The Rainbow Family of Living Light (aka the Rainbow Family) is a counter-culture group established in 1970 by Garrick Beck and Barry "Plunker" Adams. In the decades since, it has grown into a loose collective of affiliated smaller groups and individuals, some nomadic. The Rainbow Family has promoted ideas that have since become commonplace, such as environmental consciousness (including energy conservation through alternative energy, organic farming and eating), alternative medicine, connections between spiritual and physical health, anti-war sentiments, and anti-consumerism. The group is perhaps best known for its yearly, primitive camping events on public lands known as Rainbow Gatherings, which are built around shared values focused on peaceful alternatives to a destructive and consumerist world. The first Rainbow Gathering was held in Strawberry Lake, Colorado in 1972. Beck's vision for the large communal gathering was inspired by the music festivals of the time, such as Woodstock, where temporary communities would operate within a defined space and time. Rainbow Gatherings are organized by consensus, and open to all who would like to attend so long as they share the community's tenants of peace, environmentalism, and non-violence. The gatherings happen annually to this day, with congregants meeting in remote forests around the world for one or more weeks at a time. The Rainbow Gathering is often cited today as an important precursor to modern day festival culture as expressed through events like Burning Man. - rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM08650.html Rainbow Gatherings Background: welcomehome.org/rainbow/ #RainbowGathering #RainbowFamily #ChildrenOfTheRainbow