(Clearwisdom.net) July 4, 2009, was America's Independence Day. Falun Gong practitioners from the San Francisco Bay Area were invited to take part in the grand parade in Redwood City. The magnificent lineup and the Divine Land Marching Band's wonderful performance was given special recognition by the host and applauded by onlookers along the way.

The Divine Land Marching Band

The band made a good impression on spectators

Altogether over 160 groups took part in the annual Independence Day parade held in Redwood City, in Northern California. The Divine Land Marching Band, made up of Falun Gong practitioners, was the only Chinese marching band and it naturally became the focus of the onlookers. In high spirits, the band played "Falun Dafa Is Great," "Fa Drums and the Fa Trumpets Shake the World in Ten Directions," "Fa Rectifies the Cosmos," "Delivering Treasure," and "The Buddha's Grace and the Heavenly Music" as well as "America the Beautiful," which is known to everyone. Each piece the band played was greeted with applause and cheers.

University Professor Bradley (middle) called the band "great"

After seeing the band perform, Chinese student Hallen (right) withdrew from the Chinese Communist Party organizations

Karl, one of the organizers, who has participated in this parade twenty times, said that the Divine Land Marching Band left a deep impression on him. He noticed that there were always celestial maidens in colorful costumes on the colorful float. When commenting on this year's parade, he said that Falun Gong's band was excellent, and he was very pleased that Falun Gong was able to join the Redwood City Parade.

As the Falun Gong group passed the rostrum, Karl described the procession over the loudspeakers. He said that after seeing of the demonstration of the peaceful exercises by men and women, old and young, it seemed that his high blood pressure had dropped.
Francis, a Redwood City resident, said that the band performance was wonderful and first class. He said he supports the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and supports the practitioners' campaign against the persecution.

Professor Donald Bradley from Northwestern Polytechnic University was dressed in an American army general's costume. He saluted the band and described it as a "Great band." He said he had a friend who practices Falun Gong and he knew and supported Falun Gong.

Helen is a student from China. She was very happy to see practitioners in the parade. It was the largest group consisting of Chinese people in the parade. She said she took a lot of photos and planned to publish them on their website. She said, "People should have the freedom to seek their own beliefs! The media in China is nothing but lies, so no one believes it." She was happy to withdraw from the CCP's organizations and had a photo taken with a practitioner in the band.