Rainbow Gathering, 2004

medic tent at the rainbow gathering
A wonderful time was had by all... Thanks, RAINBOW GATHERERS!
Modoc National Forest
California

thousands of people chant OM to promote WORLD PEACE...
This was big fun...spiritually healing
write to me at...
gregvan@yahoo.com

What IS the Rainbow Gathering? To me, it is Woodstock with amateur musicians and I'm in the band... Thousands of people go backpacking for a couple of weeks... Every year during the end of June and the beginning of July... The location is different every year but it is always in a National Forest... See you next year!
The gathering was south of Alturas and north of Susanville (WAY out in the boondocks!)...
The site had sagebrush everywhere and quaking
aspen groves... I saw a group of 20 horses running wild just for fun...
no saddles or people, just horses enjoying the summertime...
This years gathering had a HUGE quantity of people and dogs... the tents extended for five miles... I read in a newspaper article that 16,000 people attended...
I spent an afternoon at Ram Dass' tent. He was talking to people and there was a constant line of "pilgrims" that wanted a personal audience... Many acoustic guitar players wanted to sing him a song... I was not moved to chat with Ram Dass but sat in his campsite and enjoyed the company of the people sitting next to me. They were doing therepudic massage. A husband and wife were allowing people to heal themselves... The healer kept on telling his patients that his art was a cooperation between the patient and the healer and that together, they could make the patient better... I could see the difference between the people before and after... They looked MUCH better after...
Since this is close to San Francisco, there were many very brightly clothed gay people... There was a lightshow parade on July 4th... the technology of superbright LED and cyalume lightsticks made the night come alive with twinkling colors... I danced with a blue and green LED on a shoelace to create circles of color in the air... "GO, blacklightman! GO! said the crowd...
Many people played the drums around campfires...ALL NIGHT LONG... Since it was cold at night, I spent 3 nights playing drums around the campfire and my days were spent napping or just sitting around... At "Dundun village" there were firedancers that spun 4 foot long batons with the ends blazing with camp fuel... this causes a big ball of fire to spin around and create visual circular patterns... they also had jugglers that played with fire...
Links to MORE pictures...
"SET ONE"
a view inside the Marimba Tent...
"SET TWO"
 This lady played an African instrument called the Kora.
"SET THREE"

trail to main circle
or
"SET FOUR"

visit my other site for even more Rainbow Gathering Pictures!
a very long description of my experience at the gathering is here
Here is a link to another website written by someone else about the gatherings... including music... http://www.oocities.org/Yosemite/Trails/7393/rainbow.html
WONDERFUL PICTURES BY Tristan Savatier This person did a great job of documenting the 2004 gathering... including climbing up on top of the mountain to get overhead shots... AND pictures of the firedancers at night...
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