Rainbow Gathering of Tribes*

The Annual Rainbow Gathering of Tribes is a free public event started back on July 4th 1972. They call themselves “Rainbow Family of Living Light” (or Rainbow Family, Rainbow or Family). The main gathering takes place from July 1st - July 7th (the week of 4th of July) where tens of thousands of people gather and camp in the middle of a National Forest to celebrate ideals of Peace, Love, Respect, Harmony, Community and Freedom.

People from All Walks of Life

Rainbow Family includes men, women and children from all backgrounds, colors, races, religions, etc. (hence the name Rainbow). Many military vets, doctors, nurses, lawyers, scientists, teachers, police, firefighters, retired citizens and various other academic, educational and vocational backgrounds as well as many people usually considered by mainstream society as misfits or unsavory, such as houseless travelers, train-hoppers, and various other characters. Everyone is Welcome. This event now takes place all around the world in countries such as United States, Canada, Mexico, Russia, Europe and many others.

Most Rainbows have regular nine-to-five jobs in Babylon (the name used to describe big cities), but take at least one vacation week out of each year and cleanse themselves of the monotonous life of capitalism, consumerism and media. Everyone dons their favorite garb of all types (such as regular clothing or hippie, religious, native, etc.) and heads out for a peace gathering miles into the forest.

What’s it About?

It’s all about getting back to the basics of Family, Community, Love and Nature; a time to escape city life and detach from advanced technologies. Everything at the gathering is free, such as food & drink, entertainment, etc., Money is not spent at the gathering, but donations are accepted in what’s called the “Magic Hat”. Most provisions are provided through donations contributed by Rainbows throughout the year as well as several large corporations who send 18-wheeler trucks to deliver various bulk food items.

Volunteers

All work is done by volunteers for free, and there is much work to be done, but no one is expected or required to volunteer, you can just show up for the week long event and have fun. If you arrive the week of the main events (the week of 4th of July) all the volunteers already have all the setup work done, which is the most physically taxing part (if volunteers want to help with setup, it’s good to arrive a week or two early). However, volunteers are always welcomed the week of the event with the many tasks that still have to be done.

The type of work that volunteers do is; carrying bulk food items and camp supplies miles into the forest, assisting the elderly and handicapped, erecting main camps and kitchens, gathering firewood, digging fire pits & latrines, building temporary bridges to cross streams, making multiple trails for people to follow to get in and out of the gathering without getting lost (use fallen trees & limbs to line the trail), direct vehicle traffic to parking areas (vehicles do Not enter the forest), food prep, cooking, serving meals, stoking fires, collect or haul trash & recyclables, entertaining people, and much more. They even run miles of intricate filtered water lines from the streams and rivers to each main camp and kitchen.

Camps & Kitchens

There are hundreds of main camps with thousands of individual camps set up throughout the forest. There are also many kitchens set up throughout the forest (estimated 70-100+).

Not all camps are kitchens, but all kitchens are camps.

Each one has their own unique name and specialties, here’s only a few of them:

Kitchens

-Lovin’ Ovens, a kitchen which crafts large ovens from barrels, clay and mud and cooks and serves really tasty food such as pizza (meat, vegetarian and vegan) and various breads and snacks.

-Fat Kids Kitchen serves many types of foods at the gathering and they are also a non-profit organization that travels the country on several kitchen buses throughout the year feeding the hungry, providing disaster relief to victims of man-made and natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Oil Spill where they fed the hungry, helped to clean up the beach and helped wildlife in need (they’ve had many mottoes or slogans, one is “we stay skinny so that you can eat fat”, eat fat meaning eat good).

-Kid Village is the camp for children and their parents and is also a kitchen, they are focused on provisions and entertainment for the children such as games, arts & crafts, singing, rope-swings and many other activities, they serve one of the greatest breakfasts which usually includes fried potatoes, eggs, pancakes, homemade syrup, and oatmeal with fruit, they also serve other meals and snacks throughout the day, and in the evening of 4th of July they serve Diamond Dave’s recipe of Rock and Roll Spaghetti (Kid Village is one of the oldest and largest camps and is considered the root of the whole gathering because of the children, and includes some of the eldest of the elders).

