(Clearwisdom.net) During the past Memorial Day holiday, Washington State practitioners were invited to "Northwest Folklife Festival" and "Bellingham Ski-to-Sea grand parade" on two consecutive days to present Falun Dafa.

The 34^th "Northwest Folklife Festival," one of the largest annual cultural events in the northwestern U.S., was held at Seattle Center. While cultural booths of all kinds packed the lawn outside the center, several stages were set up inside and different cultural programs were showing on the stages simultaneously. The whole Seattle Center was packed with people while all major media came to report this grand occasion. Although more than a thousand professional and non-professional groups applied to perform on stage, Falun Gong was one of those selected to perform.

At the entrance to the performance hall, many people asked practitioners who were distributing fliers if Falun Gong group was performing. Apparently, a large number of people came to the center particularly for Falun Gong after they read the program information. On the stage, the MC warmly introduced Falun Gong. The MC said that the persecution against Falun Gong inspired his interest in this practice.

Falun Gong exercise demonstration at the Northwest Folklife Festival

Practitioners' cultural performance at the Northwest Folklife Festival

During the performance, practitioners demonstrated the five sets of Falun Gong exercises and performed traditional Chinese dance "Flower Fairies" and "Lotus Flower". A practitioner gave a brief introduction of the exercises and the dances. From people's expression and reactions, practitioners noticed that the audience was deeply touched by the beauty and serenity of Falun Dafa. After the performance, a Chinese member of the audience went backstage and told practitioners, "Your performance was so touching. The audience was totally absorbed in it." She took out $50 and wanted to donate that money to practitioners. A practitioner thanked her for the support and told her: Falun Gong doesn't accept any donations.

The next morning, practitioners drove up to Bellingham, close to the Canadian border. The city is a typical middle size city in northern Washington. At Bellingham, practitioners participated in the "Bellingham Ski-to-Sea grand parade." Local residents and tourists packed both sides of the parade route and greeted practitioners with warm applause and exclamations everywhere. Now and then, one could hear: "Look, it is so beautiful!"

Practitioners' procession

Lion dance was very popular

The beautiful Falun Gong float

The Falun Dafa float was led by a group of practitioners energetically demonstrating the exercises and a lion dance troupe. Upon seeing a near 80 year-old practitioner demonstrating the exercises on the float, an old lady started to imitate the practitioner. When a middle-aged gentleman saw a practitioner in Tang attire posing a solemn posture by holding one hand firm in front of his chest, this gentleman pressed hands in front of his chest to express his respect. When she saw practitioner's procession, a plump lady applauded warmly and exclaimed: "You are the best float and the most beautiful!"

A local TV station videotaped the parade. Practitioners' group participated in this parade for the first time and successfully presented the beauty of Falun Dafa to local residents.

Posting date: 6/6/2005
Original article date: 6/6/2005
Category: Falun Dafa Worldwide
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/6/2/103169.html

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