Wednesday, April 7, 2010

photos from the big cherry block party

Big Cherry Block Party


From the "better late than never file": Last Saturday was the inaugural Big Cherry Block Party in Downtown Silver Spring. It's the first event in Maryland officially approved by the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which of course commemorates Japan's 1912 gift of cherry blossom trees to the United States and is held where the trees were planted around the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C.

Until Saturday morning, however, there weren't any cherry blossom trees in Downtown Silver Spring. ("It's so unusual for them to promote this here," a bewildered Japanese woman told me in the elevator of the parking garage.) JUTP sleeps in on Saturday mornings, meaning I didn't get to see County Executive Ike Leggett dedicate the tree with Japanese Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki. I did, however, stop by shortly after to take a few photos of the street vendors, some girls singing karaoke, a martial arts performance, and some delicious-smelling kabobs. Check them out in the slideshow below or by clicking here.

1 comment:

WashingtonGardener said...

There ARE actually a nice grouping of cherry trees in downtown Silver Spring - right on Georgia ave at corner of Sligo (near Quality Time daycare) - looking fab this week. A few cherry trees also light up Fenton Park (near the Banner Glass) each spring as well. Of course, the Cherry Blossom Fest was blocks away from either of those displays - would be nice if we could connect and fill in the plantings between them in future years.