For the primary time since 1972, the powers that be are shutting down the annual Rainbow Household gathering. The Rainbow Household of Dwelling Gentle is a leaderless group of people that collect every July for communal primitive tenting. (Extra gatherings happen all year long in different international locations.) These modern-day hippies typically collect in teams of 1000’s. The truth is, this 12 months’s gathering might need reached as much as 10,000, in line with the New York Publish.
The plan for 2024 was to collect in Plumas Nationwide Forest, north of Sacramento, California. The Rainbow Household had already begun descending on the world this week when the U.S. Forest Service put the kibosh on the huge, “unauthorized” tenting journey.
In an incident report, the U.S. Forest Service stated: “An incident of this dimension can have vital impacts on site visitors, communities, native assets, residents, and guests.”
On Wednesday, the Forest Service stated 561 individuals have been tenting in a concentrated space inside Plumas Nationwide Forest and wanted to vacate. That quantity had dropped to 410 by Thursday, suggesting individuals had already begun to clear the world. The repercussions for noncompliance are steep—fines of as much as $5,000 and/or jail time of as much as six months.
Plumas Nationwide Forest supervisor Chris Carlton says the priority is that the Rainbow Household gathering will impression “pure and cultural assets and different licensed makes use of [of the land].”
“Our precedence is sustaining public well being and security and the suitable stewardship of public lands and pure assets,” Carlton stated in a press release.
Is It Truthful to Shut Down the Gathering?
The thought is a stupendous one—only a bunch of peace and nature-loving individuals coming collectively to benefit from the open air and fellow free spirits. For land managers, although, the considered 1000’s of individuals tenting in the identical space looks like sure destruction and disruption.
On the 2024 Gathering’s Fb web page, some make the case that the Rainbow Household at all times leaves the land higher than they discovered it. Clearly, although, the chance shouldn’t be value it for the Plumas Nationwide Forest.
Ought to the gathering be allowed to go on? Share your ideas beneath.
Header picture is of a 2007 Rainbow Household gathering in Bosnia.
