The crowd-pleasing Sakura Matsuri is once again taking over the entire Brooklyn Botanic Garden this weekend, with performances, music, food, games, and packs of cosplay kids all gathered to celebrate both traditional and contemporary Japanese arts and culture. And if the BBG's cherry blossoms didn't exactly cooperate this year, timing-wise—only about five trees are in bloom (most seem to be in pre-bloom)—the thousands who flocked to the festivities on Saturday didn't really seem to mind.
Among Saturday's highlights: The Taiko-Masala "thunder drummers" on the main stage; the green tea cupcakes, sushi platters, and bento boxes; the exuberant IchiP! "anime dance trio" on the J-Lounge Stage in the children's area (also of note: the smily-face blow-up chairs are back here too, joined by new squishy purple seats); and the hundreds of (mostly) teenagers who showed up dressed in elaborate cosplay outfits, for no other reason than to look good, have fun, hang around with their buddies.
In addition to indulging in countless photos-ops with the roaming anime, video game, Pokeman, samurai, geisha, My Little Pony, and Lolita-cosplaying characters, resourceful normcore folks also swarmed the few trees still in bloom, posing and sticking their face right into the cherry blossoms to appear as immersed as possible on their various social media feeds.
The 33rd Annual Sakura Matsuri continues today, Sunday, until 6:00 p.m., with a full schedule of performances and activities.
