Ottawa's tulip festival will get some much needed cash from the city. Councillors agreed Tuesday night to give the cash-strapped festival a one-time loan of $300,000.

But a similar bailout will not be available to other festivals in the city.

The one-time loan will give the Canadian Tulip Festival the start-up cash it needs to recover from low attendance last year.

City officials say they expect the money to be paid back by May. The tulip festival's president, Joan O'Neill, assured them it will be.

"With halfway decent weather, as opposed to the horrendous weather we had last May, we have no doubt we will be able to succeed in establishing our own reserve, and not be in this situation again," O'Neill said.

Other Ottawa festivals weren't so lucky.

In a letter to councillors, the organizer of Ottawa's Cisco Systems Bluesfest, Mark Monahan, proposed allowing his organization, the Ottawa International Jazz Festival and the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival to dip into the $300,000, on a "per-needs" basis.

The idea didn't go over well with Ottawa's treasurer Lloyd Russell. "I'd encourage them to build up sufficient funds to carry them through those down seasons, and to build it up as the business that it is," Russell said.

Ottawa mayor Bob Chiarelli went even further, calling Monahan's request "out of line and out of place," and accusing the other festivals of trying to cash in on an emergency situation.