Blossom Fest Dances Right Through The Rain

At Wooster Square’s 46th Annual Cherry Blossom Festival, clouds rolled in overhead and nobody seemed to notice. A girls’ choir kept on singing at center stage. Families got in line for mask making. In one section of Wooster Square, East Havener Amy Rosario sat with her two children eating Jack’s hot dogs.

“I always come for the food, it’s probably the best part,” she said as she noshed. “I think that’s why most people come honestly. The trees are bare but there are still hundreds of people.”

Sunday, Rosario joined over 3,000 people for the annual Wooster Square Cherry Blossom Festival, which barreled through a blossom-less and rain-soaked afternoon with dancing, song, hot food and a number of activities for kids of all ages. While the blossoms had peaked earlier that week and had fallen by the time of the festival, no one seemed to mind.

Food played a central role in that collective shoulder shrug at the rain. Per tradition—and despite competition-worthy pizza just blocks away—close to a dozen food trucks parked in the square, lines stretching behind them as the afternoon wore on. In its fourth year at the festival, the Jitter Bus served a warm nutty hot-brew appropriate for the chilly weather. Many festival-goers accompanied their coffee with pastries from Norwalk-based bakery the Sono Baking Company.

While many of the neighborhood’s Italian restaurants were represented at the festival, cuisines like Indian and Mexican made their presence known with rich smells of spice and cooked meat.

The Swagat Cart provided Indian samosas, small balls of fried dough wrapped around a savory filling of seasoned potatoes, lentils and chicken. But it also offered an American state fair staple—deep-fried Oreos that were warm and gooey, and unbelievably sweet.

La Carreta’s food truck offered a range of iconic Mexican dishes like soft steak tacos topped with caramelized onions and lime zest. Customers paired their stuffed burritos with smothered fries from the Fryborg Food Truck placed directly across the cart.

Attendees didn’t forget to make room for dessert. In the center of the park, owners of Elm City Kettle Corn quickly bagged freshly popped sweet-corn to the dozens of customers wanting a treat. Back after a long winter, ice cream maker Netta Hadari of What Is Real Ice Cream served up single scoop cones and cups to children who ran off to different activities.

Around the food trucks, the rain couldn’t keep attendees away. There were children splashing water in small pools filled with rubber ducks. At one station, kids and parents crowded around a table to make animal face masks. Isabella (her parents declined to give her last name) showed off a fierce panda mask as she grinned widely and stuck her tongue out to one side.

At another, they gathered around to see representatives who held birds from the Guilford-based bird rehabilitation center, Blue Moon Raptors. As large raptors and wide-eyes owls came out, attendees oohed and aahed—and fidgeted a little—at the big creatures, who remained surprisingly calm with the crowds all around them.

“There’s more activities and food than I expected,” New Haven resident Raquel Muniz said. “I’ve lived here all my life and the rain wasn’t going to keep me away this time.”

Onstage, that was true for performers who kept the crowd listening—and dancing—all afternoon. For New Haveners like Blossom Blogger Bart Conners Scarzba, that community feeling whisked the cold and damp clear away. In a conversation after the event, he described the festival as “real smooth despite some weather-related hiccups!”

“Some years we have had freezing rain or snow on our blossoms,” he said. “This spring was a typical New Haven, Southern New England Spring. Really chilly, lots of rain but nothing else. Our Cherry Blossoms marched along their six-stage process rather orderly, peaking about two days earlier than I predicted.”

Nonetheless, he added, “I was amazed at the turnout in the neighborhood. The festival is a real community event, driven by all volunteers. Since I have moved to Wooster Square, there are thousands more people who live downtown. And although there was no entertainment until the end, everyone had a great time. Then when the band started playing it started to rain and people hit the dance floor!”

This piece comes to the Arts Paper through the second annual Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI), a program of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven and the New Haven Free Public Library. Over eight weeks this spring, ten New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) students will be working with Arts Paper Editor Lucy Gellman and YAJI Program Assistant Melanie Espinal to produce four articles, for each of which they are compensated. Read more about the program here.