I survived the 28th annual Sakura Matsuri, or Cherry Blossom Festival
By Gil Asakawa
June 27, 2000

Over the weekend, I served as the master of ceremonies on the main stage for the two-day event, which is the Japanese community's chance to share our culture, crafts and cooking with Denver's general population. The festival was a success. People were exposed to a variety of performances from traditional folk dances and taiko drums to Japanese dogs and martial arts.

As in previous years, when it comes to crowd pleasers, the audience was most entranced by taiko drumming.

I'm always amazed at how much work goes into such an event. There are literally dozens of volunteers who pull off the production, and a core of people who have been anchors for the planning and execution of the festival for years. Even though the Sakura Matsuri has been held for 28 years, and many of the pieces seem to drop in place as routine, in actuality the event is practically reinvented every year. Even such basic tasks such as the ordering of the tents and the stage construction, the closing of the street along the east block of Sakura Square to accommodate the festival's vendors, contacting vendors, making sure the food gets made by the many volunteers who cook in the days before the festival, even the hanging of promotional signs for the festival ahead of time, have to be remembered and assigned.

This year's Sakura Matsuri ran smoothly, both outside on the street with the stage and vendors and inside the Denver Buddhist Temple and an upstairs space on the Sakura Square mezzanine, where cultural displays and demonstrations were held. I was surprised to find that once the schedule was worked out, most of the performers even stuck to their time slots and didn't run over into the next act's limited time. All I had to do was babble a bit about the next act, make some announcements, urge the audience to check out all that the Japanese community has to offer, and tell a joke or two to keep their attention from drifting.

One measure of success for the festival is seeing all the non-Japanese there learning about Japan, but I also wondered how many Japanese Americans are seeing traditional dances or hearing taiko drumming for the first time. You can't take for granted that someone who looks Japanese and has a Japanese name is as interested in my culture as I am. In fact, I'm often reminded of this fact when I meet non-Japanese who are more familiar with and educated about Japan than some JAs I know. Many participants for Sakura Matsuri, including volunteers, vendors and performers, are non-Japanese, and embrace the culture earnestly and wholeheartedly. Many of these non-Japanese are deeply involved in the community and are part of every event.