This weekend marked the annual Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Sakura Matsuri festival, which celebrates blossoming cherry trees and even more colorful cosplayers who don elaborate, sometimes other-worldly outfits and happily pose for pictures.
Photographer Sai Mokhtari, who took the gorgeous shots above, said that the perfect weather on Saturday brought in the crowds to the "strange and surreal" fest. There were long lines winding around the block as of 2 p.m., but it didn't hurt the great vibes: "Any time I photograph people in costume in this city my heart swells with love," she said. "I can't think of a better place for dressing up than the Botanic Gardens—just surreal." She added that only about 20 percent of the people there were dressed up, "but you don't really see/notice the people that aren't in costume. They just kind of blend into the background, so it feels like everyone is in costume."
And since today's grey, wet weather might turn a lot of people off from heading down there today, you can get a dose of spring weather via your computer screen, and watch a video last year's festivities below:
