Nearly seven decades of the Peach Blossom Festival

FRESNO, Calif.- — There’s an annual tradition approaching 70 years on the Fresno State campus.

LaDonna Hayes, Peach Blossom Festival Director, explained that it all began through a collaboration between the Department of Communication and the Theater Arts Department and Dance.

“So the festival is open to the entire Central Valley elementary schools. Last year we started that if a school was six, seven, eighth grade, that their seventh and eighth graders could attend as well,” said Hayes. 

The annual Peach Blossom Festival is a performance event where local students present written literature and give oral presentations, an exercise designed to improve public speaking and open new doors for these rising stars. For students enrolled in Communications 189, they, too, are gaining life experience. 

Student volunteers working in their office.

“Well, this class happens every spring semester. The festival is usually in March, and so we get 27 students together, fresh at the beginning of the semester, and we run to the date of the festival,” said Hayes. 

The course is directed by Hayes and her assistant director, Christopher Moss, and it requires volunteers to participate their mandatory 40 hours for the semester.

It’s a tight schedule.Teams of 3 to 5 people collaborate to put the event on. They their efforts, to order material, reserve classrooms, design certificates and market the festival. 

Shirts ordered for the 2026 Peach Blossom Festival

For Jesus Pintor, Communications Major and Outreach team leader, his journey has been eye-opening.

“So before this class, I never even knew what Peach Blossom was,” said Pintor,  he wanted to help because it reminded him of his own experiences. 

“Growing up, I was a very shy student,” he said. ” If someone told me to do that, I probably would have said no, you know? So the fact that I got to witness them doing it at that age is really important to me,” 

Pintor’s efforts last year were rewarded when he got the opportunity to judge performances firsthand. 

“I think it was in Spanish, English, and I don’t remember the third language, but these kids, man, they performed it very well. They didn’t stutter. They did like good hand movements and everything. And I won’t be honest, they almost made me cry, like, for like it was really beautiful,” said Pintor. 

The 68th Peach Blossom festival is happening on Thursday and Friday at Fresno State’s Speech Arts Building.