Scenes from the 2019 Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown

Scenes from the 2019 Cherry Blossom Festival in JapantownPhotos: Beth Thomas/Hoodline
Beth Thomas
Published on April 24, 2019

Founded in 1968, the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival has become one of California’s largest celebrations of Asian traditions, and the biggest festival of its kind on the West Coast.

This year, the festival celebrated its 50-year anniversary in Japantown. Held over two weekends, it draws more than 220,000 people to enjoy the work of Japanese and Japanese-American merchants, chefs, musicians, artists, and more.

Here's what we saw at this year's event.