50th Annual Rainbow Gathering
July 1-7 2022, Colorado
Rainbow Gatherings are always free
(No tickets - No admission fee)
We all join together in silence the morning of the 4th of July to pray for peace.
Around noon a parade of children in festive clothes will enter our circle singing peace songs, and then we celebrate our inter-dependence with drumming music and dance.
Welcome Home!
Everyone is welcome
We become Family
Everyone will be offered free food cooked by family members, some who might first meet each other at the Gathering and join together to cook vegetarian food for 1,000 - 2,000 people at each kitchen in huge pans/woks/kettles over campfires. Rainbow Gatherings are “Leave No Trace” camping events - we come with tents and gear to live for a week in the woods often at high elevations— 8 -10 thousand feet where it gets cold at night and hot during the day. We bury our compost and haul out ALL waste leaving no trace at the end.
There may be 10,000 people camped out near or far from each other across 4,000+/- acres set aside by the US Forest Service for limited duration public gatherings that follow all environmental protection, fire safety, and other regulations meant to protect our natural resources, public health and safety.
We voluntarily organize ourselves to create a temporary intentional peaceful community - a brief experience of utopia - where we care for one another and share food, knowledge, entertainment and inspiration - sharing our own gifts or just following our bliss … and some of us step forward as “Focalizers” maybe to organize a crew to dig a latrine - or cover one up, to collect dead wood and bring it to kitchens, heart song cirlces and the drum circle. But we all come every year to the National Gatherings in the U.S. to be together in the meadow in silence on the morning of July 4th to pray for peace, and around noon we rise and hold hands breathing out “om”until a parade of children many in festive dress and face paint enter our circle singing peace songs.
Frequently asked question
When & Where?
JULY 1 -7, 2022 in the Colorado Rockies (Adams Park in the Routt National Forest, outside of Craig, CO)
Site coordinates are 40.827750, -107.131806.
We will be camping in a U.S. National Forest and must follow all Forest Service rules. Park only in designated places. Hike in and find your friends, favorite group or kitchen … Krishna, Om Shalom, Jesus, Yoga, Music, Granola Funk Theatre, etc. All cooking in group kitchens with fires constantly monitored 24/7 and supplied with extra water buckets and shovels to prevent forest fires. No individual fires permitted.
The site is 8600 feet high, so some folks may need to bring oxygen...
Hypoxico altitude to oxygen chart
How to get there?
What should I bring?
Camping Gear, including a sleeping bag
Festive clothes for day and warm clothes for night
Food to share, water bottle, bowl, plate and spoon
Yoga mats, musical instruments, flashlights
Food and Money to donate to the kitchens and the Magic Hat so the kitchens can purchase bulk food from natural health food suppliers to cook large quantities. Purchases are made with donations to kitchens and to the Magic Hat that circulates at the Main Circle at meal times.
What not to bring?
Don’t bring firearms, fireworks, alcohol, or dangerous drugs
Required by the National Forests: pets need to be leashed at all times. We recommend leaving them at home
Who organizes and pays for all this?
Everything is based on volunteers sharing their labor and love, and donations of food, supplies and money given voluntarily by participants.
Donate to the Magic Hat
All the food, medicine and the cost of the materials for water lines and water filters and even toilet paper and lime to cover human waste in latrines is provided by donations to the Magic Hat. We've come a long way since starting to pull together essential water gear for what could be the largest and most pivotal gathering to date!
There's still a lot more we can do.
The kitchens of Rainbow
Prior to the 2022 official gathering dates of Friday July 1st - July 7th many family members will have chosen a site and established a “seed camp” in the Colorado Rockies within driving distance of the Denver airport possibly near Paonia or Steamboat Springs. Folkalizing Rainbow Gathering infrastructure is entirely donation-based and there are a lot of efforts worth supporting. Early donations will help pay out-of-pocket expenses for supplies at Seed Camp, medical supplies for CALM, and wireless communications for Shantisena (voluntary peace keepers) and Firekeepers.
Once at the Gathering anyone can contribute labor and money at Info, and established kitchens like Kiddie Village, Krishna Camp, Jesus Camp, Om Shalom, etc. Most people contribute to the Magic Hat in the Main Circle each evening around the time of camp announcements and the evening meal. Proceeds are publicly counted and used to buy bulk food and supplies.
Hygiene
Everyone is asked to frequently wash their hands and not to touch any water bottles to the spigots of the filtered water to prevent spread of illnesses.
Latrines called “shitters” are slit trenches dug in the woods and everyone is asked to use them and cover their deposits with dirt and lime to prevent flies from touching human waste and carrying it to the camp kitchens. Everyone is encouraged to help dig the “shitters” and to help cover them up on a daily basis.