Dancing in the gardens

073/2007 | 24 July 2007

The sun brought tourists and locals alike out to see an afternoon of entertainment in the Scottish Parliament’s landscaped gardens today, as Holyrood played host to the Dunedin Dancers 19th International Folk Dance Festival.

Following a procession down the Royal Mile, around 500 people watched native folk dances and songs from more than 150 performers from Austria, Lithuania and the Czech Republic, as well as Scotland.

Peter Edwards, Treasurer of the Dunedin Dancers, has been involved with the biannual event since it began. He said:

"This is a very pleasant venue, it’s good to be able to bring our festival back to the Scottish Parliament and we would love to come back here again in two years’ time.”

The performers also enjoyed visiting Edinburgh.

Jana Vesprnova from the Czech Republic remarked that Scotland is similar to her homeland.

She said:

"The nature here is beautiful. Edinburgh is lovely and very historical so I like performing here.”

Visitors to the Parliament from America, China and Latvia were among the tourists happy to see some Scottish dancing. Andrew Forsyth from Edinburgh said:

"My Latvian friends were really interested in Scottish dance so I looked it up on the internet and found out about this festival. They think it is perfect here to watch the entertainment.”

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