Davis Cherry Blossom Festival, April 2023
Thank you to all those that joined us for the 2023 Davis Cherry Blossom Festival and for all the dedicated work put in by the performers, volunteers, vendors, and organizing team. We hope this space allowed for meaningful connection with each other and positive growth as a community.
The 2023 festival was dedicated to raising funds and awareness of Asian Pacific Community Counseling (APCC) who provides culturally and linguistically relevant mental health services for persons of Asian and Pacific Islander communities. Their services include outreach, education, therapy, recovery support, and prevention. A portion of Sudwerk's beer sales and proceeds from the festival were donated to support their work.
The 2023 festival was dedicated to raising funds and awareness of Asian Pacific Community Counseling (APCC) who provides culturally and linguistically relevant mental health services for persons of Asian and Pacific Islander communities. Their services include outreach, education, therapy, recovery support, and prevention. A portion of Sudwerk's beer sales and proceeds from the festival were donated to support their work.
Tsukimi Festival, October 2022
The 2022 Davis Tsukimi Festival highlights corners of Asian America and beyond to build community, share art and culture, and have a good time! Tsukimi Festival 2022 also featured our largest artist gallery to date! We hope you enjoyed the performances, Japanese crafts, and bon odori.
Thank you for joining us for a night under the full moon!
Thank you for joining us for a night under the full moon!
Davis Cherry Blossom Festival, April 2022
The 2022 Davis Cherry Blossom Festival featured 30+ performances by local bands, solo artists, and ensembles that kept our toes tapping throughout the whole weekend! Thank you to everyone who joined us for the interactive cultural demonstrations such as mochi pounding, ikebana, and bon odori!
The 2022 festival was dedicated to raising money and awareness for two charity organizations, My Sister's House (Sacramento) and Changing Tides (Little Tokyo), who provide vital services for the Asian American and API communities. A portion of Sudwerk's beer sales and proceeds from the festival were all donated to support their work.
The 2022 festival was dedicated to raising money and awareness for two charity organizations, My Sister's House (Sacramento) and Changing Tides (Little Tokyo), who provide vital services for the Asian American and API communities. A portion of Sudwerk's beer sales and proceeds from the festival were all donated to support their work.
Saturday, April 9th
Sunday, April 10th
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Tsukimi Festival, October 2021
A free community festival celebrating the autumn moon at Sudwerk Brewing Co.! Our 2021 Tsukimi was our first festival back in person since the start of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. At last, we returned and danced along to the sound of taiko together! We hope you enjoyed all the taiko performances and lessons, arts and crafts, raffle prizes, mochi pounding, and music with your friends and family!
Virtual Davis Cherry Blossom Festival, April 2021
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Full livestream from the virtual 2021 Davis Cherry Blossom Festival, online during the COVID-19 pandemic. The two-day event, broadcast from the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, featured interactive workshops as well as live and recorded performances.
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Saturday, April 10th
Full Live Feed Mochi Making Demo Collegiate Taiko Set: Stanford Taiko & Asayake Taiko Live Musical Artist: katgrüvs Speaker: Taiko Community Alliance Josh Yoon Shodo Workshop: Kuniharu Yoshida Collegiate Taiko Set: Taiko Kai & Kazan Taiko Taiko Performance: Bakuhatsu Taiko Dan Taiko Performance: Tiffany Tamaribuchi |
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Sunday, April 11th
Full Live Feed Tamago Cooking Demo Taiko Workshop Live Musical Artist: iraya Collegiate Taiko Set: Senryu Taiko, Jishin Taiko, & Kyodo Taiko Shodo Workshop: Kuniharu Yoshida Traditional/Contemporary Japanese Performing Arts: KOHAKU Origami Workshop New School Taiko: Konokotodake Shamisen Performance: Big K of Bachido Collegiate Taiko Set: Cal Raijin Taiko & Ahiru Daiko Bon Odori: Bakuhatsu Taiko Dan and Collegiate Taiko Collaboration |
2021 Festival BoxFundraiser for Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services
Thank you to everyone that purchased the 2021 Davis Cherry Blossom Festival Box! With your support and additional donations during the festival, we were able to raise over $1,300 for the Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services to our neighboring families facing food insecurity. |
Funding information: This program was sponsored, in part, by the Manetti Shrem Museum's interACT program and Council on Student Affairs and Fees, UC Davis.
A Change is Gonna Come, Nov. 2020
Live feed from the 2020 Online Davis Cherry Blossom Festival web event "A Change is Gonna Come."
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"A Change is Gonna Come: Art and Action for Human Rights and Freedom" was an online webinar event hosted by Davis Cherry Blossom Festival in place of the cancelled 2020 festival and other activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The event featured panels and performances connecting scholarship, art, and activism working for broader social justice.
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Check out the Full Artists' YouTube Playlist for full audio quality tracks
Check out the Panel and Keynote YouTube Playlist for community conversations
Check out the Panel and Keynote YouTube Playlist for community conversations
Funding information: This program was sponsored, in part, by a grant from the City of Davis Arts and Cultural Affairs Program, the Davis Food Co-Op, UC Davis Global Affairs, and the Manetti Shrem Museum's interACT program. Program was live broadcasted from the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.
2020 Spring Online Concert Website
The COVID-19 pandemic spread early in 2020, with school and business closures beginning in March of 2020, about a month before our annual festival. The already-planned festival had to be canceled. A substitute online concert webpage was made featuring many of the artists that would have been at the festival. The pandemic would be a hard time for performing artists, and this website was made as a way to feature their work. During the pandemic, Davis Cherry Blossom Festival would later hold two live online events, but this webpage represents an early attempt to still carry out the mission of the festival before adapting to live virtual events.
