The First-Timer’s Practical Guide to the Rainbow Gathering (Guest Post)

Today's guest post comes to us from The Other Karen who lives in San Diego and is one of the regulars who plugs in at INFO each year. If you like this post, she has a blog called What Is The Rainbow Gathering. Visit it for more great information. Enjoy! 

The First-Timer’s Practical Guide to the Rainbow Gathering

What is the Rainbow Gathering?
               

                The Rainbow Gathering is an annual free event that happens every summer on and around the week of the 4^th of July on public land in a different National Forest, in the United States of America. These Gatherings have gone on each year since the first in 1972. Since then, numerous regional and international Gatherings regularly occur in American states and in different countries around the globe.

When is the Rainbow Gathering?

                The original annual Rainbow Gathering in the United States takes place officially from July 1-7 every summer, every year. There are American regional Gatherings and International Gatherings that take place other times during the year. That said, many people arrive 2 or 3 weeks ahead of the annual Gathering and set up infrastructure… assign places for Main Meadow, the Parking Lot, Kid Village, the Info Booth, they tap the natural water springs and run water lines, mark trails and dig the first latrines. This period of time is called SEED CAMP.

                After July 7th, CLEAN UP CAMP begins and anyone who remains is expected to participate in cleaning up the Gathering site, to participate in Vision Council (which decides in what region next year’s Gathering will be), or in cooking food for people who are doing those other two things. The idea is help out or move on.

                The focal point of the July 1-7th week is the 4th of July, often called Inter-dependence Day. On this day everyone in camp wakes in Silence and goes about their morning tasks in meditative silence, thinking on the idea of PEACE in this world. When ready, each individual comes to the MAIN MEADOW and joins the others there in silent prayer ormeditation or quiet thought and focus on World Peace.

                In Kid Village, the children (not in silence) eat and prepare themselves for a parade with face paint and ribbons and streamers and banners and such. Around 11:30 they start heading in a parade toward Main Meadow where everyone has been gathering in silence. When the kids are inside the circle, everyone joins hands, usually in one giant circle, sometimes in concentric circles and begins to OHM together, joining voices and energies and sending it out into the world. When it feels like the OHM is done, people raise their clasped hands into the air and shout out in joy and celebration. 
The rest of the day is usually spent celebrating together in the meadow with drumming, large quantities of watermelon and other fruits, good conversations and music. Dinner Circle is not served in Main Meadow on the 4th of July. Instead, dinner is served that night only out of the individual kitchens.

What is the point of The Rainbow Gathering?

               The Rainbow Gathering is about humans attempting to live in peaceful community with each other, and coming together to collectively pray for World Peace. To that end, participants find ways to plug in and benefit the community, be their best selves, exchange knowledge, make music, and share food. 

               The central action at the Rainbow Gathering takes place on the morning of the 4^th of July, when the people wake in silence and, in silence, come together in the Main Meadow to pray for/meditate on/think about/send out… Peace in this World.

How much does it cost?

                Rainbow Gatherings are unique happenings where people just show up and camp together on lands where it is free to do that. People come, create a village and just live in it, enjoying each other’s company. There is no gate where you have to pay, there are no tickets or wristbands or parking passes. You just come prepared to camp, (minus most of the food you might usually bring camping), show up where it’s happening, hike in, set up a tent and start participating in daily life in the village.

How do I get there?

                In the 2^nd or 3^rd week of June, directions to the site are announced by Spring Council and word goes out by email, on social media, put on information phone lines called Lightlines, etc. The (un)Official invitation, called the “Howdy Folks” is also dispersed. Getting there usually involves going to the nearest town to the chosen Gathering site (which is often a very small town), then driving on paved roads into the forest. Following the directions, you will usually turn onto a gravel/washboard/dirt road at some point and continue driving. If you see a cairn of stones stacked up or a rainbow ribbon in a tree, it likely marks a turn onto a side road. Eventually, after a solitary drive deep into the woods, you will find many other vehicles in one place, on a meadow just off the road.

Usually, as you arrive, someone volunteering to greet people in the parking lot will walk up to your car, say hello, and welcome you home, and then tell you about the parking situation, ways to drop off stuff near the trailhead if necessary, and the best place to currently park. Parking usually involves driving off the dirt road into another big grassy meadow. There are sometimes bumps to drive over and areas that you might not normally drive your car, but you will find a place to park.

                Some years there is not enough room in the meadows and people park along the road they drove in on, in places where all four tires can be parked off the road. This is legal on National Forest Land. But it sometimes involves hiking much further, past other parked cars, just to get to the trail head.

 

Do I camp near my car?

                No. Usually not. The Parking Lot is not the Gathering. Most everyone brings a tent and a sleeping bag and a pack to carry it while hiking in, or at the least ways to bundle and carry it all over a distance. At Rainbow we like to hike AWAY from all our cars and many people don’t see a car for days at a time. Unless it’s going to be dark very soon (and you want to spend the first night by or in your car), pack up your stuff to hike it in, and lock up your vehicle.

