Photo: Fort Worth Botanic Garden

Maybe it was the long, unseasonably cold winter, or perhaps it’s because we’ve all been inside for a year, but whatever the reason, we can all agree that spring is especially welcome this year.

This weekend, the Fort Worth Botanic Garden is tipping their hat to Mother Nature and everything grand about this particular springtime season with their annual Spring Japanese Festival.

The Spring Festival, now in its third decade, is a partnership between the Garden and the Fort Worth Japanese Society and celebrates Japanese culture with a variety of demonstrations and activities throughout the Garden.

Highlights include:

• Performances by two Taiko drumming groups, karate experts, traditional Japanese dance, and Master Swordsman G.K. Sugai
• Displays of the miniature worlds of bonsai trees from the Fort Worth Bonsai Society
• Demonstrations in Ikebana/Japanese flower arranging, Origami, Calligraphy and Japanese Games
• Vendors selling everything from origami jewelry to anime plush figures, star charts to crafts made with vintage kimonos

While you’re at the Spring Festival be sure to try some traditional Japanese food, including a fish pastry called Taiyaki.

Besides entertainment and shopping there will also be plenty of food. Visitors can purchase meals and snacks from the Garden’s on-site café or from four different food vendors that will be on site. And the Fort Worth Japanese Society will be selling traditional Japanese food, including a fish pastry called Taiyaki.

Organizers note the spring festival couldn’t have been timed better.

“This is a beautiful time of the year to visit the garden, especially the Japanese Garden,” said Steve Huddleston, Public Relations Manager for FWBG/BRIT. “We’ve got flowering cherry and apricot trees, as well as 125,000 tulips that are still blooming. And in the Japanese garden we have pools full of Koi fish people enjoy feeding, so that’s a highlight for anybody’s visit to Japanese garden. It’s a strolling garden over some very interesting terrain that is lushly planted. So it’s a nice place to visit.”

More than 125,000 tulips are showing their colors at the festival. Photo: Fort Worth Botanic Garden

Festival hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are available for purchase on the Fort Worth Botanic Garden website. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for Seniors 65+, and $6 for kids 5 and older. Children under 5 are free.

Your ticket will also allow you to visit the Garden’s other exhibits–the large outdoor Stickwork exhibit and Topiaries in the Garden.

Safety protocols for this event require guests entering the Garden to wear masks, and performances have been moved outside of the Japanese Garden to ensure plenty of space between performers and the public. Hand sanitizing stations will be positioned around the Garden, and vendors will provide sanitizer at their booths.

Visit the Fort Worth Botanic Garden or their Facebook page for more information.

Got a tip? Email Therese Powell at tpowell@kera.org. You can follow her on Twitter @TheresePowell13

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