The Beginning of Cherry Blossom

The Cherry Blossom Festival has a long history of being held in the City of Monterey Park since the early 1970's.  Initially started as a fundraising endeavor by the VFW Post as a carnival in the old Atlantic Square Shopping Center, it changed to include cultural promotion of the Japanese culture in the 1980s through the gracious efforts of long-time resident Kathern Inouye.  Discontinued shortly after, the Cherry Blossom Festival was resurrected by a group of community volunteers in 1997 who conducted their own fundraising activities for nearly a year before proceeding to solicit and coordinate a program showcasing the arts,  transcendence into society today.   Their efforts were realized through the successful re-birth of the Cherry Blossom Festival in April 1998.