                 Near the parking area you will find THE TRAIL HEAD. Ask around if you don’t see it.

What does the village at the annual Rainbow Gathering look like?

                From the Parking Lot you will find the Trail Head which is the beginning of the hike into the village. The hike is usually somewhere between a half mile and 1.5 miles, and is usually a rough jeep trail, or a forest path that may involve crossing creeks- stepping from stone to stone or balancing on a log.

                The trail from PARKING to the MAIN MEADOW is called MAIN TRAIL.  Either right at the Trail Head or before it or soon after it, you will find WELCOME HOME, which is usually a camp fire covered by a tarp with nice folks welcoming you home, happy to give you any information you might need.   

      

                From WELCOME HOME, you hike down the MAIN TRAIL all the way “downtown” to the MAIN MEADOW.  Main Meadow is where we all eat dinner every day (come join us!), it’s where Family Council is each day (come join us!), and where we all gather in silence on the morning of the 4th to pray/meditate for peace at Noon, and where we celebrate with each other for the rest of that day.

                Basically, the whole village surrounds (landscape permitting) the Main Meadow. This is a meadow waaaay out in the middle of a National Forest. It’s usually a pretty big meadow surrounded by forest and there are forest paths going out in most directions that wind in and out of the surrounding hills where people camp. 

 

 

Somewhere, usually on Main Trail very near the Main Meadow you will find THE INFO BOOTH, with a crew of well-informed helpful people who can answer your questions, and where you will find a Calendar of Events, a Ride Board, a Message Board, and a colorful painted map of the Village to help you find your way around.

                On the trails and paths surrounding the Main Meadow, and all along the Main Trail, you will find a wide variety of Camps and Kitchens. Camps are groups of people camping together, who have given themselves a name and identity. There are also camps that are just people finding a nice place to put their tent. Kitchens are actual kitchens in the woods that are also public gathering spaces to hang out and meet people, listen to music, and enjoy some tea or coffee.

                Other things you will always find at a Rainbow Gathering is a medical camp called CALM, and a camp called KID VILLAGE which is a kitchen and a camp: a comfortable area for families to camp together that usually has a playground of some sort, kid-friendly meals, and other families to meet and talk to. There is also usually a theater stage called GRANOLA FUNK and a SPIRIT HOUSE, which is a place to remember loved ones who have died.

What exactly are Rainbow Kitchens?

                At its simplest, a Rainbow Gathering Kitchen is an area in the woods where a cook fire is set up, usually with a large grate over it, that will support multiple cookpots. There is usually a very large tarp stretched over the area of the cook fire, which is surrounded by counters (like kitchen counters). Counters are created by lashing two downed logs together, to nearby trees at counter height, and then laying a bunch of short branches across them, xylophone-style and tying them down so that they work as tabletops.  The countertops signal the perimeter of the cooking area. Anyone is allowed to walk into the kitchen area, but that space is usually occupied mostly by the cooks, people doing food prep and people who feel they “belong” to that particular kitchen and hang out at it pretty regularly. If you enter a kitchen area where you are a stranger, be mindful to not get in the way or hinder any cooking or food prep.

                Just outside of the kitchen area itself, there is almost always a second camp fire. This is called the kitchen’s Bliss Fire. Most kitchens have a Bliss Fire that they create as the social area of the kitchen. Bliss Fires are places to hang out and talk, make music, eat food, drink tea, and relax. Bliss Fires are created to keep the cooking area less populated and more workable.

                There are different kinds of kitchens, some small and some large. Some kitchens just make popcorn. Other kitchens make huge quantities of food to serve to hundreds and hundreds of people at Dinner Circle each evening in the Main Meadow. Some kitchens make just tea or just soup or just coffee. There is also a kitchen that serves as the bakery which makes mostly just bread rolls but also occasional pizzas, cakes and cookies. Often kitchens are united by a theme: either people from a particular area of the country, or people who have a similar interest.

How do I EAT at the Gathering?

                At Rainbow, food is provided for you but you need to bring your own items to eat with. Bring a bowl of some type, an eating utensil or two and a water bottle. Bowls with separate compartments are nice for when you are served a soup AND a rice dish if you want to keep them apart, and bowls with lids are handy for when you are not near a dish wash right after eating, or if you want to transport a serving of food to another place. Many people like to bring a cup for coffee or tea (or soup) and again, the type with a lid is nice to keep it hot, and to keep any dirt out. Most people carry a daypack with them every day, in which they keep their dishware. “Bliss” or “Blissware” used to be the name for any spare dishware available for use by people who don’t currently have any, or lost theirs, but the term is morphing into the name for ALL dishware in general.

