The 59th annual Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival opens on April 11-12 and 18-19.
The fiscal sponsor, Sakura Matsuri, is a nonprofit Japanese/American organization. They assist
in organizing the largest cherry blossom festivals in the U.S., located in Washington, D.C., while
Japantown, San Francisco, hosts the second largest.
The festival features various cultural performances, consisting of traditional arts and live music.
The annual Queen Program will also take place, in which a group of selected women become
cultural ambassadors for the Northern California Japanese American community.
This year, the festival includes the sacred shrine “Kanda Mikoshi,” a portable religious shrine
that houses a god. Translating to “a divine palanquin,” it emphasizes the importance of the deity
inside, rather than the shrine itself. This gift to the Cherry Blossom Festival comes from the
Kanda Myojin Shrine in Tokyo, Japan.
Several Japanese programs are also scheduled during the festival, including calligraphy, Washi
Ningyo dolls, flower arranging, tea workshops, aikido, traditional Okinawa karate, and more.
The festival’s opening weekend featured cold and wet weather. The opening day saw rain
throughout the event, while the subsequent day, April 12, dealt with intermittent rain for the
majority of the event.
On the east side of Post Street, the festival contained info booths. Volunteers from the city of
San Francisco and Japantown distributed pamphlets, ambassadors from travel companies
offered trips to Japan, and even a Manga truck from Emaqi encouraged free reads.
One vendor, Chibi Oneechan, a solo woman-owned and created brand, creates amazing
custom tags, totes, key chains, and other accessories. Having sold at events all over the
country, her most popular themes include floral patterns and Pokemon.
Another vendor, Ronin Decals, prides themselves as a leader in anime motion stickers. Based
in San Jose, CA, they attend events and markets all around the Bay Area. “We make sure to
bring about 200-300 variations of inventory to a festival like this,” said Tyler, one of the
company’s artists.
Traveling west on Post, vendors lined the main road on both sides. At the intersection of
Webster Street, the event hosted live musicians on stage; meanwhile, across the street, food
trucks and stands were available. Offerings included plenty of tasty asian cuisine, including
masubis, chicken katsu, gyoza, takoyaki, and tanghulu.
A large event, the venue offered multiple family-friendly activities as well. The festival dedicated
an entire area as a “Children’s Cherry Blossom Village”; a section containing games, prizes,
and crafting for kids in attendance.
A free and open event to all, the Cherry Blossom Festival symbolizes the arrival of spring and
cherry blossoms in the city of San Francisco.
