August 4th was the first day of the 56th Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s largest performing arts festival. It began as usual with a large and exciting cavalcade featuring over 4,000 performers. This year the parade was part of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Celebrations and over 100,000 people lined the streets and enjoyed the bright sunshine. Almost 50 Falun Gong practitioners took part in the parade from the UK, Sweden and France, all portraying different aspects of Falun Dafa through their actions and attire.

Some practitioners dressed in traditional Chinese practice suits and carried banners so that the bystanders could identify them and see the beautiful Falun emblem. Some female practitioners dressed in red traditional Chinese costumes and performed a Fan dance. Other female practitioners wore beautiful Tang Dynasty dresses to show the revellers how people dressed in the most prosperous period of ancient Chinese culture. Some practitioners handed out Falun Dafa bookmarks, balloons and VCDs as gifts to the public who wanted to learn more about Falun Dafa after seeing the parade. The young practitioners sat on a float dressed in traditional Chinese costumes and surrounded by beautiful Lotus flowers. Finally, some practitioners had to act as cameraman, float drivers and officials to ensure that everything ran smoothly.

Although the practitioners were all doing different things, they worked together as one body and the atmosphere of tranquillity that accompanied them fitted harmoniously with the beautiful appearance of the costumes. Many people had worked extremely hard to get everything finished in time for the parade. Just as each Tang Dynasty costume was different, every hairstyle was completely individual and designed by the same practitioner. The highly decorated float and the costumes all took a lot of time and effort in their production.

The Falun Dafa parade was greatly admired by the audience and many people approached practitioners to tell them that they were the best part of the parade. As the practitioners neared the end of the route, one western lady in the crowd shouted “Falun Dafa – thank you for what you did for China!” Many people learnt about the goodness of Falun Dafa, as well as the vicious persecution that is happening in China. The Falun Dafa parade looked magnificent and won an award from the Edinburgh Evening News. It was also pictured in both the Daily Telegraph and The Scotsman. After the parade, practitioners demonstrated the exercises in a square in the centre of Edinburgh and received a lot of interest from the public.