UK: Falun Dafa At the Birmingham Arts Festival

Wednesday, September 11, 2002

An arts festival was held on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th September. Local practitioners applied for permission to participate only a couple of days before the event. However, upon learning that Falun Dafa had won first prize in the Community section of the Edinburgh Cavalcade in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival only a few weeks before, the organizer looked at reports of the Cavalcade in Scottish newspapers on the Internet and was impressed and so immediately granted the permission. Looking at the photographs of Falun Dafa in the Cavalcade, she commented, "it was stunning". She made a special effort to make a stall available for practitioners at the last moment.

Practitioners from all over UK set up a very attractive stall in a busy thoroughfare, playing a video of the Teacher demonstrating the Falun Gong exercises. On the Saturday, the stall was so popular that practitioners distributed 4000 leaflets in a few short hours. Many English people accepted Falun Dafa newspapers keen to find out more about the practice and information about the local class.

On Sunday, female practitioners were dressed in beautiful traditional Chinese costumes in red with gold embroidery, hair adorned with silk flowers. Each holding two pink fans, they performed a Fan dance accompanied by the song of 'Falun Dafa is good'. Then practitioners gave a short demonstration with commentary of the exercises. Some young practitioners sat in meditation at the front. The performances attracted a large group of audience at the main stage.

The presenter said to the audience after the first performance, " It was so peaceful. Falun Gong is superb!" Cameras were flashing throughout the performances; photographers from the Birmingham Evening Mail and a photographer from the BBC asked the group to pose for them.

Before one of the performances, a young English man asked a practitioner if this was the same Falun Gong that was banned in China, and he could not believe that it could be banned.

Another lady had seen Falun Dafa performances in the Edinburgh Cavalcade. A father and daughter from China had also seen us in the Cavalcade. They were in the UK for a month and were keen to buy the Falun Dafa music and wanted to come to the local Falun Gong class. They said they knew neighbors at work in China who had been persecuted and the father had been to the police and told them that these practitioners were good people. Many Chinese people took pictures of practitioners performing the Fan Dance and exercises. One Chinese lady was very interested in the performance and asked about it.

At the stall many Chinese were willing to take the truth-clarifying VCD's and some were even asking for them! This is in a stark contrast to previous times when most Chinese people have been afraid to take Falun Dafa materials due to the intense negative propaganda they have been subjected to from the Chinese state-run media. Even English people were asking for Chinese VCD's to take away. Many had already heard of the persecution in China.

This was a perfect event to show the beauty and serenity of Falun Dafa to the people of Birmingham.

Original article from: http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/6965.html