Over the Moon about the Rainbow

Remembering the European Rainbow Gathering in Rosenallis in 1993

It’s like a scene from Dances with Wolves. A young woman with braided blonde hair rides a pony, bare-back across the camp, chased by screeching barefoot children and skinny black and white barking dogs. Smoke wafts in the damp morning air, drifting out across the heather, the forest and mountains that surround and shelter this secluded site.
There is a cacophony of other noises - singing, talking, and laughter, the chopping of sticks, the fast flowing river dipping over the rocks, sounding horns and always the incessant and infectious rhythm of drums.

The Rainbow campsite

The camp circle is set out by imposing tepees. Between them a maze of assorted and motley tents. But this is not the central plains across the great expanse of middle America. It is the Slieve Bloom Mountains in Laois.
This strange and spectacular camp is on the farm land of Mick Clear in Ballyhuppahaun, Rosenallis, the 11th European gathering of the Rainbow Tribe.
‘The Rainbow’ is the name given to the gathering of a growing band of over 1,500 loosely affiliated travellers, united in the common bond of respect for the elements and nature and the back-to-nature lifestyle.
Variously labelled as hippies, new age travellers and good lifers, the group themselves prefer the term (if one must be used), Rainbow People. The movement which has its genesis in the first Rainbow Gathering in Colorado in 1972 has been gaining momentum through communes and gatherings across the United States and Europe.
“It’s an ecologically based peace rally. We’ve assembled to meditate in contemplative prayer and to give honour and respects to all those who evaded the not so positive evolution of the earth and human kind. A sort of hippy All Saints Day,” explains Michael John, an American who was at the first gathering in Colorado.

Unity in the community

“People dig it because we provide a forum for love and respect. Everyone gets something different out of it. You can talk, bitch, moan and be happy, whatever,” he continues.
At present he is moaning as he has lost a black duffle bag in Naas containing the colourful founding flag of the rainbow nation.
Curious locals calling in their droves to the gathering are bewildered by the bizarre and colourful clothing, the organised chaos of the sprawling encampment the strange alternative lifestyle of the hippies who have trekked for miles in a caravan of vehicles from bikes to buses and decommissioned ambulances, fire brigades and army trucks to the remote mountain side site in Ballyhuppahaun, Rosenallis.
The Rainbow travellers are from everywhere - Argentina, Spain, France, South Africa, Israel, England, Norway, the States, Australia, New Zealand, Dublin, Limerick, Galway, Belfast and a few new recruits from the surrounding towns of Portlaoise, Mountmellick and Tullamore.

The food circle

The Rainbow People themselves have become a novel tourist attraction, the most recent contingent to call on them being a troop of boy scouts from the International Scouting Jamboree at Ballyfin 1993, who are camped on the opposite side of the mountain.
The local farmers have nothing but praise for the ‘Rainbow’. “They’re dead sound. The nicest people you’ll ever meet, lovely people. You’ll see some sights up there alright,” says John Conroy who lives in the area.
The Gardai too speak highly of the travellers who have become the talk of every town throughout the midlands.
“They are causing no problems that we are aware of and we are quite impressed by their organisation. There is no hostility whatsoever towards them. There is something in their way of life which we could all probably learn from,” said one Mountmellick Garda.
This view was confirmed by a senior spokesman of Laois County Council who said they had not received a single complaint about the gathering, which he emphasised was being held on private property.
Although bemused by their lifestyle the Rosenallis community have welcomed their temporary neighbours, viewing the influx as a boost to tourism…a crock of gold of sorts at the end of the Rainbow, which has also benefited other nearby towns like Tullamore, Portlaoise and Mountmellick.
The campsite is a hive of activity throughout the day and while there are no leaders, a strict code is observed. Order is maintained by two basic devices, the ‘Talking Stick’ and the ‘Magic Hat’.
As all the decisions are reached by consensus, there are regular ‘councils’ or ‘circles’, such as to decide if he media are to be allowed take photos and report. The ‘Talking Stick’ is passed clockwise giving the speaker the floor, each in turn voicing their opinion until a consensus is reached, in what seems close to the ultimate democratic process.
The ‘Magic Hat’ is the communal way of paying for food and general purpose items and everyone contributes according to their means, and is the only source of income to the gathering.
The ‘Magic Hat’ principle is based on mutual trust and respect. If the money runs out the gathering goes without.
The secluded site strictly prohibits alcohol, drugs or electrical appliances.

