Every year since August 2011 Youko Yamamoto has organized the Bon-Odori Dance Festival for Peace to protest nuclear weapons, energy and the radioactive environment and to commemorate the victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagaski, as well as the nuclear power plant meltdown disasters of Chernobyl and Fukushima. The first festival was hosted by Mohonk Mountain House and it subsequently moved to Hasbrouck Park in New Paltz and Kingston Point Park. Last Saturday, August 6 the 12th annual celebration opened at noon under sunny, 90+ degrees at T.R. Gallo Park on the Strand in Kingston. The public enjoyed a variety of drumming, Japanese and community dances, watermelon bustings, speeches, Jorei Energy Healing, a peace ceremony of a Heart Sutra Chant for nuclear disaster victims, and it closed with Lights for Hope until next year. There were raffles from local retailers and refreshments available.
Join the family! 
