Confused about the Rainbow Family and the group’s possible 50th anniversary celebration in Colorado this summer? The U.S. Forest Service has you covered — and is mobilizing a “national incident management team” to handle the potential festivities.
The gathering usually coincides with the Fourth of July, the Forest Service said, but the event’s specific location and timeframe is not typically revealed to the federal agency until mid-June — after the group’s spring council. A final location for this year’s celebration has not been set, the Forest Service said.
The Rainbow Family group “consistently refused” to comply with permitting laws for previous gatherings, according to the Forest Service. “They claim to have no leaders and no one member of the family who can speak for the group to sign a permit on behalf of the family,” the federal agency said on its website.
The Forest Service put together a resource protection plan to ensure environmental damage is minimized, and stipulates that the Rainbow Family clean up the area after the festivities. But people can expect “socially unacceptable behavior” from some of the attendees, the Forest Service warned — including public nudity, civil disobedience, drug and alcohol abuse, and “confrontations between Rainbows and locals.”