Blossoms gone but festivities continue

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Though there are bare trees halfway into the National Cherry Blossom Festival, organizers don’t expect a chill on the event’s tourism revenues.

“When you’re doing a 16-day outdoor festival, you’re bound to get something like this; it’s nothing new or different than we’re used to,” National Cherry Blossom Festival Executive Director Diana Mayhew said of the recent cold weather. “It was amazing how packed the Tidal Basin was this weekend.”

Annually, the festival brings about 1 million people downtown and an estimated $150 million in revenue for the District. About 40 percent of attendees come from out of town. Mayhew said Tuesday that those numbers should stay about the same this year, because early attendance during the festival’s opening weekend at the end of March was higher than expected, due to warm weather and spring break. The festival’s opening weekend included activities such as Family Day and the Smithsonian Kite Festival.

Thousands of residents braved the cold weather and snow flurries to attend the fireworks on the National Mall on Saturday, Mayhew said.

Still, the blossoms are gone from the trees when there still are many major events to come. This Saturday marks the festival’s parade, as well as the Sakura Matsuri Japanese Street Festival. Last year’s parade drew nearly 90,000 spectators, with rain keeping many participants away.

Mayhew acknowledged there are very few blossoms left, saying this had more to do with early warm weather speeding up the blooming process than last weekend’s wind and cold.

“We’ll wait and see how the weekend goes,” Mayhew said. “We’re hearing the weather is supposed to go up a few degrees each day.”

She’ll have to keep her fingers crossed; although the U.S. National Weather Service is projecting D.C. weather to be in the 60s Saturday and Sunday, it also predicts showers for the weekend.

melissa.frederick@dcxaminer.com

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