(Clearwisdom.net September 26, 2003) On September 20, Connecticut Falun Gong practitioners participated in the 3^rd Connecticut Dragon Boat Festival held at the state capital of Hartford.

Two Chinese tourists carefully read truth-clarifying materials	Falun Gong Booth

A practitioner talking with Chinese tourists	The Dragon Boat Competition

Initially, the organizer rejected our application to perform at the festival, saying that the program was already full without any vacancies. Later, we learned that the organizer had been threatened and warned not to allow Falun Gong to participate. We realized that we should clarify the facts wherever problems occur. Some practitioners rented a booth, and we came with righteous thought to demonstrate the greatness of Dafa on the day of the event. To keep the costs down, we did not rent a tent. Dafa posters were thus displayed on the spacious sidewalks, which made them more easily visible.

Several practitioners started to demonstrate the exercises under the baking sun, while female practitioners in colorful traditional Chinese attire distributed flyers. Every passerby stopped to either read posters, accept flyers or ask about the location of our practice sites. Soon, several thousands copies of English literature and several hundred copies of Chinese literature had been distributed. It is worthy to mention that almost every Chinese tourist accepted our information with smile, and many of them started to read the information right away.

Upon their arrival, practitioners took the initiative to contact organizers to again request an opportunity to perform. Seeing practitioners' compassionate attitudes and beautiful attire, the organizers immediately agreed to arrange that for us. So, we demonstrated Falun Gong exercises and performed dances for the audience, and both the exercise demonstration and dance performance were warmly received. The practitioners also exchanged understanding in the art of dance with the dancing team of a local Chinese school and discussed issues regarding future collaboration.

The Dragon Boast Festival concluded successfully; however, our truth-clarification work has just started. We will continue to expose the lies and persecution of Jiang's regime further to save more sentient beings.