Organizers of one of the National Cherry Blossom Festival’s signature events, the Sakura Matsuri Japanese Street Festival, are preparing for their first major shakeup in 2016 as the event moves off Pennsylvania Avenue NW for the first time in 20 years.
All they can hope for is that the crowds will follow the event to Capitol Riverfront, according to Ambassador John Malott, president of the Japan-America Society of Washington D.C., which puts on the festival. I caught up with him at the Newseum as the festival and National Park Service announced the prediction for this year’s peak bloom dates: March 31 to April 3.
The festival has to move off Pennsylvania Avenue NW this year and for the foreseeable future due to the Trump International Hotel, which will be opening in the Old Post Office Pavilion at 12th and Pennsylvania NW later this year. The hotel worked out a deal that would prevent the entire street from being shut down, save for major events such as Inauguration Day.
This year’s move to Capitol Riverfront, where the festival will be held on an open lot at M Street and New Jersey Avenue SE, is necessary even though the hotel won’t yet be open because of the construction surrounding the building, which is at the heart of where the festival would typically take place.
The move will take the festival out of the cherry blossom epicenter for the day it is scheduled: April 16, which is also the day of the National Cherry Blossom Parade on Pennsylvania Avenue. Some attendees go from one event to the other, walking down Pennsylvania Avenue after the parade, for example.
Malott said there could be some slippage in attendance, but how much is anybody’s guess. About 43,000 people attended the festival last year.
“We thought about moving the festival further up Pennsylvania Avenue, but then we’d be backing up against the parade, which posed its own difficulties," said Malott.
Still, he’s optimistic that those who make Sakuri Matsuri their destination will continue to do so. Only about 30 percent of festival attendees typically also attend the parade, Malott said.
It will make combining the trip to the festival with seeing the blossoms around the Tidal Basin more difficult. At the festival’s Pennsylvania Avenue location, the Tidal Basin was just a 1-mile walk across the Mall. This year that double feature will likely require a Metro ride or other form of transportation.
The move also ushers in more uncertainty for the festival, which used to be free but began charging admission a few years ago. The Capitol Riverfront solution is likely not a long-term one, Malott said, because eventually Yards developer Forest City Washington will start building on the parcel where this year’s festival will be held.
“We’re already thinking ahead to 2017 to see where we might need to go,” he said.
The National Cherry Blossom Festival brings more than 1 million visitors to Washington annually, representing an economic impact of $100 million, according to Events D.C.
Here’s what else is new for the National Cherry Blossom Festival this year:
Cherry Blast: Events D.C., a presenting sponsor of the festival, is taking a leading role in Cherry Blast, a Japanese arts and pop culture party that was held in previous years at Blind Whino in Southwest D.C. This year, the event will be held April 16 at Carnegie Library and will highlight all things Japanese anime, cosplay and gaming. The event, which will be held from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., will include a costume contest, Japanese fashion shows, techno dance party, Japanese street food, and sushi and sake workshops.
Petal the Gnome: In celebration of the National Park Service’s 100th anniversary, NCBF organizers will hide a figurine of Petal the Gnome at different national and D.C.-area parks in the weeks leading up to and during the festival. Anyone who finds Petal will win a festival prize package.
( Pink) D.C. Circulator: This is the first year the D.C. Circulator’s National Mall route will be running during the festival, and certain buses will have their own wraps to get into the spirit.
ANA sponsorship: We told you earlier this year that Japanese airline ANA had signed on as a presenting sponsor for the festival, in part to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its first Tokyo-to-Washington flight. The airline will host the ANA Performance Stage April 2-17 with daily music and dance performances. The sponsorship helped fund the $3.2 million festival; festival CEO Diana Mayhew said organizers are 85 percent of the way to raising this year’s funding goal.
Parkmobile parking reservations: NCBF has partnered with parking app Parkmobile's new parking reservation service, ParkNow, to allow reservations at parking garages within walking distance of festival events. Parkmobile will also allow users to donate directly to the festival through its app. The group is also working on a similar charitable partnership with ridesharing app Lyft, although those details have not been finalized.