-Tea Time serves many types of tea.

-Montana Mud serves coffee 24/7.

...and there are many, many more kitchens (70-100+). All the kitchens are erected from mostly natural resources such as fallen trees and limbs as well as tarp and tent materials. All the cooking gear and supplies are carried in by each kitchen; pots, pans, trays, utensils, wash tubs, hand & dish soaps & sanitizers, etc.

Rainbow gatherers are to bring their own eating utensils (also known as Bliss or Bliss Kit, which are a bowl, cup & spoon). Wash stations are set up in every kitchen for washing hands & dishes. Kitchens provide free meals for anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 people.

Camps

Here’s just idea of what some of the camps specialize in, there are hundreds of main camps:

-Handi-Camp is a camp setup by volunteers for people with physical disabilities to meet each other and find support, and it is for able-bodied people who want to help them. Elderly people are also welcome here. Volunteers can be found there to wheel, carry, help walk or otherwise help disabled people get into the gathering and back, and carry their gear and supplies.

-Religious Camps: Then there’s various camps of religion, such as, Jerusalem Camp (with Orthodox Jews), Hare Krishna Camp (which serve the most delicious cookies you’ve ever tasted), Jesus Camp (which repairs sandals and shoes) and Various other Christian denomination camps, as well as many other religious camps.

-Entertainment Camps: Some camps set up stages to provide live performances for entertainment, Granola Funk is one of them with an intricately designed stage crafted from mainly fallen tree’s, limbs, rope and many colorful decorations. There’s various other camps for arts & crafts, face painting, campfire singing, fire-juggling, variety shows and lots of acoustic music throughout the gathering.

-A-Camp is loosely referred to as Alcohol camp, although that’s not what “A” stands for. Drinking alcohol at the gathering is strongly discouraged but not enforced. Rainbow Gathering is all about awakening and enlightenment, yet alcohol deadens or numbs enlightenment and not to mention drunks can get annoying and violent, so it’s not encouraged or recommended. Chronic drinkers are encouraged to camp at A-Camp which is usually set up on the perimeter of the gathering somewhere near the entrance trails, miles away from the main gathering.

There’s even a camp called Nic @ Nite which wanders the whole gathering providing tobacco for free.

C.A.L.M.

There’s a medical center setup called C.A.L.M. (Center for Alternative Living Medicine) which is a primary group of Doctors and Registered Nurses who tend to gatherer’s health and well being and treat medical emergencies, all done voluntarily. They provide sanitation, medical supplies, conventional medicine as well as alternative medicine.

They have massage therapists, herbalists and EMTs. They also set up smaller first aid stations at various locations around the gathering because it is so large and widespread throughout the forest. In case of any emergency C.A.L.M. can be contacted through radios set at certain frequencies which are provided to several Shanti Sena (described below) throughout the gathering.

Trading Circle

There’s also a Trading Circle, where anybody that has items they would like to trade can just lay down a blanket and display their items to other traders and browsers. No money is used, only trading of items. Items such as jewelry, gemstones, crystals, books, handcrafts, art, sweets, and various other items.

4th of July Main Event

The central event of the annual gathering takes place on the morning of the 4th of July. The whole morning the gathering is completely silent (except the occasional camp jester, barking dog or crying baby), it’s such a peaceful and magical event having ten-of-thousands of people completely silent in their camps and kitchens and all around the forest; hearing the sounds of nature and the forest, such as the wind, the flowing rivers, birds, etc.

Later in the morning, while still remaining silent, gatherers begin to congregate at Main Meadow for an enchanting peace ceremony. Around noon everyone forms a large circle or concentric circles (which spans the entire meadow) and hold hands in silence, this is the moment of collective silent prayer or positive intention for world peace.

Then a parade of children and parents march from Kid Village with long colorful banners that they colored themselves, and various other colorful items and flags. The parade of children march their way through the thousands of people and make their way towards the middle of Main Meadow where there’s usually a totem pole set up with many various and random items that have been placed around it by gatherers all morning long.

