So there's going to be slightly more of a "con report" than usual, even though there was less of a "con" than usual, mainly so I can explain why.

You see, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden usually hosted their Sakura Matsuri on the last weekend in April, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was canceled in 2020.

It wasn't brought back in 2021, which was understandable--while conventions were starting up again, a lot of people were still cautious.

But when it wasn't brought back in 2022, people started to get nervous.

In 2023, they finally made an announcement--rather than hold a one weekend cherry blossom festival, they had decided to have a series of events called "Weekends in Bloom" that would run through April and into early May.

Now, I haven't found any official word on why the Brooklyn Botanic Garden decided to cancel their annual cultural festival and change it to a multi-weekend thing. I *heard*, although I can't remember where, that there were two reasons.

The first, is that while they can make a pretty good prediction of when the cherry blossoms are going to bloom, and they do update their blossom tracker daily, the fact remains that they've guessed incorrectly in the past. In 2010, for example, the Matsuri happened after most of the flowers had bloomed off.

The second is that if they have more weekends, they can offer more programming. And of course, not everyone can make one weekend; if you spread it out over the course of a month, you can reach more people.

However; here's my hot take: cosplayers ruined the Sakura Matsuri.

I say this as a cosplayer, albeit one that, deliberately, never cosplayed to the cherry blossom festival. And I am aware that in later years, the Sakura Matsuri included programming aimed at cosplayers, so this is very much an unofficial opinion.

However, at its heart, the Sakura Matsuri was a cultural festival, celebrating traditions that had been handed down from generation to generation. I used to see a lot of ex-patriots there, and you could tell the older generation of Japanese loved to see their heritage celebrated and shared. They may have fixed my kimono if it wasn't sitting correctly, but by and large they were thrilled that I, and so many others, were wearing them.

That declined as the years went on. You still had people wearing kimono (and of course, most people wore regular clothing, maybe a bit nicer than usual but still regular), but they were vastly overrun by young people in many types of costumes. And I'm sorry to say, a loud minority were pretty poorly behaved--running, shoving past people, climbing the trees (which is strictly forbidden.)

In addition, the mix of anime costumes (which were bad enough) and the American comic book and other pop culture costumes seemed really...discordant among the cherry blossoms. I didn't mind the cosplayers who were wearing school uniforms so much, or wore kimono versions of their characters. Those fit in. Years ago my kimono teacher Yumiko cautioned me against wearing a pink yukata with cherry blossoms on it to the Sakura Matsuri, because there is an unstated understood rule that you don't want to seem like you are trying to compete with the cherry blossoms. The hodgepodge of costumes almost drowned them out.

So, I didn't go in 2019 because my personal life was not the greatest (though I did visit the garden with Lady Terentia in April and May just for fun), and I didn't go in 2020, 2021, 2022 (although I did visit again in regular clothing...mainly so I could take a picture of Crabby), or 2023 because it didn't exist in the form I used to know and love, why did I decide to go back in 2024?

A few reasons, really. The first was that, although the Sakura Matsuri might not exist anymore, the cherry blossom season still did, and what better way to celebrate the beginning of spring? Also, while I knew it wouldn't be the same, I wouldn't know what it *was* like until I actually attended myself.

Secondly, I had bought a beautiful new, limited edition Sailor Moon kimono in February of 2020, right before the world ended, that was just *sitting* in my kimono trunk going to waste. I spent a lot of money on that thing, I was GOING to wear it.

Also, I had a newish boyfriend who had never seen me in kimono before. I've said before that I feel my most feminine in kimono, so how would he feel strolling the gardens with the most feminine version of Crissy?

Lastly, I had been thinking about buying myself a new, actually good camera, because I am tired of taking convention photos on my phone, and if I'm going to be buying a new camera anyway, why not get a good one? My friend Pete normally encourages all of my impulse purchases, but because good cameras are so expensive, he suggested I borrow his for the weekend to see how I felt carrying it around and using it, a rare bit of sensible advice which I was very grateful for.

So, Val and I went. And I looked okay, though I think it's safe to say my best years are behind me. And the blossoms were beautiful, if not as full as in other years. And there was actually at least one other person in kimono, as well as a few Lolitas (which I don't mind as much as cosplayers, both because it's just fashion, and they're usually much better behaved.)

And the garden in general is always worth a visit--the Japanese Hill and Pond garden will always have a calming effect on my soul, and the tulip exhibit that I believe was new this year was just a riot of color that was really impressive.

But will I go again?

Mmm. It's hard to say.

I will be honest in that it was a bit of a letdown; I used to *love* seeing other people's kimono, to see what color combinations they chose, to swap buying tips and wearing tips and all that jazz. There were definitely fewer people--I don't think I saw a single cosplayer, but I also didn't meet a single ex-pat. They might have been there, but if they were, they were not as interested in making a social connection as they used to be.

I used to buy a new yukata every year--by 2014 I had decided to start getting one in each of the Sailor Senshi's colors, both to make it easier for me to decide what to buy and wear that year, but so that I'd have kimono to offer to any Sailor Moon cosplayer if we ever decided to do a kimono group. And we did, at Otakon in 2018, so that need has passed. (Although now I'm only four away, so why not complete the set?)

I will say I will go if they bring the classic Sakura Matsuri back; the allure will be too strong. As it is, in writing this report, I learned about the Hanami Nights they do on two weeknights in April, and that sounds like something I'd really like to try.

And I will go if a group wants to go--or shoot, even if just one or two other people want to go. I enjoyed taking Val, don't get me wrong, and he was a good sport, but it's not really his "thing".

And maybe one of these years I will try it in Lolita instead, maybe that would change the vibe? I don't know, and I won't know unless I try. We'll see. I have say that OPIB has been getting better about trying to get together more often than just at Otakon, but they have their own Sakura Matsuri down in D.C. that is easier for them to get to. For that matter, maybe I ought to go there.

But, I'm glad I went this year--and again, in writing this, I realized it was exactly six years later to the day. Both so that I could finally wear that stupidly expensive, extravagant yukata, and so that I'd know what it was like.

Maybe the festival, like the cherry blossoms themselves, was beautiful because it couldn't last. Or maybe that's a bit too theatrical even for me--I'm aware that my writing style in some of my con reports can run a bit...overly ornate and dramatic.

But melodramatic or not, I think it's a good reminder to enjoy things while you can, because nothing lasts forever.