By Chloe Thompson
UJW Staff Writer
Washington–Anja, a traveler from Denmark said the only reason she heard of the parade was from Cherry Blossom attendees at the Tidal Basin.
“We saw the cherry blossoms when we came here two days ago. We didn’t know they were blooming, it was a big surprise to us,” she said. When asked about her favorite part of the festivities, she replies, “The cherry blossoms.”
This seemed to be a running theme among the patrons of the 2014 National Cherry Blossom Festival. Crowds were gathered on the sidewalk, on the streets, and on an occasional museum lawn.
With many people comes many different stories and reasons, and this point was exemplified by the contrasting rationale of interviewees. One such group was the organization Donate Life. This group attended the parade to promote their organization, because April is National Donate Life Month.
Another group was a dance troupe from the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, which came down to D.C. to perform in the parade. And then there were the group of women from Chicago getting food from a hot dog stand who simply said, “We came down for the food.”
The parade seemed to have entertained the masses, but many people agreed: The reason they were there, by far, was for the cherry blossoms.