Rainbow Gathering

Rainbow Gatherings are temporary loosely knit communities of people who congregate annually in remote forests around the world for one or more weeks at a time to enact a supposedly shared ideology of peace, harmony, freedom, and respect. Anyone is allowed to attend and participants refer to themselves as a "Rainbow Family". The goal is to create what they believe is a more satisfying culture—free from consumerism, capitalism, and mass media—that's nonhierarchical, furthers world peace, and serves as a model for reforms to mainstream society.

Influenced by 1960s counterculture and the noncommercial rock festivals of the early 1970s, Rainbow is a "revitalization movement" with many philosophies and practices that have roots in the historic utopian traditions of the mid–19th century. The first Rainbow Gathering was held in Colorado, U.S. in 1972 and was attended by more than 20,000 people. In the 1980s, Gatherings started to form outside of North America as autonomous, but connected events around the world.

Media coverage of Rainbow Gatherings has been unfavorable since the 1980s when journalists started to describe Rainbow Family members in terms such as "aging hippies", "grown-up flower children", or "middle-aged white folks". In the 2000s, the media focus shifted to the increase in crime in the local communities closest to Gatherings, ranging from petty crimes like retail theft to violent assaults and serious traffic charges, such as driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Despite the movement's environmentalist and pacifist aspirations, Gatherings, which are typically held in national forests and other ecologically sensitive areas, are known for having a deleterious impact on the local environment and participants have developed a reputation for excessive drug and alcohol use, disruptive and criminal activity, and for their cultural appropriation and misrepresentation of Native American traditions and beliefs. This has resulted in increased police presence at Gatherings and a poor reception from community members and business owners in nearby towns and reservations. In the U.S., these issues are also contributing factors to the decline in attendance at regional and national Gatherings.

Rainbow Gatherings and the Rainbow Family of Living Light (usually abbreviated to "Rainbow Family") claim to express utopian impulses, bohemianism, hipster and hippie culture. The gatherings have roots clearly traceable to the counterculture of the 1960s.

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