Kisai wisteria festival this year

I visited the Kisai wisteria at Tamashika park earlier this week. There is currently a wisteria festival on at the park, as there is every year. For many years the festival was on over Golden Week, because on average that is when the wisteria was in its peak flowering condition. However, after three years in a row of the wisteria blooming and thus peaking early, this year, for the first time ever, they brought the dates of the festival forward.

This year the festival started last weekend. And, Murphy's Law, the wisteria wasn't really in bloom! But in my humble opinion, its better to have the festival with the anticipation that the wisteria might start to bloom, as in this year, than after the bloom is well and truly over, as happened last year and the year before. Moreover, the wisteria festival continues this weekend, when the wisteria will be in bloom. On Wednesday one of the wisteria was blooming beautiful and the main, ancient, wisteria was at about 30%. 

The festival is mainly on the weekends - April 19th, 20th, 26th, 27th and 29th - but there are also a few food stalls in operation on the weekdays. As was the case on Wednesday. Although all the food stalls were set up, not all them were open. But there was a selection of about five different stalls, including a gorgeous one selling dango. A blog post about that coming next! 

Have you ever visited the Kisai Wisteria Festival? Will you get to any Wisteria Festivals this year?