Once the children’s parade arrives to the totem pole the thousands holding hands begin to Om as they raise their interlocked hands, then the hands are released and the silence breaks and people cheer and begin various celebrations at Main Meadow and throughout the forest; drumming, dancing, singing etc., all while the many kitchens continue serving tasty wholesome meals.

Taking Care of the Forest

The Rainbow Family takes pride in their Love of Nature and keeps the forest clean and unharmed. Each Annual Rainbow Gathering is held in a different National Forest each year. At the end of the gathering hundreds of people stay to naturalize all camp and kitchen sites, fire pits, latrines, etc. There are professional botanists and scientists who make sure all areas are properly naturalized so the forest isn’t harmed in any way. Others take care of trash removal and recycling. There’s even many volunteers during the gathering that walk the whole gathering with buckets (usually teenagers because it takes a lot of energy to walk the many miles of the gathering) yelling “pocket-trash”, which collect and properly dispose of small pieces of trash people tend to put in their pockets so-as-to not litter; anything from candy wrappers to cigarette butts.

“largest non-organization of non-members in the world”

Rainbow has no official leaders or spokespersons, no formal hierarchical structure, no membership and no official documents. Rainbow family claims to be the “largest non-organization of non-members in the world”. Gatherings are loosely maintained by open, free form councils consisting of any "non-member" who wishes to be part of a council, which use consensus process for making decisions, such as deciding and scouting next year’s gathering location which is always held in a Public National Forest. Although each event is more or less anarchic, practical guidelines have been reached through the consensus process over the years and are listed in an unofficial "Mini-manual". Items which are strongly discouraged at gatherings include firearms, drugs, alcohol, and pets. Other items that are discouraged are radios, sound amplifiers, generators and power tools.

Shanti Sena

Within the Rainbow Gathering are experienced Shanti Sena ("Peace Keepers"), who handle security, conflict resolution, and emergency situations. Shanti Sena could also include anyone who is nearby and capable of helping at that time in certain situations. They also work very closely with C.A.L.M. to quickly handle any medical emergencies or health situations that may occur.

Shanti Sena also sometimes act as liaisons to observers and law enforcement officers who patrol the Rainbow Gathering. In some particularly serious situations, Shanti Sena have collaborated with law enforcement, for example, at the 1998 gathering, a wanted murder suspect was peacefully approached by Shanti Sena and transferred to police custody. Shanti Sena are also there as a call for aid; an individual finding him or herself in a dispute can shout the phrase “Shanti Sena”, and everyone within earshot is expected to then investigate and reach a consensus agreement to settle the dispute.

Local Townspeople

There’s usually mixed feeling about Rainbow in the local towns near where the National Forests are located. Some locals think it’s wonderful that Rainbows practice their freedoms by getting away from the hectic world to celebrate ideals of Peace, Love, Respect, Harmony, Family, Community and Freedom. Other locals, not so much, at least not at first.

Health of the forest and crime are sometimes an area of concern by some of the local townspeople and government. Newspapers and media sometimes write negative articles, thinking that “thousands of ‘hippies’ are going to ruin and kill our forest and cause rampant crime in town”, but each year after the gathering is over they are usually very impressed to find that the forest is left in great shape and many local businesses such as grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants and many others report a great boost in the local economy and praise the nice atmosphere and helpful volunteer services provided by the Rainbows.

There’s usually a few complaints about a few misfits hitchhiking and panhandling in town but overall the gatherings bring positive vibes to the area. After gatherings have concluded, many previously skeptical newspapers have written articles about how friendly, professional and organized these gatherings are, and of course there have been some very negative articles written as well, there’s gonna be critics on all subject matters.

But over all, the majority of the gatherings go very smooth with very little negative impact and receive positive feedback from local businesses due to the increase in revenues from gas, food and various other goods purchases. Most of the time lots of locals come to the gatherings because they’ve never heard of it and want to see and experience what it’s all about, those that attend love it, unless of course they’re a stick-in-the-mud, but most Love It!

