Iconic Sussex Tulip festival welcomes first visitors of the season
Tulleys Tulip Festival, near Crawley, is considered the biggest of it's kind in the UK
An iconic Tulip festival in Sussex has welcomed it's first visitors of the season.
Tulleys Tulip Festival, near Crawley, is considered the biggest of it's kind in the UK - boasting hundreds of thousands of blooms and over 120 different types of Tulip.
Last year, the event raked in over a quarter of a million visitors across three locations - it's West Sussex base, and other spots in Hertfordshire and Warwickshire.
"It's probably a similar number of people come through the Tulip Festival as they would do our pumpkin season," explains owner Stephen Beare.
"It means that we can keep people year-round employed and the team behind us is stronger because of it, so it's been really good."
He added that raking in international visitors also gives a huge boost to local hotels.
The tulips are planted in a way that means they continually bloom throughout the spring.
It means the colours across the fields change week by week - although this year, the wet weather's had an impact, Beare explains:
"lt's been really sprouting.
"They were late, then they were coming on really quickly when it warmed up, so 10 days or so ago.
"It's been probably certainly been the hardest year we've had so far to judge when everything's going to be in full bloom."
"But I think it's all going to come to spectacular fruition for the Easter weekend."
The festival will open in full bloom on Good Friday, after today's preview gave flower enthusiasts a sneak peek into what's to come.