Western Slope site For July 'Groove-in'
The rainbow Family, a global tribe of aging hippies, earnst New Agers
and countercultural spirit seekers, is returning this summer to
Colorado, scene of its first encampment 20 years ago. Organizers for
the patchwork, post-Woodstock assemblage of peace-and-love
spiritualists expect as many as 40,000 followers to descend omn a
remote national forest site somewhere on the western slope for the
July 1-7 gathering. Officials for the US Forest service are counting
on at least half that number.
"They eat and they make merry, and they commune -- and if their
prediction is met, it will be the largest city on the Western Slope"
said Dennis Neill, a Forest Service spokesman in Denver who expects
the throng to begin arriving in mid-June. "If we don't have 1,000
people in two weeks, I'll be surprised." Just where the Rainbows will
park their old school buses and pitch their tents, tepees, and
lean-to's is unknown. The family's "spring council" meeting, now
underway at Taylor Park Reservoir near Gunnison, is still debating a
site. For more than a month, scouts have crisscrossed the Western
Slope, looking at locations in Sab Juan, Gunnison, Rio Grande, and
Uncompahgree national forests.
"They've been telling us since late last week, "We'll tell you
tomorrow,"" said Neill. "We've got lots of gorgeous placews in
Colorado, so I can understand that.
Barry Adams, a Montana member who helped organize the Rainbows's
first gathering, outside of Granby in 1972, said "People go to where
the Earth and the spirit calls them. Everybody in the world is welcome
to come. It's a gathering for peace."
Adams enthusiastically looks forward to what some family members
have dubed "The 20th Anniversity Return To Home."
"It'll be a beautiful gathering, a happening," said Adams, a
self-described Rainbow "hip-storian" nicknamed "Plunker" for the two
stringed musical instrument he plays. "To me, Colorado was the
Pinnacle, a major moment and time of my life."
Know officially as the Rainbow Family Of Living Light, the group
drew more than 15,000 spiritual revelers to it's inagural, four-day
convergenence at Strawberry Lake east of Granby.
Initially, it caused bad vibrations for unprepared state and local
officials. But legal standoffs, road closures, and law enforcement
hassles eventually gave way to a spirited gatjering that peaked on
July 4, 1972, when about 3,000 Rainbow members trekked up Table
Mountain for a dancing, chanting, and mediating love-in with God.
Planning for subsequent gatherings has been refined over the years,
and Rainbows are working closely with the Forest service and local
agencies on water, garbage, and sanitation, security, and other
arrangements. On one of the busiest weeks of the summer, merchants in
neighboring communities are likely to do a booming business in food,
gasoline, and other nessities.
Perhaps anticipating possible run-ins between some Rainbows and law
officials, Neill noted that while the family describes itself as
opposed to drug use, "they say marijuana is not a drug, but an herb."
Most years, babies are born and a few people die natural deaths at
the gathering. In fact, a boy born at the original Granby groove-in,
now 20 years old, is expected to return this year.