Crime, Security & Safety

Of course, as with most large events (concerts, festivals, parades, sporting events, etc.) that take place out in society, an occasional crime may occur, but crimes at Rainbow gatherings are usually non-existent or very low and minor. Rainbow takes care of their own disputes or issues internally without any outside law enforcement involvement. Rainbow Family is very good about solving any issues or problems that may arise within the gathering.

Shanti Sena (Peace Keepers) as mentioned above are people persons (as are the majority of all Rainbows) and are calm, collected, and responsible at helping people to resolve most issues that may arise; disputes, arguments, fights, drug or alcohol intoxication issues; talking with people about not maintaining fires properly or putting their fire pits in bad spots; people camping to close to the rivers; and overall safety & health issues.

National Forest Service

The National Forest Service are very familiar with Rainbow Gatherings and have worked with Rainbow Family and monitored them since 1972 when it first started. The National Forest Service Law Enforcement Officers (LEO’s) spend the majority of their time miles outside the gathering around the perimeters monitoring traffic. They only do periodic walkthroughs (sometimes just once or twice a day) and raise no issues most of the time, they’re just doing their job and making sure everyone isn’t killing each other or burning down the forest and such.

Most of the time the Forest Service even seem inclusive, having nice conversations, smiling and laughing with many of the gatherers. Rainbows like to include them as part of the event, because they are Human, and that’s what a Rainbow Family gathering is all about; Family, Community, Peace, Harmony and Love for all Human Beings.

Sometimes however, certain issues may crop up. Probably the most common issue, not necessarily a crime, but sometimes people who may have traffic or criminal warrants attend the gatherings and get arrested. At other times there have been clashes between Rainbow and Forest Service. In random past years the Forest Service sometimes had tension put on them because of negative rumors, expectations or anticipations from local townspeople whom didn’t really know or understand what a Rainbow gathering is or why they were coming to their town or forest, so law-enforcement is sometimes pressured to be more strict and uncivil with Rainbows in an attempt to deter them from attending.

One thing they sometimes do to deter people from attending is they tend to randomly pull arriving Rainbows over and conduct random vehicle and/or body & bag searches without warrants or probable cause. In many of those cases they just give traffic and various other erroneous tickets to drivers and passengers. Sometimes the tickets issued have a court date that’s set within a day or two, manipulating people to have to leave the gathering within the next couple days to appear in traffic court 30-100 miles away, they do this in the hopes that people will go home when leaving court since it’s such a long drive back to the gathering from the courthouse.

But even more so they do this in the hopes that people don’t show up to court so warrants can be issued in order to prompt reason to raid the gathering seeking out those individuals as a tactic to disrupt or cause problems within the gathering in an attempt to incite disorder, to give them reason to try and shut it down. But those underhanded attempts of manipulation don’t generally work well, because first of all, these gatherings consist of United States Citizens practicing their 1st Amendment Constitutional Right to Peacefully Gather or Assemble.

People can get together with whomever they want as long as they are peaceful and not causing trouble. This applies to all groups in society, even if people don't like those groups, such as motorcycle gangs, militia groups, even strange groups like vampire clubs lol, etc., as long as they are peaceful. Being Peaceful is the sole purpose of a Rainbow Gathering to begin with, and not to mention it’s in the middle of the public forest, far away from the rest of society. Rainbow Gatherers are Not bothering Anyone, Not protesting, Not blocking streets, Not disrupting or shutting down businesses or governments, Not destroying the land, just a group of Friendly, Peaceful people getting together in the middle of the woods to Celebrate Life, Love and Community; and not to mention, the day of Freedom, 4th of July (Independence Day), the day our 1st Amendment Right was signed and put into law (oh the irony of trying to disrupt a gathering celebrating Independence Day).

The second reason those traffic ticket manipulations don’t work well is because the gathering has attendees that are Lawyers who communicate with fellow gatherers who received tickets, advising them to show up in court. The Lawyers go to the court and represent and defend all Rainbows (which can sometimes be 100-200 people) voluntarily, pro bono. Tickets are usually either dropped because of the erroneous nature of some tickets, or fines are greatly reduced. Then everyone goes back to the gathering to enjoy the rest of the week in peace.