Rainbow Earth

The camp operates on Rainbow time - two communal meals are served daily when the food is ready - prepared in four busy cooperative kitchens with mealtime signalled by the sounding of a conch (a horn like sea shell).
The meals are simple nourishing salads, sprouts, porridge, fruit and Indian style unleavened Chapatti bread. There is a special play area and kitchen for the children, (where more regular and less spicy food is prepared) while there is a constant supply of herbal teas from the Chai kitchen.
The Rainbow People may be unorganised, but no way disorganised.
The gathering comes equipped with its own library; gravity based hot shower system, a children’s’ play area with an ingenious popcorn device and a sweat lodge (intense sauna).
No bathing is permitted in the Owenass River which cuts through the camp, there is not a speck of litter anywhere and a recycling centre is located at the site entrance. The press photographer who quenches a cigarette butt on the grass is chided by Hugo from France, who offers to dispose of it.
The gathering comes in stark contrast to everyday consumer society and has an abhorrence of commercialism.
“This is not a ‘festival’ as ‘festival’ suggests that you pay for something and somebody else is responsible for providing the entertainment and activity. Here everybody is responsible for themselves and nothing happen unless we make it happen,” explains Hugo.
“If something is left undone one day, everyone makes sure it is done twice as well the next day,” says Guy from New Zealand of the basic co-operative philosophy at the gathering which greets visitors under the banner proclaiming, “Welcome Home to Mother Earth”.
Latrines dug in the earth are located way up on the heathered slopes. Utensils are never washed in the river but in the water drawn from it.
When the gathering is over this week the Rainbow travellers will head back to their respective lives. Some have regular jobs; others are students, artists, buskers and commune dwellers. Some follow the seasons and travel fulltime.
“The gathering is a healing time for us and the earth. There is a lot of energy and a strong spiritual aspect. We are not getting together in a hedonistic way, but in a healing way. It’s very easy to lose ourselves in the TV and fridge, when we come to Rainbow we lay ourselves a bit more naked,” says Martin from the South of England.

Back to nature

Time stands still in the Rainbow gathering, its inhabitants oblivious of the stress and pressures of modern living, drawing much of their influences and rituals from the Native American, Celtic and Indian customs.
All over the camp people join in workshops on everything from yoga to juggling, meditation, chanting, re-birthing, ‘focalizing’ (the networking of the Rainbow philosophy), making beaded jewellery and playing the Australian didgeridoo.
Others just relax, dance and sing and join in the beating of the bongo, bodhrans, congos, djembe and tom-tom drums. The anthem of the Rainbow People rings into the night…
“The river is flowing, flowing and growing, the river is flowing back to the sea. Mother Earth shall carry me, a child I will always be, and Mother Earth shall carry me, back to the sea. The moon she is waiting, waxing and waning, the moon she is waiting for us, to be free. Sister Moon watch over me, a child shall always be, Sister Moon watch over me, until we are free.”
The beating of drums drives others on to dance in the dark for hours and hours, some of them in an Amazon tribal dance in which they will not stop until dawn. Music from the tents and tepees is nonstop. Instruments from all over the world are played. The songs - everything from Chicago jazz and blues to the ethnic folk songs of Bombay and Brazil.
At night the camp is pitch black. The only light from a candle, or the odd torch.
Some chose to sit and share ideas around fires in talking circles, the principal one at the centre of the camp around the fire pit which forms the symbolic hub for the main circle which is set out in the form of a Celtic cross or medicine wheel.
The conversations range on everything from the dangers of intruding media, astrology, and the warm welcome they had received in Ireland, global warming, the Dalai-Lama and the quality of the previous nights drumming which it was agreed was better than the best entertainment from the top hi-tech London clubs.
Out of the darkness a young man approaches the gathering notice board. Mostly it is requests for lifts to places like Spain, England, Morocco, Dublin and Feile in Thurles.
But in thick black marker someone has written:
“What is this, the chosen few? Are we not all equal?” Anxious to reply at 2am in the morning, he borrows a pen and writes, “Not the chosen few, but the few that have chosen!”
“Now I can go asleep,” he says, and disappears into the night.

*I first wrote this article for the Leinster Express in 1993 and published a sequel in the Hot Press the following year after joining the 1994 Rainbow Gathering in Slovenia. I will post that follow-up on the site shortly.

*The 2010 European Rainbow Gathering takes place in Finland from July 11th to August 10th, with the Full Moon Celebrations on July 25^th. For directions follow your heart and the Rainbow signs.