Buffalo Cherry Blossom Festival

This Spring, we wanted to wander beyond Erie to an event that we’ve never been to before. In doing some looking around online, we stumbled upon the Buffalo Cherry Blossom Festival, which is happening April 30 and May 1, 2022, from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. on both days. After heading to the website to read up on it, we decided that heading to this festival in Buffalo for the day sounded like a lot of fun! So off we went!

Location:

The Buffalo Cherry Blossom Festival is located in the Japanese Garden at Delaware Park and The Buffalo History Museum. The address for the Japanese Garden and History Museum is 1 Museum Ct, Buffalo, NY 14216. The drive is roughly an hour and a half from Erie, PA.

Free parking is available in the Museum Parking lot. If you find that lot is full, there is street parking available. If you do have to park in the street, be sure not to block any driveways. We arrived around 11:15 a.m., and we did have to park in the street. The event was very crowded. If you do have to park in the street, there are sidewalks available and the walk to get to the park around the lake is very pretty.

Property Description:

The grounds of the museum are absolutely beautiful. Cherry blossom trees are plenty in the garden, with pink and white flowers blooming everywhere on the branches. There are several concrete paths to walk. You’ll find food trucks to the side and in front of the museum, as well as vendors with items celebrating Japanese heritage.

What to Do:

This festival not only celebrates the beautiful cherry blossom trees, but also highlights Japanese culture. Inside the Buffalo History Museum, you can visit activity tables to learn about bonsai, origami, folk dolls, and Kanazawa, Buffalo’s sister city in Japan. You can also visit all of the museums other attractions for free, including a room dedicated to trains that our littles loved!

Outside in the Japanese Garden, you can take a walk and enjoy the beautiful array of color in all the shades of pink found in the Cherry Blossom Trees. As you walk the garden, you’ll find many people about. Some brought blankets and were enjoying their food having little picnics underneath the trees and we even saw a few groups with professional photographers getting family photos done! Our littles loved watching the artists!

Several vendors were set up selling their items or services; you can even get a henna tattoo! We found so many beautiful things, but unfortunately we didn’t have cash on us so we were unable to purchase. If you go to the festival, be sure to bring a little cash in case you find a unique treasure.

We saw many options in food trucks to grab a bite to eat during your visit. On ours, we enjoyed food from Sun Roll.

Sun Roll serves sushi, spring rolls, and other Asian favorites. This truck was pretty packed, but we really wanted to try it. After a decent wait (only because of the long line), we received our food. The food was so worth the wait. Everything was delicious. We got a sushi burrito, mango roll, fried vegetable spring rolls, and Thai ice tea. It was our first time trying Thai iced tea; it’s a cold tea served with milk and spices. It presents as a “creamsicle” color that melts down into typical iced tea color (photo above), but don’t let that fool you as it does have a kick of spice in it. While the adults enjoyed the flavor, only one little liked it. And by liked, we mean really liked; might be a new favorite drink!

Music is a huge highlight of this festival. Outside, you’ll enjoy several different musicians on 3 different stages. We enjoyed listening to the different sounds as we took in the atmosphere of the garden and watched the boats on the water. One really cool part of the festival was the boat rides on Mirror Lake. The line was very long, and we didn’t have the time to wait, so we didn’t get to enjoy a boat ride. However, it looked like a lot of fun!

Who Can Go:

Anyone can enjoy this festival celebrating Japanese culture and the beauty of the cherry blossom trees. From young to old, we noticed people of all sorts taking in the beauty around them.

You can also bring your dog(s)! Dogs are more than welcome in the outdoor areas of the festival. As always, be sure to clean up after your pup!

Final Thoughts:

We really enjoyed our visit to the 9th Annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Buffalo, NY. This festival was very busy and a lot of fun to be at, especially if you appreciate nature and culture. We were at the Buffalo Cherry Blossom Festival for about 2 hours, and enjoyed food, nature, and culture while there! The drive was pleasant and we had a great time trying something new! If you’d like even more information, head to their website by clicking right here.

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[Editor’s note: Please be aware that we are not affiliated with The Buffalo Cherry Blossom Festival in any way. This is true of all of our posts. We simply enjoy wandering around Erie as we know finding what to do in Erie, PA area can be hard.]