Davis Cherry Blossom Festival, April 2019
The 4th annual Davis Cherry Blossom Festival was a weekend filled with music, art, culture, food, beer, and friends! Open to all ages, this free community event celebrated cultural and artistic diversity and raised money and awareness for My Sister's House through donations and beer sales.
Saturday, April 6th
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Sunday, April 7th
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Funding information: This program was sponsored, in part, by a grant from the City of Davis Arts and Cultural Affairs Program, UC Davis Global Affairs, The Davis Odd Fellows, and Visit Yolo County.
Tsukimi Festival, October 2018
Our 2018 Tsukimi Festival included performances by Bakuhatsu Taiko Dan, community taiko lessons, Bon Odori lessons, and dime toss (the GREATEST carnival game that gives you a chance to win some Japanese pottery at a steal!). This moon-viewing Autumn festival was open to the community at large, and people of all ages were welcome to participate in the activities. With great food, beer, and music, we had a great time with everyone who visited and danced along with us!
Davis Cherry Blossom Festival, April 2018
Free and open to all ages, our 2018 Davis Cherry Blossom Festival was our first year extending to a two-day event! Which meant even more wonderful music, educational demonstrations, art, culture, food, beer, and friends! A portion of the seasonal sakura beer sales by Sudwerk Brewery and donations from the public went toward our charity cause: raising money for Puerto Rico hurricane relief efforts. Thank you to everyone that showed up! We hope you had a great time!
Davis Cherry Blossom Festival, April 2017
Thank you for joining us at our second Davis Cherry Blossom Festival to celebrate our diverse community and the arrival of beautiful spring flowers. The festival was open to the community of all ages, and it featured live musical performances, fresh food, games, crafts, educational exhibits, and two specialty beers (sakura and plum) prepared just for the day.
Davis Cherry Blossom Festival, April 2016
We don’t have a lot of pictures or documentation from our first festival, so I was asked to write a brief summary. It’s a bit perplexing to not have many photos, but then again, I think it really speaks to the grassroots nature of the project. (That or Snapchat.) At the time, we didn’t have grantors to report to or a notion of legacy; just a dream of making the world a little better through facilitating cultural dialog and human interaction.
We started the Davis Cherry Blossom Festival in 2016, leading up to Bakuhatsu Taiko Dan hosting the Intercollegiate Taiko Invitational, an annual conference for collegiate taiko since 1995. The project was a collaboration with my friend Kathleen Brandl (KB), a fellow anthropology student, who worked at Sudwerk at the time. We used to have great conversations, usually over beers, about the Asian American experience and our passions. We both had a nascent vision about the Festival as a place where community could be built, creating a more understanding and peaceful world through shared spaces and understanding. As a taiko performer who often played “gigs” as entertainment, I wanted a venue where we could share our art and its cultural context on our terms, which has grown over the years into a deep interest in taiko and Third Space projects.
While much smaller than recent iterations, our first festival brought in other Asian American student groups and performers, including our friends from Stanford Taiko. Every year since, we’ve hosted other taiko groups in addition to our own, and taiko remains the heart of the festival, though the charity concert aspect of the festival has brought all kinds of performers. While the first year fundraised for our Collegiate Taiko Invitational, subsequent years began fundraising for charities that were doing important and relevant work.
From that first festival, I fondly recall climbing up the brewing equipment to yell out the next set and having a slot in the program for alumni or anyone to just come and jam. I hope that, even as we grow, we can always keep that fun energy of taking on any challenge and sharing space together. I’m grateful to the Davis community and the City of Davis for their continued support over the years. I’m grateful, too, for all the performers and wonderful people we’ve had the chance to play with and meet, as well. Lastly, I sincerely and humbly thank the students and volunteers who have joined the project and carried it to even greater heights.
Domo arigatou gozaimasu!
Gregory Wada
We started the Davis Cherry Blossom Festival in 2016, leading up to Bakuhatsu Taiko Dan hosting the Intercollegiate Taiko Invitational, an annual conference for collegiate taiko since 1995. The project was a collaboration with my friend Kathleen Brandl (KB), a fellow anthropology student, who worked at Sudwerk at the time. We used to have great conversations, usually over beers, about the Asian American experience and our passions. We both had a nascent vision about the Festival as a place where community could be built, creating a more understanding and peaceful world through shared spaces and understanding. As a taiko performer who often played “gigs” as entertainment, I wanted a venue where we could share our art and its cultural context on our terms, which has grown over the years into a deep interest in taiko and Third Space projects.
While much smaller than recent iterations, our first festival brought in other Asian American student groups and performers, including our friends from Stanford Taiko. Every year since, we’ve hosted other taiko groups in addition to our own, and taiko remains the heart of the festival, though the charity concert aspect of the festival has brought all kinds of performers. While the first year fundraised for our Collegiate Taiko Invitational, subsequent years began fundraising for charities that were doing important and relevant work.
From that first festival, I fondly recall climbing up the brewing equipment to yell out the next set and having a slot in the program for alumni or anyone to just come and jam. I hope that, even as we grow, we can always keep that fun energy of taking on any challenge and sharing space together. I’m grateful to the Davis community and the City of Davis for their continued support over the years. I’m grateful, too, for all the performers and wonderful people we’ve had the chance to play with and meet, as well. Lastly, I sincerely and humbly thank the students and volunteers who have joined the project and carried it to even greater heights.
Domo arigatou gozaimasu!
Gregory Wada