2008 Wyoming Incident

Sometimes the Forest Service Law Enforcement Officers (LEO’s) have caused problems to occur within the gathering that could have been prevented if they were to handle situations in a calm, civilized, professional manner. One particular negative incident that took place was at the 2008 Wyoming gathering, where 10 LEO’s came storming into Kid Village very aggressively, waving scary looking automatic weapons (black rapid-fire rifles that shoot pepper-spray rubber bullets at high velocity) around and pointing them at small children and parents, and the children became frightened so one woman tried to calm the situation and asked them to take their guns out of Kid Village and an officer threw that woman to the ground and pulled her head back by her hair while putting handcuffs on her. The LEO’s didn’t state why they were there or what they were doing.

The LEO’s just got more aggressive, pulling an older man out of a tent; invading a woman's privacy while she was using the latrine; pointing a weapon at an infant baby in a mom’s arms who was just walking into her camp; all of the LEO’s still aiming their weapons at everyone, scaring the children to the point of crying, screaming and shaking in horror; their unreasonable and excessive aggression fueled an outcry from the parents. One man was witnessing all this at a distance from inside his tent and stepped out of his tent and yelled out “what are you doing, there’s children here?!”, all while other gatherers were just arriving from all directions to find out what the commotion was about, then without just cause or physical threat towards them the Forest Service opened fired their automatic weapons on everyone including the children. People yelled at them “you’re shooting children” as the bullets whizzed through the air striking many people including the children. Some LEO’s used their tasers on Rainbows as well. No one attempted to assault any of the officers, instead they put themselves in front of the shots being fired in an attempt to shield the children. When the shots finally seised, many people, including children had large bleeding welts on their bodies and faces as well as the pepper-chemical in their eyes, throats, lungs and in the bleeding skin-welts causing extreme pain, blindness and difficulty breathing. The LEO’s left taking 5 people with them.

There was video taken of some of this incident. The officers had to have known they were in the wrong, it was so obvious to so many people, but the officers allowed their emotions and adrenaline to get the best of them, they most likely panicked because of the many unknowing people arriving from the forest from all directions to see what was going on (that’s what Rainbows or Human Being are supposed to do, find out what’s going on ‘is there a fire or a medical emergency, etc’ to see if help is needed). The men, women and children were later treated by C.A.L.M. Doctors and Nurses and the gathering continued on with their activities.

The Forest Service later claimed that they were chasing a man who had a warrant for his arrest, and that the man ran through the gathering and into Kid Village, and that’s when the 10 LEO’s entered Kid Village aggressively beginning this whole ordeal. No one saw a man run through Kid Village and the LEO’s didn’t tell anyone what they were doing there or that they were looking for a particular person. It’s difficult to know the real truth of what they were doing because like mentioned above, they sometimes (not always) manipulate things to cause incidents such as these, such as the erroneous tickets with 1-2 day court dates to cause warrants to be issued in order to conspire to incite incidents such as this.

Don’t Let a Few Incidents Keep You from Attending

Overall, the majority of Rainbow gatherings proceed peacefully and without incidents such as above. And when an incident does occur, the gathering resolves the issues and continues on in Peace and Love. These isolated incidents don’t occur often and they don’t disrupt the entire gathering, because the gathering is so big and widespread throughout the forest, the news travels pretty fast though, but the incident has usually long passed and been resolved by the time news get to the other end of the forest. The Rainbow gatherings have been going on since 1972 (over 40 years), and these kinds of isolated incidents have only occurred a handful of times throughout those 40+ years. Hearing about these isolated incidents shouldn’t by no means keep you from attending a gathering, everyone really should experience at least one, once you do you will find that it’s a wonderful and magical event.

Attending the Rainbow gathering is a very Fun, Joyous, Relaxing, Peaceful and Loving experience. As you arrive everyone you see welcomes you with the phrases “Welcome Home” and “We Love You”, “Lovin’ You” or some variation of that, you feel very Welcome as if you are Home... with Family. Everyone who attends (or even doesn’t attend) is Rainbow Family.

You Are Rainbow Family!

Welcome Home!

We Love You!

I Love You!