A perfect spring day greeted the thousands of visitors to the Cowra Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre for the annual Sakura Matsuri Festival on Saturday.
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2019 marked the 30th festival with more than 2500 people visiting the garden to celebrate the birth of spring and the fleeting nature of life.
Manager of the Cowra Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre, Shane Budge, said this year's festival was bigger then he expected.
"With any event of this size you expect to have hiccups, but everything went smoothly," he said.
"All the feedback was excellent, the visitors that I spoke to all said it was a great time and that they got to see parts of Japanese culture they had never experienced.
"There were more cultural activities to take part in this year, we had more stall holders and overall the numbers were on par with last year.
"It was a really enjoyable successful day, the weather was perfect and the visitors were perfect," he said.
Mr Budge thanked all the participants who helped make the festival a success. He gave special thanks to Yoriko Takasawa, the seventh Cowra Seikei exchange student, for helping bring the Aikido Club of Senshu University to the festival.
"Thanks to the garden staff and volunteers, our sponsors including the Services Club, the Services Club Motel, the Japanese Embassy, the Saburo Nagakura Foundation, Cowra Hire, Windowrie, Cowra Council, all the stall holders and everyone who attended," he said.
"We'll take a month and then go straight into planning for 2020. We are hoping to add more activities for next year and increase the cultural experience.
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"At the end of the day the festival is our major fundraiser for the garden, all the money goes straight back into the garden.
"There's no shareholders, no dividends, we rely on entry fees and gift shop sales for our day to day operations," he said.
Mr Budge encouraged festival visitors to continue coming to the garden throughout the year saying they had many cultural activities on offer.
"We are trying to increase and bring different cultural activities into the garden," he said.
"To improve the visitor experience, to share Japanese culture and increase the educational component of what's on offer.
"We've got a Boro stitching exhibition and workshop from Wednesday, October 16 through to Saturday, October 19.
"We've got a Netsuke collection on loan from a private collector in the cultural centre until October 20 and that's the first time we've had anything like it here.
"Leanne O'Sullivan who does Shibori workshops at the festival will be returning in November to hold more of them," he said.
What did you think of the festival? Have your say
