Peak season nearing for blossoms, viewers

What tourists know: That the last week in March and the first in April is the time to descend upon Washington for the Cherry Blossom Festival. That the two weeks are packed with festivities, street performances, a parade and a kite festival — and that hotel rooms are packed.

What Washingtonians know: That traffic crawls on 14th Street or Independence Avenue near the Tidal Basin on a sunny “cherry blossom” weekend. That parking spots can’t be found at all downtown, much less near the parade route on Constitution Avenue. That there’s got to be a better way to see this rite of spring.

Thus this insider’s guide to the 2006 Cherry Blossom Festival, the 94th celebration of the gift of 3,000 cherry trees from the city of Tokyo to the people of Washington in 1912. The spring fling begins Saturday and runs through April 9.

This guide offers highlights of the official festivities, some insight into residents’ tricks for getting around traffic, and tips on alternative cherry blossom sites in the area.

Festival of bloom

Bracketing the Cherry Blossom Festival are two major and all-American events, the Smithsonian Kite Festival and the Cherry Blossom Parade.

As it does every year, the kite festival will kick off the 2006 cherry celebration on the Mall Saturday, with a Sunday rain date. This year’s kite party is the 40th, and it’s dubbed “Blowin’ in the Wind” in homage to the 1960s, the decade of its birth, and the Bob Dylan song that came to define that era. Entrants are asked to recreate those years in the sky.

The parade on April 8, the festival’s penultimate day, runs from 10 a.m. to noon down Constitution Avenue between Seventh and 17th streets Northwest. Pat Sajak, of TV’s “Wheel of Fortune,” will host the cavalcade, which will include performances by “American Idol” finalist Anthony Federov and Grammy-nominated singer Martha Wash.

Also on hand: 70 cherry blossom princesses — representing states, territories, and embassies — on floats, marching bands from across the country, giant cartoon balloons and high-stepping baton twirlers and majorettes.

Luckily for festival organizers, peak blossom time for the Yoshino cherries — the dominant species among the 12 that brighten the Tidal Basin and waterfront — will occur between Monday and April 1, according to Robert DeFeo, the National Park Service’s regional chief horticulturist. Mr. DeFeo bases his predictions upon the local weather patterns, the forecast, and development of the trees’ buds in early March.

That means that festival planners got it just right this year. The blossoms stay intact for a week or two, unless hit with a series of drenching rainstorms or high winds at peak bloom time.

Major festival events focus heavily on Japanese culture and family activities. On Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., for instance, the National Building Museum and the festival present a free family frolic dedicated to Japanese art and design. The family day will include several paper-folding activities, including traditional origami, origami architecture and an origami city.

Family members will also get to try their hand at writing haiku at a haiku workshop, watch Japanese anime and try on kimonos and hopi coats.

Not to be missed on April 8 is the 45th annual Sakura Matsuri (“sakura” is Japanese for cherry tree), or Japanese street festival, produced by the Japan-America Society of Washington, D.C.

The festival, running from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 12th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, highlights traditional and contemporary culture by focusing on performing arts, martial arts, Japanese cuisine and a Japanese marketplace.

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