Bring the whole family out to the 8th Annual Cherry Blossom Kite Festival Saturday, March 31, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Nathanael Greene/Close Memorial Park, 2400 S. Scenic Ave.

A hands-on area featuring kite-building, origami, and other Japanese crafts will be held in the Botanical Center inside the park during the festival. Sister Cities has ordered new, bigger kits for kite building at the Cherry Blossom Kite Festival, and volunteers from SSCA, Parkboard, and Kickapoo Japanese Language Club will help to kids to build and decorate their own kites to fly at the festival.

Admission to the festival is free and the kite-building kits will be available for $3.

Everyone is also invited to bring their own kites to fly during the festival. It’s also a great opportunity to see unique kites and kite-flying skills.

The festival also marks the season opening for the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden, located in Nathanael Greene/Close Memorial Park. The stroll garden will be open 9 a.m. to dusk and admission is free the day of the festival.

The festival is a partnership between the Springfield Sister Cities Association, the Missouri State University Elementary Education Program, Friends of the Garden, Kickapoo High School Japanese Language Club and the Springfield-Greene County Park Board.

For more information, call the Springfield Sister Cities Association at 417-864-1341.