Hundreds turn out for World Peace Festival

Jul 3 2009 by Sara Bain, Dumfries Standard Friday

ON Saturday, over 300 people came to Allanton Sanctuary to enjoy the 11th International World Peace Festival.

This year the event was truly international, with representatives from many countries including Australia, Japan, France, Italy, Slovakia, Germany, Belarus, Serbia, Bangladesh and Iran.

During the World Peace Flag Ceremony all the flags of the world are presented individually in continents by those present at the festival.

The message of peace was sent to each country with the positive affirmation May Peace Prevail on Earth.

This year’s flag ceremony was accompanied by Shian Blackwood and Donald Gisbey. The Cairn Chorus performed to complete the ceremony.

During the ceremony, representatives from each of the seven continents said a few words about their continent. People were able to feel the real person and imagine all the millions of people represented by the flags.

The list of representatives included Lokapriya Barua, the President of the Bangladesh Buddhist Welfare and Peace Society, who brought with him a message from Abdul Hamid Advodate – the speaker of the Bangladesh Parliament.

During his speech, Mr Advodate expressed his solidarity with the World Peace Prayer Society and said: “I am sure that this event would provide an opportunity to all the participants of different countrties including Bangladesh for learning and getting inspiration to determine how to cultivate more peace in the world between individuals, communities and nations.”

Activities during the afternoon included circus skills; aikido workshop and demonstration; peace parrot (from Australia); puppets; storytelling and edible jewellery making.

The café this year was run by Dunscore and Dumfries Fair Trade groups.

Tom Henry of the Dumfries Rangers helped the children to make wooden pendants – and show them some of the activities of the rangers.

Many talented local musicians came together to perform on stage throughout the afternoon, including: Jed Thomson, Jamie Uchima, Julian Pombo, John Wheeler, Kenny Meek, Sarah Balls, Andy Mills, Greg Truckell, Kirti Mandir, Stano Ujhazi.

“One of the wonderful things about this year’s festival was that it became a community and international event,” said Glenda Thornton of the Allanton Sanctuary who received a special award for her work for World Peace by Lokapriya Barua President of the Buddhist Welfare and Peace Society.

Sanctuary director Caroline Uchima, said: “This year people were really focused on sending their thoughts of good will and blessings and love to all the countries ... people I spoke to really enjoyed themselves.”

On Friday, September 18, DG One in Dumfries is the venue for the second Global Peace Concert which takes place at 7pm.