The line up of the Rotorua Tulip Festival continues to grow with a closing concert confirmed and additional speakers announced.

NZ Gardener magazine editor Jo McCarroll will join the celebrity speaker line up of acclaimed NZ landscape designer Xanthe White, New Zealand chef and TV One Kiwi Living presenter Michael Van de Elzen and award-winning contemporary furniture designer and maker David Trubridge.

The celebrity speakers, and other ticketed events, are proving popular, said Brigitte Nelson, Rotorua Tulip Festival manager, in a statement.

"It's an exciting time for us as our festival offering just keeps on improving."

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The festival will be held October 1 to 9. There will 100,000 tulips on display.

The festival's free, family-friendly closing concert will feature popular local band, The Fisher Kings and be held October 9, from 1pm to 3pm, at the Government Gardens' rotunda.

Additional free events during the festival include a Dutch apple cake baking competition, school holiday arts and crafts activities, city bike tours around the tulip gardens and a children's pantomime. The Sudima Cake Decorating opportunity is nearly booked out.

Rotorua Lakes Council horticulturalist Wendy Mason said the fact the tulips were popping up meant everything in the natural world was going according to plan, with the tulips set to bloom during the dates festival organisers and attendees are counting on.

For those wanting to check out gardens further out than central Rotorua have an opportunity to join several bus tours.

A tour will travel to Dalton's Plantation gardens in Matamata on October 3 and October 6 where 12 gardens will be available to explore. There will also be an opportunity to see robots in action at a Dalton's potting mix plant.

Another bus tour will head to Plenty Flora at Horohora and Sandara Gardens in Waikite Valley will be staged on October 4 and October 8.