Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon, my Darlings.    For today’s post, I will be sharing my reflections about attending this year’s Cherry Blossom Festival at one of my local parks!   Now, I had planned to write this reflection even before attending this year, as I go every year (and have since childhood).   The event had been one of my favorites to attend each year, as it was a sweet celebration of the height of Spring with reverence for the Joy of Nature’s Beauty!

With that being said, I am very sad to share that the last two years of this Cherry Blossom Festival have not been nearly as lovely as it was for a very long time.    While this year’s Cherry Blossom Festival was a little better than last year’s, it was still a sad shell of its former glory.    Now, you may wonder why I am writing about this at all, given that I am not usually this negative in my reflections. I am choosing not to name the exact Festival here, as I am still trying to be diplomatic about this, especially given that I do not like being this negative. I am sure it would not be too difficult to figure out which Festival it is, but I feel more comfortable keeping that out of this post.

The truth is, I think it is something important to discuss as a Priestess, especially a Faery and Avalonian Priestess.    I am very attuned to Nature and truly love and adore the turning of the Seasons, with Spring being very special to me.    That is why, even though I will be discussing things in a much more negative way than I normally would, I feel that it is something I have to do with this platform I have built, as it is an important discussion to have over the way commercialization of Nature Festivals is harmful and disrespectful. The Cherry Blossom Festival, which was always about celebrating and enjoying the changing of the Seasons and the beauty of Spring, has become more and more commercialized in the last two years.   Instead of having vendors selling delicious food and lovely artistic and spiritual wares, as it had been since I was young, it has grown to include a Carnival of Rides (set up even during the day when none of the lights can be visible) and the food vendors have become more and more greasy and unappetizing.

This is clearly about making money for the city that is holding the Cherry Blossom Festival in the park, as opposed to celebrating Nature.    Of course, money always does need to exchange hands, and people need to make a living.    However, what is changing with this Festival is to commercialize it and sell out on all of the things that made it special and different from the hum drum and boring things that are usually going on in my area!

While I still found small things to enjoy both last year and this year, they were nothing compared to my enjoyment in years past.    I found some lovely crystals, and there were some vendors there who had really nice things, but more often than not, it was vendors selling cheap and meaningless trinkets and food vendors selling unhealthy and gross-smelling foods!    This made me very sad.   Thinking about the steep decline in the quality of the vendors (for the most part) made me realize why that may be.   You see, even last year, there were many more reputable vendors, and many more vendors in general, even with the Carnival and all of the food that was greasy and terrible smelling.   I concluded that it is quite possible the way the Festival was run last year left a bad taste in vendors’ mouths and made them not want to vend this year.   As the event is becoming more and more commercialized and the food being sold is becoming more and more unappetizing, showing the event’s decline into trying to make a cheap buck, it is inevitably going to make reputable vendors (especially those who love and respect Nature) wary of being at that event.   I could see it happening in real time just between this year and last year, and I do not blame the vendors!

When my husband and I were at the Cherry Blossom Festival this year, we took some time to walk further into the park, away from any vendors (and avoiding the soulessness of the Carnival).   I took that moment to remove my sandals and do some Earthing!   As soon as my bare feet made contact with the grass, the wind kicked up, and I got a very clear message from the Fae Folk and Nature Spirits that live in the park.    They wanted me to know that they were sad and wished that the Carnival, the noise, and the people who had no respect or love for Nature would leave.   I truly wanted to cry for them, and I told them that we (my husband and I) did not like it any better than they did, but unfortunately, I cannot make the people who are disrespecting the park to leave.   I spent some time communing with the Fae Folk and Nature Spirits, trying to ease their unhappiness and commiserate over the strangeness of the way the Festival now was.   After a time, we chose to leave the park and I bid a fond farewell to the Fae Folk and Nature Spirits of the park, who are dear friends until I could return after the Festival is over (as we do go to that park quite often).

I hope you have enjoyed reading my ruminations on how the over-commercialization of Nature Festivals is potentially harmful.    What do you feel about your local Nature Festivals?   Are they still about Nature, or are they becoming only about money?   Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a Cherry Blossom Painting by Tatyana Orlovetskaya.   I found the art on https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-Cherry-Blossom/1456963/7963584/view.  

LINK TO AVALONIAN ROSE FAERY MYSTERIES PATREON: patreon.com/AvalonianRoseFaeryMysteries