Getting to Know our Neighbors: A Trip to Ft. Wayne, Indiana

We wrapped up our intensive, two-week schedule on may 15 with a visit to Fort Wayne Indiana. We were honored to be invited as guest performers for the 2011 Cherry Blossom Festival.  It was the last of about seven performances over the course of two weeks. It was nice to be busy, but it was a relief to have it behind us as well. In contrast, June is looking to be a fairly quiet month as far as performances go. We do have a couple smaller events, though, so keep an eye on the performances page.

In Fort Wayne we were able to finally connect with the members of Fort Wayne Taiko. We had briefly connected through emails and so on, but this was the first time our groups got to really meet in person. We even had the added bonus of meeting Kaiju Daiko from Chicago. It is really exciting to finally be making some midwestern connections with our taiko neighbors. I look forward to connecting with the other groups from Chicago and from Ohio as well.

The Cherry Blossom Festival was quite large. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating and it kept many people away and those that were there, chose to stay out of the cold and rain and partake in the indoor activities. Still, we had a tent and a band shell to keep us dry and there's nothing like a very enthusiastic audience to help you stay warm.

We played a half-hour set and ended with our usual closer, Mushi Okuri. There were three children from our kids class in attendance (thanks for making the long drive to Ft. Wayne) so we had them join us on stage for the final number.

In spite of the bad weather, we all enjoyed sharing taiko with the Fort Wayne community. We hope we can continue to build the taiko connections in the Mid-West!