                Now that you have your dishes, you need to get some food. Most (but not all) kitchens serve breakfast and/or lunch out of the kitchen and after yelling “FREE FOOD IN THE WOODS!!!” they will usually serve food from the kitchen counter. Servers stand on the cooking side of the front counter, with folks lining up in an orderly fashion on the outside of the cooking area.  Before lining up, folks wash their hands at a handwash that is usually ALSO found on the kitchen counter. Never serve yourself at Rainbow. Always allow someone else to serve you to keep things clean. When you get to the front of the line, bring your dish to the outside edge of the serving pot, below its rim, and allow the server to lift a serving of food up over the rim and down onto your plate. Set your plate so that if any food falls, it falls on the ground and not back into the pot. The server should not touch their spoon to your dish, and will shake the spoon until the food falls onto your dish. This keeps people healthy.  It is a practice at Rainbow called “Don’t touch your Thing to the Thing” and is used in serving food, filling water bottles, coffee cups, etc.

                At Dinner time, everybody who wants to come, comes to the Main Meadow to eat dinner together in a large circle. Many of the largest kitchens bring food in large cookpots into the center of the circle and when there is a critical mass of food and diners, camp announcements are made, and the people stand up in a circle, hold hands, become quiet and then “ooooohmmmm” together. Then everyone sits in the circle and gets out their plates, and prepares to eat. At this time, children and nursing mothers are called to the center of the circle to get served before everyone else. Then the servers take the vats of food out of the center to different areas of the circle and move from person to person and serve the people all in the same direction around the circle. No one stands in line, and everyone is served multiple dishes. 

                Many people also bring private food to keep in their tents, to eat as snacks or when they miss a meal. These include things like granola, trail mix, apples, dried fruit, seeds, protein bars, carrots, etc.

                People do NOT create personal cook fires at their campsites unless they are serving the public. Having only public camp fires keeps fires to a minimum and creates more social opportunities.

 

 

 

After you eat, take your dishes to a nearby kitchen and wash them at the public dishwash station. This often looks like three large buckets sitting close together in a row, which you clean your dishes in, one bucket at a time, left to right… usually warm soapy water in the first bucket, then  a rinse water, and the last is a light bleach water to kill germs.

How do I get Water?

                Most kitchens have clean filtered or boiled water available for your use. It can be found on the counter of the kitchen, facing out toward the public area, in a large (often orange) container with a spigot. Wash your hands at a nearby hand wash, and then open the spigot on the water container and fill your bottle. You will hear people say at Rainbow, “Don’t touch your thing to the thing”. In this case, it means don’t touch your water bottle to the spigot so as not to spread germs. Turn off the spigot when done. 

 

 

Water is usually collected from natural springs around the Gathering site that bubble up out of the ground. These springs must be kept pristine so they are usually taped off and nobody camps near them. The spring water is captured and fed into long black pipe tubes that you may see crossing a walking path or going over a meadow. These water pipes are usually gravity fed to either a spigot where it will be marked with signs telling kitchens to filter or boil it for at least ten minutes, OR the pipes will lead to an actual filter and deliver filtered water, OR the pipes will lead to very large water collection containers with signs telling you if it is potable (drink-able) or not.

How can the Kitchens afford to feed thousands of people for FREE??

                Kitchens run on donations of money and food, and they feed anyone who is hungry for free. 

                At dinner circle in Main Meadow each evening, there is a group of minstrels who will walk around the circle with a hat (or three). The Magic Hat is sometimes a big five gallon bucket that says MAGIC HAT on the side. The Magic Hat Parade goes around the circle and anyone who wants to, puts some money in the hat. Usually folks who contribute do so all at one time, not a little money each night. There is no pressure to contribute any money at all. After dinner, people who have volunteered to be on Banking Council will count up the money, write the amount in a public notebook and announce loud and publicly the amount of money collected at that meal. Then, the banking council distributes that money to people who volunteer to work on the SUPPLY CREW.

 

 

 

Supply folks usually have made agreements with local food suppliers in nearby towns to buy rice and beans and produce etc. in bulk quantities at good prices. They will also acquire some foods at local grocery stores. Magic Hat money is only spent on vegetarian foods, and the food purchased by SUPPLY is then distributed to the kitchens that serve food at Main Circle. The kitchens that do NOT serve at Main Circle may have a private Magic Hat on their own counter for their own kitchen supply, but mostly they rely on supplies the kitchen people bring themselves, or that kind people bring and drop off with them.

 

What do I DO at the Gathering?

