A small skirmish erupted at last weekend's Asian festival, pitting festival organizers against Falun Gong practitioners.

Festival spokesman Michael Kwan, a judge in Taylorsville, said the problem was simply a matter of the group not following the rules and pleasing the sponsors, while Utah's tiny Falun Gong community claims it's about Chinese politics.

Sometime before the festival, Patrice Loung, a practitioner of Falun Gong (or Falun Dafa, as it is also called) applied for a booth at the popular event. The group, which says it preaches a unique set of meditative exercises meant to understand the truth of human life and to cultivate higher levels of existence, had space at the 2007 Asian event. Members decided it was a good venue to dispel some myths about their beliefs and practices.

Initially, organizers approved the Falun Gong application. After further investigation, organizers denied it.

The rejection was based on a negative experience at the 2007 event, Kwan said.

Falun Gong came in at the last minute without properly applying, and, while performing on the stage, covered up sponsors' banners with their own.

"They went overboard with not paying for their booth and offending sponsors," he said. "Because of this, the committee decided they would not be allowed to participate for five years."

Falun Gong members also distributed fliers about how the Chinese government had persecuted some 70 million Falun Gong practitioners during the past few decades.

"I have no problem with their religion," Kwan said, "but we are here to celebrate our culture in Utah. It's not a place for political messages about China or anywhere else."

Aubrey Yarper, a Falun Gong practitioner, remembers the exchanges differently. She believes that Chinese members of the committee wanted to keep the group out.

The 2007 banners simply read, "Truth, Compassion and Tolerance," and "Falun Dafa is good." They took down the banners as soon as they were asked.

"As far as we knew, our participation went well," Yarper said. "They invited us to come back."

They knew nothing about the five-year ban, she said. Instead, they were told this year that those 2007 banners were "offensive" and "too political."

Falun Gong representatives then sought help from Sen. Bob Bennett's office, Rep. Jason Chaffetz's office and Linda K. Oda, the state's director for Asian Affairs. Oda tried to facilitate a meeting between festival organizers and Falun Gong representatives.

"I wanted everyone on the same page," Oda said this week. "But I cannot comment on the legitimacy of either side's concerns."

When they got no response from the festival organizers, Falun Gong members got a lawyer to call them -- all to no avail.

At last week's event in Sandy, several Falun Gong practitioners got permission from Sandy Civic Center to demonstrate outside the South Towne exhibition hall, showing their meditation exercises and distributing fliers about Chinese atrocities toward their fellow believers.

"We live in America, not China," Loung said. "Everybody should have the right to their beliefs without overseas control by Chinese government."

Festival organizers plan to meet with Falun Gong members in the coming weeks.

"We have no interest in not letting groups participate," Kwan said, "but you also can't break the rules."