New Jersey Orders Family-Owned Farm To Shut Down Their Drive-Thru Tulip Display

Brittany M. Hughes | April 20, 2020
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If it weren’t bad enough that they’ve already shut down all “non-essential” businesses, banned in-person religious gatherings, restricted stores from selling certain items, closed gun stores and admitted to throwing out the Bill of Rights, the Powers That Be in New Jersey on Sunday ordered the closure of a drive-through tulip display.

A drive-through tulip display.

According to this, the state instructed Dalton Farms, a privately owned family farm in South Jersey, to shut down their 99-acre tulip festival, a popular yearly attraction that the farm had turned into a drive-through exhibit this year to comply with social-distancing guidelines. The farm had sold a limited number of tickets so customers could stay in their cars and weave through their fields, which boasted some 252,000 colorful tulips in bloom. Customers could then purchase bouquets of tulips as they exited the farm from workers wearing masks and gloves.

But after holding the attraction open for several days, Dalton Farms said in a statement that the state had ordered them to permanently close the festival Sunday at 7 p.m., saying they can't hold any public festivals - including drive-through events where it's nearly impossible to spread the coronavirus - during the state's COVID-19 shutdown. 
 


Now, the farm is being forced to refund the tickets they'd already sold for this week.

“For those who had purchased tickets for Monday-Wednesday we will be working to refund all of tickets,” Dalton Farms said in a statement. “We're heartbroken to get this news in the middle of the day and would like to thank all those who came out over the last few weeks.”

Holland Ridge Farms, another New Jersey farm, was also ordered to shut down a similar drive-through festival after the owner had already spent upwards of $1 million on flowers for the annual display.

 

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