United States: Western-US Divine Land Marching Band Performs at the 153rd California State Fair

On September 2nd, 2006, the Western U.S. Divine Land Marching Band, which consists of Falun Gong practitioners, debuted at the three-week long California State Fair.

The Divine Land Marching Band performs at the fair

At 2:00 pm, the band took off from the east gate of the fair and marched through the fairgrounds. It took about one hour. One hundred and thirty Falun Gong practitioners wearing blue T-shirts that read, "Falun Dafa is good" and "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" performed "Falun Dafa Is Good", "America, The Beautiful" and others. At 4:30, the band performed again. Since it was very crowded at the fair, police cars led the band through the fair. The Divine Land Marching Band was the only Chinese band at the fair. Their performance delighted the crowd and drew warm applause.

The Western U.S. Divine Land Marching Band was set up six months ago. It attended many parades in California and won some awards. The members include scientists, artists, engineers, doctors, teachers, students, accountants, workers and housewives.

The annual California State Fair is held at the Cal Expo Exhibition Center in Sacramento, the capital of California. Nearly one million people attend the fair every year. Local Falun Gong practitioners set up a booth at the "Free Speech Designated Area" every year. They passed out Falun Gong materials exposing the persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party and collect signatures against the persecution. Although it was the first time that the Divine Land Marching Band performed at the fair, the crowd welcomed the band and seemed to greatly enjoy the performance.