The city of Brookhaven is pumping up this year’s Cherry Blossom Festival, bringing in big guns Live Nation Atlanta to secure its music acts and expanding its vendor and artist market significantly.
The fourth annual fest is set for March 24-25 at Blackburn Park and includes a new logo unveiled at the Jan. 9 City Council meeting.
“This is a more dynamic presentation symbolic of the growth of the festival,” Councilmember Linley Jones said.
The fest’s 5K run will also be a Peachtree Road Race qualifier for the first time this year, Jones said, and there are 100 vendors and artists signed up – a five-time increase over last year’s event. The City Council contracted with Splash Festivals last year to manage the arts and crafts market at the festival.
The city also wanted to beef up its music lineup over the two-day fest, so Mayor John Ernst and Jones called up experts in that field — Live Nation Atlanta and its president, Peter Conlon. Conlon is the founder of the Music Midtown fest that attracts thousands of music lovers to Piedmont Park each year.
After sitting down in a meeting, Conlon and his team agreed to donate their services for this year’s festival, they said.
“This is exciting news,” Ernst said. “I think people will be shocked with the talent and name recognition we expect to bring in.”
The music stage also has its first sponsor, Stone Mountain, which will soon be advertising the festival at its park, according to Jones.
The music acts are expected to be announced by the end of this month.
The festival will continue to have its classic car show, a children’s village and the popular pet parade.