So there's this thing called Rainbow

“You’ve never heard of Rainbow?” One of my west coast friends asked me. If you’re assuming it’s some sort of LGBTQ event, or organization like I did you would be wrong, like I was. In this post I’m going to do my best to explain to you what Rainbow is just as my friends tried to do for me. It’s a challenge to explain rainbow to people who have never been, because it is so very different from anything that those of us functioning on a “normal” schedule in a “normal” society understand.  For the next week my friends regaled me with stories of this magical nomadic group of people who meet every year from all over the world to just live. Like most like most americans, I was confused, “Just Live? I don't understand what is that you do?” Well now that I’ve been to Rainbow twice I can try to answer that question. What you do is, wake up whenever you want to, do whatever you want to, eat whenever you want to, nap whenever you want to, and be happy. Thats it, it’s that simple.

When people first tried to explain Rainbow to me I imagined a festival of hippies and vendors, wrong again. Hippies yes, god yes the hippies, hippies hippies everywhere, but vendors no, festival no. My friends kept telling me that everything was free, which I also didn’t understand, but mostly I just didn’t believe, “What exactly do you mean when you say the word free?” There has to be a cost somewhere, like those free trials you get online but you can’t do it unless you put in your credit card information and then forget about until you look at your credit card statement and see charges because you didn’t cancel in time. So to me the word free was followed by, free like an online trial. “Everything’s free? What about admission? What about your camping spot? Who pays for your food and your water? Who pays for the entertainment?”

Not satisfied with any of the answers I received and intrigued by what I had heard I decided to check Rainbow out for myself. In July I got myself ready to go camping in Montana, I took a fight from Savannah Georgia, and landed in San Fransisco, road tripped to Butte Montana and spent the next week completely free. It was a life changing experience. I was surrounded by wild sage bushes that seemed to change color throughout the day. I camped deep into the forest under the protection of pine trees. When it rained I snuggled up with a book in my tent, and when the sun was out I hiked through the mountains my eyes wide with awe as I came across hundreds of people tucked away in what otherwise appeared to be empty forest. What I thought was hundreds I quickly realized was more like thousands of people. I had so many neighbors in my shady little camp area, everywhere I went I saw other people, other “rainbow children” camped out in the trees and lounging in the shade, casually getting stoned and playing banjos. There were dogs of all different breeds happily frolicking about with other dogs, (somehow I never once saw dog shit, which is probably one of the most mysterious things about Rainbow, I mean I see the dogs, so many dogs, where is the shit!!!) 

My first year at Rainbow in Butte Montana

Whenever I was hungry I just brought my “blissware” (another rainbow term for your cutlery. Blissware is anything that can be used to hold food, literally anything from an expensive multipurpose instrument you find at R.E.I to a scraped and cleaned coconut to an old milk jug thats been cut in half) to a kitchen and waited a few moments in line and soon an androgynous happy hippy with glazed eyes would ask me if “I wanted the vegan split pea soup or if I wanted to add bacon?” “No bacon please”, “Here you go, Loving you sister”, (“loving you” is a common greeting at rainbow it’s how you say hello and everyone refers to each other as brother or sister) and then I was on my way to wonder through the woods, happily eating my vegan split pea soup, take a cat nap in the shade, wake up whenever I pleased and wander wherever I wanted. 

My second year at Rainbow in Black Hills South Dakota

There were people playing instruments everywhere and you could stop and listen to kids sing songs that you will never hear on top 100 lists. Social events were surprisingly organized and there was a camp known as information, which had a board of listings on it. Homemade signs advertising a wide array of classes, Yoga at dawn, edible plants at 5, Reiki classes at noon. There were signs up about safe sex and respecting women bodies, Tips about appropriate pet care, there was even a active dating scene. Someone had strung up a line that people would pin up little bios about themselves and what they were interested in. The line had a sign on it that said “Online dating.” 

On the morning of the 4, the entire camp recognizes a morning of silence, if you must speak you do so in whispers but mostly you get along with your neighbors and friends by using body language and a rudimentary form of sign language. The whole camp walks down to main meadow at around noon. Then strangers take hold of each others hands as everyone prepares to break the silence with an Om. After which everyone celebrates, creating drum circles and breaking open watermelons, singing and Dancing and appreciating the sound of your own voice. 

Main meadow in Black Hills South Dakota

I could probably write a book on my experiences but this is just a light overview. What I want you to understand is that its not perfect, there are moments that aren’t so blissed out, like when I got food poisoning and spent 2 days with uncontrollable diarrhea and feared I’d never be able to eat solid food again. Also the time we got back to our camp site exhausted and in the dark only to find that a huge drum circle had been formed right outside of our tents. But the magical moments are worth sharing and experiencing. It’s impressive and bewildering to see a group of people that take care of one another completely outside of society, no police, no internet, no doctors. Its impressive watching people live off the land and make the most of every day. Its bewildering to see them do it without worrying about all the things we in  the “real world” spend the majority of our life stressing out over like utility bills and time clocks. 

I had a dream once an angel was at my side as I looked out on a city and saw dirty people everywhere, going through trash, covered in dirt, wearing torn dirty clothing. I felt sad for these people but the angel told me that I was looking at the situation wrong. The Angel said that the world was actually the most beautiful that it had ever been and we were closer to paradise then ever before, but we were only focusing on the negative things. As the angel spoke I saw the people on the street that I thought were dirty junkies turn into beautiful street kids collecting and bartering and living communally off from the waste the sprawling city around them was creating.

I’m not particularly religious one way or the other. I do believe in a higher power and I do believe that everyone has a purpose. Maybe this dream has a deep symbolic meaning, maybe it doesn’t. I do however think about the people I met at rainbow when I think about this dream. Maybe we as a society are doing things wrong, maybe we could learn something from the people we tend to walk away from like all those dirty hippies and street kids we see on the subways. Maybe life doesn’t have to be as hard as we make it, maybe it’s as simple as waking up and being grateful for the sun. 

This is a brief overview and theres a lot more that could be said, but what I would suggest is going to rainbow if its something you feel like you would be interested in or maybe even, maybe especially even if its something you don’t feel like you would be interested in. You can find out more information on their website, www.welcomehome.org