The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is prepping for its annual Sakura Matsuri on May 2 & 3. The weekend-long family festival is a celebration of Japanese culture and arts. This year over 50 performances are scheduled that include taiko drumming, an anime voice actor panel, bonsai pruning workshops, Jpop DJs, and a traditional kimono show. In the meantime, you can keep track of the gradual blooming of the Garden’s more than 200 cherry trees online with the CherryWatch Blossom Status Map!

The weekend’s full schedule is available online at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden website.
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is located at 1000 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. It is open daily to the public except on Mondays.

You can watch 2008’s bloom with this time-lapse video created by Dave Allen, BBG’s Web Manager. It’s made from over 3,000 digital photos, one taken every 3 minutes from April 18 to April 26, 2008, of Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s famed Cherry Walk.