Events - Part 15

Rainbow Gatherings

In my last post on hippies, I showed some photos from a gathering of hippies in 1973 called the Rainbow Family of Living Light, usually abbreviated to Rainbow Family.  Today we see photos from other Rainbow Gatherings.

Rainbow Gatherings have been held annually in the U.S. since the first one in 1972.  They are always held in a National Forest.  For years the Forest Service tried to make the gatherings obtain permits, but they finally gave up, because the gatherings are totally unorganized – nobody is in charge and there is no organization that the Forest Service could hold responsible.  The gatherings started out as a gathering of hippies, and they still attract counterculture types who reject mainstream society.

Above, a modern hippie bathes in a stream at the 2006 Rainbow Gathering in Colorado.

Clothing has always been optional at Rainbow Gatherings.  Above is another scene from the 2006 gathering in Colorado.

Perhaps the guy above, at the 2011 gathering, was a young hippie when the gatherings first started in 1972.

Rainbow Gatherings started in the U.S. but have spread worldwide.  There are now European Rainbow Gatherings, World Rainbow Gatherings, and other regional Rainbow Gatherings.  Above, a guy at the 2012 World Rainbow Gathering in Guatemala has fashioned a makeshift fig leaf.

Dancers and a musician at the 2012 gathering in Guatemala.

The 2012 gathering in Guatemala then moved to Palenque, Mexico, where this guy is skillfully walking a slack line stretched over a pool of water.

This composite photo is from the 2012 gathering, but the location was not specified.  It might be Guatemala or Mexico.  Rainbow Gathering participants often join hands in a circle and chant "Om."

This 2015 gathering participant has created a very original costume – a new set of pubic hair made out of moss.  The location was not given, but the photographer, Benoit Paillé, has photographed several regional Rainbow Gatherings in Quebec, Canada, so this is probably one of them.

We end with a "behind the scenes" self-portrait of photographer Benoit Paillé at work at the 2015 gathering.  Most Gathering participants are not naked, but evidently clothing is optional for photographers, too.