                Basically, you just live in the village, in community with other peaceful participants. First timers usually take some time to walk around and figure out the dynamic of living at the Gathering. A visit to the INFO BOOTH is a good way to find something going on. You can check the Calendar for workshops you might want to attend or join Yoga practice or see a show at the Granola Funk stage. You can just walk around the village and spend a little time at each kitchen’s Bliss Fire and check out the vibe at each place. If you have some skill or knowledge to pass on, you can teach it to others by just going to the workshop board and writing it in, along with a good place for people to meet you. In the evenings there is often good music around the fires and some kitchens cook Zuzus for folks, which are any sort of sweet treat made over the fire.

 

 

 

After spending a little time at a Rainbow Gathering, people begin to realize that the best way to experience the benefits of a Gathering is to find a way to contribute to the good of the community.  You can walk up to any of the bigger kitchens and offer to help cut vegetables or wash cookpots and cooking utensils after a meal. You can gather wood and deliver it to a kitchen’s woodpile. You can offer to dump an old dirty dishwash station and restock it with clean soapy water just by asking if you can, and where to find the supplies. People will be happy to have you do that. You can offer medical skills at the CALM First Aid camp; you can greet people driving in at the Parking Lot; you can help make signs and answer questions at the Info Booth; you can perform at the talent shows at the Granola Funk Theater. If you play an instrument, you can just pull it out at any Bliss Fire and start playing. Find how you can contribute to the good of others and just do it.

How do I go to the toilet at the Gathering?

                At the Rainbow Gathering, Port-a-potty type rentals are not used. Instead, we use what are called by the US ARMY Manual, “trench latrines”. At Rainbow we just call them “Shitters”.

                A Shitter is usually found in the forest behind most major kitchens and back behind some camps away from the main trail. To find one, either ask at a kitchen where one is, or look for small plastic neon ribbon hanging from branches in the trees behind a kitchen and follow one ribbon to the next until you get to a shitter. When you arrive you will see, out in the open (usually) but away from the crowds and sometimes blocked by a tarp, a long trench in the ground, about one foot wide and 8-10 feet long. Next to the trench you will see a big pile of dirt, taken from the trench, a small can on the dirt pile for scooping dirt and a coffee can with a lid which contains toilet paper. You will also see a spray bottle or a milk jug or similar jug which contains bleach water and has holes drilled into its cap. Glance into the shitter area and if someone is there, give them time to finish. When it is your turn, go up to the trench, open the can of toilet paper and get as much as you will need and then recover the can to keep rain off the toilet paper. Then, straddle the trench, drop your drawers, squat down, and do your business into the trench.

                When you are done pooping, clean yourself and drop your toilet paper on the poo. Look for a small can or a spade or something that is nearby to take some of the dirt from the dirt pile and COMPLETELY COVER YOUR waste and toilet paper! This is imperative. Then look into the trench and cover any OTHER waste that you see that is poorly covered. If there is a pile of ash or lime nearby, put that over your waste first, and then finish with dirt. A little duff on top (pine needles/dead leaves) helps break down soil as well.

                Lastly, go to the milk jog/handwash bottle and turn it upside down and shake bleach water onto your hands and rub them together. Replace everything, and head back to camp. Wash your hands again at a kitchen or with antibac gel.

                When you need to pee, PLEASE DO NOT PEE INTO THE SHITTERS. Pee behind a tree or a bush away from tents and kitchens.  For those who need to wipe after pee-ing, please bring any toilet paper you use back to a fire and burn it, or carry a wash cloth in a plastic bag to wipe with. You can wash these cloths each evening at your tent and hang them up to dry. If you leave toilet paper under a bush, you ARE forcing another person to pick up that toilet paper later, because we do NOT leave bits of toilet paper on top of the land after a Gathering.

What do I need to bring to the Rainbow Gathering?

                There are quite a few packing lists on the internet of good things to bring to the Rainbow Gathering, but at the core you need to have something to sleep in… blankets or sleeping bag, and for most people a tent. Some folks sleep in the open by fires or in hammocks but a tent is the common method. You will probably want to have a pack or something to hike this stuff in for about a mile or two. Some folks use bags and carry stuff in their arms. Then, when all set up, most people have a daypack of some sort (school-type backpack/messenger bag type thing) in which they carry a plate and/or bowl, a utensil, a water bottle and usually a cup to drink tea or coffee or soup. You put all this stuff in your bag and carry it with you because you don’t know where the day will take you, or when food will happen, and you may go from morning to night without ever going back to your tent.  Many people bring a HAT because they are outside all day every day. Sunscreen is a good idea. Bring the stuff you would usually bring camping, minus the food and the food prep stuff. Bring musical instruments. Bring money to put in the Magic Hat if you can – you are receiving two or three meals every day. Bring some snack foods to keep in your tent in case you miss a meal here and there.  Bring a trash bag to keep your trash in and hike that out at the end. Bring all good things.

                 

                If you have any health concerns, go to CALM or FIRST AID.

                If you have any questions, go to the INFO BOOTH.  

                When you leave… PACK OUT EVERY SINGLE THING YOU HIKED IN.