Colorado 2022 Rainbow Gathering

A message primarily for my family at the Rainbow Gathering who do not have a penis. If you're drinking enough water to stay hydrated, you're probably peeing a lot. Now when you pee, hopefully you'll be peeing behind a tree or a bush or somewhere in the woods (Not the shitter). If you're like me, you like to wipe after you pee. But then you have some slightly used toilet paper to dispose of - and NOT by burying it under two inches of duff. Some one will have to pick up that tissue - let that someone be you. I've taken to bringing extra wash clothes or bandanda to the gathering. I keep one in my day pack at all times. Then when I need to pee, I wipe with a washcloth. I put it in a plastic bag in my pack. The next day I grab a new one. The old one gets rinsed out and left to dry for a day or two. 4 or 5 wash clothes or bandanas will last me 3 weeks using this method. The other option is to carry all that used TP to the nearest shitter and toss it in. Or burn it in a fi...

The Mini Manual has been around for decades and has seen some updates from time to time, but it contains all the basic info. This is a great document to make copies of to bring to the gathering. Everyone needs this information and accessing the Internet at a gathering is a tough thing to do. Find the Mini Manual 2014 edition online .

Circle on July 4 Copied from Steven Hager's Blog The silent prayer/meditation for world peace is the culmination of our attempts to create a peaceful and harmonious gathering. Starting as the sun rises on the morning of July 4 th , the gathering will become silent. As people wake up and get ready for their day, most people respect the silence. As people are so inclined they head to main meadow to pray for world peace, do yoga for world peace, meditate for world peace and all sorts of other mellow and silent manifestations of creating the energy of world peace and the healing of the planet. . We hold this peace in preparation for the arrival of our children. The children's parade (meet at Kid Village or Dirty Kid Village a few hours before noon if you have kids and want them in the parade ) will come into the center of the circle. Please hold the silence until all the children (even the ones at the end of the parade) have made it into the center of the circle. Our ...

For people with special needs, ask for Handicamp - a space for people with mobility and other related disabilities with lots of folks willing to help you make the most of your gathering experience. However, keep in mind that not all people who need close in parking at Handicamp will be able to get it as the lots do fill up.  Sometimes our ability to maintain Handicamp parking is constrained by the United States Forest Service. But the situation varies year to year and even day to day. Providing access for those who need it is one of the hardest things to manage at the gathering. We often work something out, then have to change it for a variety of reasons.  My best recommendation is arrive earlier as the later you come, the more challenging the parking situation tends to become. The gathering proper can be 1/2 to 2 miles away from vehicle access and may involve hills. There is usually a drop-off point where people and gear can stage at the trail head even if parking...

One of the many questions that come in regards to gathering, is how to I handling menstruating at the gathering. The question really becomes what products do I use to capture my menstrual flow that does is easy to manage. The first key is that there is no trash service at the gathering. If you bring something to the gathering, then you are responsible to take it home with you.  That means planning ahead is key. Many sanitary napkins are made with petroleum based plastic products and therefore are not biodegradable.  Non-biodegradable items need to be hauled out of the gathering. And who wants petroleum products on one of the most sensitive areas of their body?  Not me! To learn more about how to select products that are biodegradable, click here .  Make sure not to buy tampons with plastic applicators. Cardboard is OK. If you purchase plant-only based biodegradable sanitary napkins, panty liners, and tampons, you can put them in the shitter where they will decompose ...

Check out this video made by Connect Culture.

One thing that goes a long way to keeping folks at a gathering healthy and safe is washing hands - a lot. And I don't mean just rubbing your hands with sanitizer, but actual biodegradable soap (Dr. Bronner's is great) and filtered or boiled water. Some awesome Rainbow engineers have designed a hand wash station that's transportable and light weight. One goal of a Rainbow hand wash station is to make it hands free, so no one picks up germs in the process of washing their hands. (A smaller setup of this same type can be used for soap dispensing). Here's a great drawing of what I'll explain in words below. Thanks TimBear (RIP). "From our experience, the primer bulb check valve can fail if the water gets trash in it. The solution we found was a small piece of filter material (like the filter from a wet vac) or fine mesh screening (a couple of layers of panty hose) around the end of the water intake. The pvc pipe allows you to direct the water where you want i...