Brantford Pipes Pipes and Drums helped kick off the opening ceremony alongside David McKee, Brantford’s Town Crier and Dan Muys, MP for Flamborough-Glanbrook-Brant North.
The day’s entertainment continued on with performances from Reuben Costa and the Shakey D Band.
Also scheduled for the afternoon was an outdoor showing of Brant Theatre Workshops’ Herinnering, but like the previous two nights, the play was cancelled due to the cold, windy weather.
Despite the circumstance, the actors stuck it out to perform several songs featured in the play. Written by Vincent Ball with music by Veldhuis-Prinzen, Herinnering centres around the liberation of the Netherlands and the Dutch famine of the mid 1940s.
“I’ve got bad news and good news. The bad news is that we can’t do our play today. Mother nature has once again intervened and given us some bad weather and it’s pretty tough for the actors to put on a performance today,” Ball explained to attendees. “However, we’ve got some good news because you’re going to be able to hear some of the songs from the play. It’s called Herinnering, and it’s the Dutch word for remembrance, or memory. What the show does is it takes you back to the Second World War, and a young woman learns about the sacrifices of her parents, the challenges and the tribulations that they endured during what was called the Hunger Winter.”
Afterwards, Owen Sound musician Paige Warner then took the stage to perform various covers as well as some of Veldhuis-Prinzen’s songs.
Cash ‘n More, a Dutch band from Holten, later performed for those in attendance.
Veldhuis-Prinzen said he met the band during his 2025 trip to the Netherlands and that the group decided to make the trip to Canada.
“I had kept in touch with a band that was playing in Holten, they’re called Cash ‘n More, and they were playing downtown Holten during Liberation Day on May 5,” he said. “It’s so surreal because these guys really decided to come on a whim and it’s just so great to have them here.”
As each of the performers spent the afternoon entertaining, attendees took advantage of the various activities on site including Delft Pottery crafts, playing games of Spijkerpoepen and Sjoelbak, learning more about Dutch Immigrants with the Brant Historical Society or participating in the Brantford Poppy Project. People wanting to get out of the cold took advantage of heading indoors to check out the military museum’s many displays.
Those looking for something to eat and drink could be seen enjoying bitterballen (a round, deep-fried snack popular in the Netherlands), grabbing drinks from Vodka Fridays, enjoying something sweet from Nicole Hill or trying beer from Sassy Britches Brewing’s beer, which was specially brewed for the festival.
“We’ve had a lot going on here,” said Veldhuis-Prinzen. “We’ve had great community support, we’ve got good food, we’ve got Sjoelbak, we’ve got children’s activities and music, we’ve got a museum with archives, and most importantly, we’ve got people. We did have some hiccups, but I’ve had more people come up to me and say, ‘Will for your first event, this is absolutely phenomenal, fantastic.’”
The organizer said that now that the first year has come and gone, he’s looking forward to putting the event on again.
“Look out Brantford, we put a big mark in the ground and I can’t wait for next year,” said Veldhuis-Prinzen.
He later made a post to Facebook saying that while yes, there may have been cold weather, it was a reminder that “powerful moments don’t come from comfort… they come from perseverance, from community, and from showing up when it matters.”
“All weekend, we watched the forecast. We hoped. We planned. We adjusted. We wanted sunshine. We wanted warmth. We wanted that picture-perfect festival backdrop. But that’s not what we got” he wrote. “Instead, we got wind. We got cold. We got conditions that challenged us at every turn, and yet, through it all, people showed up. Musicians played their hearts out. Volunteers dug in. Guests leaned into the experience.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
