Cold weather and a late bloom have thinned the crowds at this year’s Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, but organizers are confident they’ll make up some ground as the event spills over into May.

The festival was supposed to wrap up April 30, but with some tulip fields yet to bloom, organizers extended the event through May 4.

This year hasn’t been easy for organizers. Many businesses planned tulip-related events based somewhat on last season’s bloom — which saw tulips out relatively early — only to see this year’s bloom come very late.

“It’s one of those seasons where you wish you had that crystal ball,” said Festival Executive Director Cindy Verge, who fielded an inordinate amount of weather-related phone calls this year.

“This is the first year that in late April, we had to answer questions on snow,” she said.

Verge doesn’t think rising gasoline prices have hurt the festival. In fact, conventional wisdom among tourism officials is that high gasoline prices actually help regional festivals.

“We are still pretty inexpensive to get to for families in Vancouver and Seattle,” Verge said. “People will still drive an hour away, instead of taking that cross-country trip.”

Festival organizers don’t track attendance, but it’s clearly been down a bit — although that could change.

Typically, sunny Saturdays draw the biggest crowds. The forecast for this weekend calls for some sun and temperatures in the 60s.

There are still acres of blooming tulips and even a few spots where tulips are yet to fully bloom. Flowers at the two display gardens, RoozenGaarde and Tulip Town, are in full force and will remain so through the end of the festival.

Festival-related activities, like bike trips, boat tours and wine tasting, will continue as well.

“Anybody who comes up will have a great time seeing tulips, and there’s still plenty going on,” Verge said.

The bloom status of the fields and display gardens is available on the festival Web site, http://www.tulipfestival.org.

• Josh Lintereur can be reached at 360-416-2141 or at .