Rainbow Family plans to visit this summer
The 50th anniversary of the Rainbow Family of Living Light’s first gathering in Colorado comes this summer, and the group — a sect of hippies that says it stands for peace and love — appears likely to return to its roots.
Sheriff’s departments in Grand and Jackson counties, alongside U.S. Forest Service officials, confirmed that the Rainbow Family appears poised for a monthlong gathering in Colorado this summer.
Rainbow Family gatherings can bring thousands of people together for what Vice reported amounts to a “weird version of Burning Man,” mixing “bikers, Jesus freaks, computer programmers, naked yogis and gutter punks” looking to escape the thralls of everyday life. In Colorado, past gatherings led to an uptick in trespassing and illegal camping charges after seven members told police they took psychedelic drugs before climbing atop the Boulder Public Library’s roof, the Daily Camera reported.
The group gathers each year for about a week, but this year, marking its 50th anniversary, it is expected to stick around longer. Flyers posted around Jackson County said the group would gather, likely near the Granby area, from June 28 to July 28, said Sheriff Jarrod Poley.
Precisely where the group will gather and how many people might come remains unclear, Poley said.
“It really concerns me that it’s for a full month. There’s not a real good way to prepare for it,” Poley said. “In the past, we’ve seen issues come out of it like thefts, vandalism, abandonment of trash, animals on (U.S.) Forest Service property.”
Forest Service spokeswoman Reid Armstrong said the agency is aware of the possible gathering but that it’s neither per
mitted nor sanctioned. Groups larger than 75 people require a special-use permit, and the Rainbow Family has “consistently refused” to abide by those requirements, she said.
“We want to assure the community that we are working with our partners and cooperators to prepare for the possibility of a large, extended gathering in Colorado,” Armstrong said.
Serena Rocksund, a district wildlife manager with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, said the state agency is also aware of the possible gathering but without more details can do little to prepare. The group tends to gather on federal lands, she said, so the state agency likely would have little involvement.
While reports of Rainbow Family gatherings have included drug use and sometimes sexual assault, Rolling Stone reported in 1993 they also have been described as a band of misfits taking solace within the larger group.
Forest Service representatives noted, for the 2019 gathering in New Mexico, members were fairly cooperative with rules meant to protect water and culturally significant sites, the New Mexican reported. For that meeting they brought propane tanks to abide by fire bans and promised to clean up their trash.
Criminal charges can stem from these meetings, but prosecutors also have dropped many of those charges.
The Rainbow Family has no designated leadership, and members and take pride in their holistic and communal system, online blogs and profiles show. The group’s first meeting was in the Strawberry Lake area east of Granby in 1972.