Australia: Practitioners Participate in Viva la Gong Celebration

Falun Dafa practitioners from Sydney, Wollongong, and the Southern Highlands gathered in Lang Park at South Beach Wollongong on Saturday, October 23rd, to participate in the Viva la Gong Festival Grand Parade through the city, and the Street Party in the Crown Street Mall.

Over the last week most of the Sydney/Wollongong area has been inundated with rain, but on Saturday morning the sun rose high in the sky to provide a fine day for what is the largest community event on the South Coast of New South Wales. The practitioners felt fortunate to have this opportunity to come out and take part in this activity.

With 1000 participants in the parade, there were over 100 practitioners, including traditional Korean and Chinese costumes, Tang Dynasty dancers, Chinese drummers, children from the Minghui School in a Falun Dafa boat, and practitioners showing the five sets of exercises on the back of one of the floats. The Falun Dafa banners were held high as practitioners paraded their way through the streets, where thousands of onlookers cheered and applauded at the beauty and peacefulness of Falun Dafa, and many reached out their hands to receive Falun Dafa flyers.

The "Dafa boat" was a big attraction for the crowd. With a golden hull of silk and a large Falun emblem for a sail, it held a crew of about twenty young Falun Dafa practitioners dressed in colourful Ming dynasty costumes. In the crowd, a little boy sitting on his father's shoulders cried out "Little people! Little people!" while pointing at the children waving in the boat. Another said, "Wish I could sail in a boat like that!" It brought smiles to the faces of many of the locals.

When our procession passed the main stage, the commentator read an introduction of Falun Dafa several times "Falun Gong, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, learn for free...." Moreover, he was also very impressed by the procession and repeatedly said how beautiful the costumes were.

The Viva la Gong festival consists of nine days of music, art, dance, fashion, film, sculpture, theatre, food, and family fun. This is the 5th annual festival of arts, culture, and innovation, and the second year that Falun Dafa has been invited to participate. The next part of the activity we will participate in is the Family Fun Day on Sunday, October 31st, where Falun Dafa practitioners will have a booth provided by the event organisers to show people the practise of Falun Dafa, Petals of Peace awareness program, and the peaceful appeal to stop the persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners in China and throughout the world. Practitioners will also give two performances on the stage to demonstrate the Falun Dafa exercises.