Nashville Cherry Blossom Festival

Huge celebration and great turn out! But it was sooo hot, they really needed to have more places that sold fans, water, and even umbrellas. Also, for an Japanese festival I was surprised that only 2 vendors sold boba tea, those lines were crazy! But overall loved the drums, sumo wrestlers, and everything!♥️

Pretty crowded, and the lines were CRAZY!! And surprisingly, no cherry blossom flowers but the vendors where nice

I used to love going to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Nashville up until these last few years, but it’s gotten so crowded to the extent that I feel like I can’t enjoy it anymore. You’re pretty much shoulder to shoulder to others at all times. The lines at food and drink vendors are always ridiculously long throughout the entire day no matter how early you get there and there is no rhyme or reason to the waiting lines. You can’t tell where it starts and ends. By the time you get to order your food/drink, the vendors run out of whatever it was they were selling and they don’t tell you beforehand, so you’re waiting for nothing in the heat. Not only that, but everything is grossly overpriced. We spent $47 on food for just the two of us. I’m not blaming the organizers of the event for all of this, but the festival is just really disappointing these days as opposed to within the past 5 years. Wayyyyy too many people. There were also vendors there that seemed completely out of place and irrelevant. Not only that, but the parking fees are outrageous. I don’t necessarily think that this is the fault of the event organizers or the event itself like I said. I just think Nashville is overpopulated now. I miss this festival before it was ruined by tourists and crowds.

While I love the festival itself, this year is absolutely insane! There's no handicap or disabled parking visible or any sort of services at all to help you find parking to where you can get up to the festival this year!! It shouldn't take 2 hours to go half a mile and find parking, but it did! Had a complete meltdown before I could even get out of my vehicle. Complete madness.... This is been my daughter and mine tradition for 10 years and I don't think we'll be returning next year if it's like this. Oh and it's 42 DOLLARS to park a mile away, which I can't go further due to my disabilities...

Not really a Cherry Blossom Festival. More like an Anime fest. Mostly shopping and food trucks. Left early due to boredom. Food was Way Overpriced.

It was crowded with great vibes and amazing costumes. The tents were full of activities and clubs for anime and Asian culture lovers. I could go on and on about it, I definitely plan to go this year as well. Highly recommended.

Good music, good food, cool anime and cosplay costumes, lots of vendors and events.

Long lines for anything and everything. To many vendors and not enough focus on the reason for being there. First time coming and probably the last. Be prepared to spend money on parking and food. We spent around 70 for one meal and parking alone.

Take this review with a grain of salt. I'm an APIA female who has grown up on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. I have also lived in Taiwan and Hong Kong. I still have not gotten over the amount of rice farmer hats I see in the southern United States. This event, unfortunately, was no exception. A small-scale event in downtown, my friend and I biked in from opposing sides of town. Luckily, there was a fabulous free bike valet provided by Walk Bike Nashville. I was impressed by their professionalism and kindness during the event. However, they were in the decided minority. I spent the majority of the time walking around and trying not to be offended by the level of ignorance and misrepresentation of APIA culture. The event was reduced to face value, cultural "experiences" like petting a disgruntled and terrified Shiba Inu puppy or standing in a ridiculous line for a subpar bento. Unimpressive and just plain sad. That being said, there were a ton of white people columbusing and appropriating Japanese, Chinese, and Korean culture whether through dress or by the offensive words they chose to say. I'm quite tired of dealing with this level of indiscretion in Nashville. I do not think I will be returning to such an event due how people treat the APIA and international population. The only redeeming qualities here were the fantastic Taiko team from Houston, TX, the martial arts tent, and the Japanese traditional folk artist. Everything else seemed a bit in ill-taste.

For a somewhat small-scaled cultural event, I think this festival offered a very good variety of activities to give the participants some sense of semblance of Asian (Japanese in particular) culture. Cultural activities: Japanese tea ceremony was very elegant and informative; Country Western band from Nashville's sister city, Kamakura, in Japan was humorous; Mochituki (rice pounding into rice cake--mochi) was humorous and entertained the participants and audience alike; Aikido demonstration was just OK for me; Kaminari Taiko (Japanese drums) troops from Houston performed a very exciting presentation--perhaps the highlight of my experience of the day, etc. Food vendors/trucks offered good varieties, but I thought they were very pricey. There weren't too many I wanted to really try anyway. Merchandise vendors were plentiful selling anything from old kimonos to some pricey pottery. Sponsor tents were giving away some freebies. Some sponsors were receiving free customer information since you had to sign up for it to receive some free gifts. Cosplayers were numerous and made me laugh. Perhaps one of the funniest things around was the Sumo-suit matches, though. Free parking at Lot A of Nissan Stadium was great with free shuttle bus to the event. Since it wasn't too far to walk back (about 1/2 miles) on a nice sunny day, we walked back to the parking lot saving $1 per person for the ride back. I know it's very hard to predict when the cherry blossoms will be at peak, but this year it was well passed the peak and there were hardly any blossoms left on the trees. That probably was the most disappointing part of this festival since it's named Cherry Blossom Festival.

We went right after coming back from Asia. Well maybe not right after but soon after and enough to miss the food. Food Trucks were packed, bummer and sold out of many, but still had Jeni's Ice cream..so all good. Lovely helpers and I found someone's phone and took to the lost and found and they made me feel comfortable they would find the owner. Entertainment was good. Really interesting this festival was so crowded. Parking was nicely done next to festival and easy. Dogs were welcome and were nicely tolerated as the Humane Society was there. Did not buy anything because we did not really need anything but they had some nice take a ways. Best part of festival, hmmm beautiful day in friendly Nashvegas and people who appreciate the Japanese culture. Good time.

This year was the largest one I have attended yet with more shopping tents, more food, and more visitors! I enjoyed every moment! I got photos of the Blossom Walk with the Mayor, the Candyman with is awesome sugar creations taking shape right before your eyes, the Puppies in Pink, and the excellent Cosplayers! I always look forward to seeing what will be new every year, everyone should experience a this touch of Japan here in Nashville.