2022 - 50th Anniversary Rainbow Gathering in COLORADO - Clean up

 In 2022, the Rainbow Family celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Gathering by returning to the state of Colorado, where the Gatherings began. As usual, locals in the area were VERY concerned about crime and damage to the area. A travel blogger who goes by Travel DNA on Youtube said he was going to come up to the site and document the Gathering WHILE it was happening, and then come back after the clean up was complete to see the difference for himself and show video documentation of his findings. 

This first video was recorded at the height was recorded at the height of the Gathering on July 1, 2022. Here you will see footage from inside the forest as the Gathering is going on. 

Then, Travel DNA returns four times after the Gathering to show how well the Rainbow Family cleaned up after themselves.

This second video returns to many of the camps and kitchens at the Gathering and shows you both the DURING and the AFTER pics side by side. 

Keep in mind, the Forest Service never helps the Rainbow Family clean up a Gathering site (as it should be). The attendees work to minimize cleanup, do much of their own, and a dedicated group of volunteers stays in camp, working hard daily to do any restoration work, often turning over compressed soil, and reseeding new paths with local seed. The Forest Service used to print out a report after each Gathering documenting the excellent work done by Gatherers, but stopped supplying these clean up reports in recent years, possibly because Rainbow used them frequently to dispel fears in local communities.

Many thanks to TravelDNA for showing an unbiased local view, and the before and after photos of how it all went down.