Sakura Matsuri Japanese Street Festival

Sakura Matsuri is a Japanese street festival organized by the Japan-America Society of Washington, DC, held each spring along Pennsylvania Avenue NW near Capitol Hill as the closing event of the National Cherry Blossom Festival season. Billed as the largest celebration of Japanese culture in the United States, the two-day festival features Japanese food, crafts, and more than 24 hours of cultural performances across the closed-off street.

The Japan-America Society of Washington, DC has spent decades building programming meant to deepen ties between the United States and Japan, running everything from a Japanese-language school to cultural events, scholarships, and an annual gala, but its most publicly visible program each year is Sakura Matsuri, the Japanese street festival held in mid-April along Pennsylvania Avenue NW near the base of Capitol Hill.