Love, peace, diversity — and no potties

Carla D'Amato is a Rainbow Gathering veteran, which is to say she has already felt the universal consciousness of a mountainside full of people chanting "om" while being bitten by mosquitoes.

D'Amato, who has attended nine previous annual Gatherings of the Rainbow Family of Living Light, is one of a projected 20,000 people who are expected to attend this year's event near Lyman Lake in the Uintas. She's looking forward to a week of communal living free from credit cards, bug spray and folks who look down their noses at people who wear nose rings.

But the highlight of the Gathering, say D'Amato and other Utahns who have attended previous Rainbows, is the "interdependence day" celebration on July 4, when the entire encampment gathers in a spiral circle to chant "om" while praying for global peace. The chanting breaks a morning of silent meditation and is followed by a Kiddie Parade and drum circles. Interdependence is more crucial than independence, says D'Amato. It gives her hope, she says, to watch thousands of people living not just for a paycheck and for themselves but "for each other and the Earth."

Despite its reputation, a Gathering is not just a collection of hippies, druggies and Deadheads, say Utah Rainbow members. There are also lots of religions represented, "except Catholics and stuff," says Sadie Hamagi of Moab, who has attended several Rainbows. There is even an "Elvis camp," says Art Goodtimes, a San Miguel County, Colo., commissioner, who has been attending the events since 1978.

"It's as diverse as our culture," says Goodtimes, who was a hippie in Haight-Ashbury during the 1960s. "There are ranchers, lawyers, doctors. People have died there and given birth. There are old hippies, people with massive piercings, people who are straight just coming to check it out. I'm not a fan of big crowds, but if you get 10,000 people together with the intention of peace, it's kind of magical. . . . I like to say it's the closest any American can get to experiencing tribal society for a week."

There is no entry fee, the food is free and there are no vendors selling Rainbow T-shirts. Rainbow members barter the crafts and crystals they bring from home. There is no exchange of money during the weeklong event, but a "Magic Hat" is passed around for donations to help pay for food and supplies. The lack of commercial ventures, artists grants — and Porta-Potties — is what makes a Rainbow Gathering different from other counterculture events such as Nevada's Burning Man, say Utahns who have attended both.

Rainbow Family members dig their own latrines and, despite the fact that the gathering is what Goodtimes calls an "anarchistic event," members police themselves.