MACON, Ga. — March calls for cherry blossoms, and Macon's Cherry Street has come alive for the Cherry Blossom Festival.
Today was race day at the festival.
From musical chairs to the wiener dog race, thousands of people walked around downtown Macon, attended different events, and had fun.
One event was the Ultimate Air Dogs Dock Diving Competition.
These dogs from near and far jumped for joy and wagged their tails in the dock diving and fetching competitions.
The further these dogs jump, the closer they are to winning, and the finalists placed their best paws forward for the ultimate jump.
There was even a splash zone for the kiddos to watch all the fun.
Eddie Lamberth is from Macon, and says seeing everyone come out to support these furry friends is like one big happy family.
"They're small dogs, they're big dogs, they're long jumping dogs, they're short jumping dogs but the one thing that everybody has in common is that we all love our dogs and they're like our kids to us," Lamberth said. "We love doing this and the dogs love it even more they don't care how far they're jumping, they love it."
The winning pup taking home the first-place medal was Smokey Joe from Macon, coming in at 10 pounds and jumping a total of 23 feet 5 inches.
Paws kept walking to the Wiener Dog Race.
Michelle Sadler is from Macon, and her wiener dog Maximus, also known as Max, won this year's wheeler dog competition.
"We come every year to run the wheelie races so that we can let people see that these babies have some issues but they have a great life," Sadler said.
Sadler has another wiener dog named Wags, and both competed in the race.
She says her dogs are her sweethearts and they seem to be happy regardless of their condition.
When it comes to the crowd, Sadler says cheering them on and being able to see these dogs do well is what makes the experience worth it.
"Max lives a great life and all of these guys do," Sadler said. "We have a lot of fun as a group together doing a lot of things, out there showing our babies off and showing that they can do these things."
The next event was musical chairs.
Cherry Street welcomed local celebrities and community members for this one.
However, there was a twist. Everyone had to wear an inflatable animal costume.
Daniel Tate is the deputy athletics director at Mercer and won this year's inaugural game of musical chairs.
"This was just something fun and entertaining that shows what Macon has to offer," Tate said.
Tate said going to the festival is a tradition for him and his family, and he loves that the community comes together to celebrate.
"Middle Georgia is an awesome place to work, live, and play and play is exactly what this is about," Tate said. "You see all of these families, you see all of these kids that are running around from all different backgrounds and this is what's it all about."
The daytime events ended with the bed races.
Local groups and organizations made their own beds to race down Cherry Street for gold.
This year, the Bibb County Fire Department won with an official time of 15.18 seconds.
Over the last couple of years, Georgia Power had taken the win for the fastest time.
However, the fire department swept the competition this year by over three seconds.
The fun doesn't stop there! The Cherry Blossom Parade is on Sunday, March 17th from 3 to 4 p.m. and the festival runs through March 24th.