Greerton Village School hope the blossoms will be in full bloom in time for today's Greerton Village Cherry Blossom Festival 2023.

In conjunction with Greerton Mainstreet, Greerton Village School will hold the 8th ever Cherry Blossom Festival in their neck of the community today, Saturday, September 16.

Deputy principal Reuban Ginns says last year’s festival was the first one since Covid-19, and saw people attend in their thousands.

Greerton Village School’s Cara Leighton, Taya Brown and Peyton Carroll dressed in pink for the Greerton Village Cherry Blossom Festival from 9am - 2pm, today, Saturday September 16. Photo: John Borren.

Hoping for another good flock of festival-goers – the school and Greerton Mainstreet will be pulling out all the stops.

“This year we have our best turnout of outside stall-holders selling items such as street food, ponchos, splat balls, jewellery, baking, mussel fritters and fry bread.”

Reuban says the festival will also showcase many of the school’s talented musicians.

“We have three school bands; GreVous who came second at Band Quest 2023, GeForce and GKR, along with individual singers and past pupils making an appearance.”

There will be bouncy castles, amusement rides, classic cars, sausage sizzles, raffles and more.

Greerton Village School will boast a bunch of stalls, amusement rides and more to fuel and entertain festival-goers at this year’s Cherry Blossom Festival.

The gala is mainly fundraising for a project at the school’s main entrance.

“Our kura is situated on land that thrived as a garden feeding, not only local whānau but communities from afar. There is no historical acknowledgement of this at our kura/school and we want to create a Waharoa/entrance with an adorning Pou/column that signifies the historical significance.”

Last week, Reuban says there were still no blossoms in sight.

“There is a pink tinge to the trees however they haven’t made an appearance yet. Fingers crossed they will bloom before the day!”

The Greerton Village Cherry Blossom Festival is 9am-2pm on Saturday, September 16. The gala is on the school grounds. Parking is available at Tauranga Racecourse.