(Clearwisdom.net) The Balloon Festival is the largest and most heavily attended event held on Long Island. This was the first balloon festival to be held at Brookhaven Airport since the 9-11 incident. It attracted thousands of local residents as well as tourists from other states. Falun Gong practitioners from the Metro New York City area participated in the three-day event beginning on August 10, 2007.

People learning the Falun Gong exercises

On the first day temperatures dropped, and it was rainy and windy. Practitioners overcame the difficulties and used this opportunity to visit other participants of the festival to clarify the truth. Many people heard about Falun Dafa for the first time.

By the second and third days, the skies had turned bright and sunny. Practitioners demonstrated the exercises, performed their waist drums, and displayed banners and information boards. Many people picked a flyer and began to read. Some wanted to learn the exercises, and a few started to learn them then and there. Others wanted to read Zhuan Falun. Many residents said, "This is what I want" when they heard about "Truthfulness Compassion Tolerance." Some of them followed along to sing "Falun Dafa Is Good." TV and radio stations recorded video footage and took photos of Falun Gong practitioners' waist drum performance and exercise demonstration. From people's reactions, practitioners felt that more and more wanted to learn about Falun Dafa.