Photographer Tony Maine first heard about the Rainbow gathering in 1975 when he was living in Berkeley, California. Some acquaintances had heard about an intriguing event taking place in New Mexico on the Fourth of July and wondered if Maine would drive. When they got to the Gila National Forest, they found thousands of people camping out in the wilderness in a sort of communal village.
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Maine, who now lives in Chicago, has taken his photographic equipment to every Rainbow but one in the last 17 years, participating but also documenting. He took me to the 1988 gathering, in Texas, where I discovered why his descriptions of these events had always been so vague. His photographs begin to tell the story.
Anyone is welcome, everything is free, and the one rule isn’t a rule so much as a collective disdain for imposing your own “reality” on others. Donations of time and money are encouraged, not required, though freeloaders, known as “drainbows,” are as despised as corporate sponsorship would be: the pursuit freedom includes a willingness to take responsibility. The prevailing ethic may best be described as respect for the earth. Music, dance, and song fill the forest at all hours, proving perhaps that the wilderness is the best place on earth to explore the boundaries of self-expression.
Maine contends that each year’s gathering is different, as are the participants. While some live in communal families embracing the Rainbow life-style year-round, most work regular jobs and make the gathering a vacation. Most participants seem pretty young, people in their 20s; yet at this year’s Rainbow, Maine said, he had a discussion about alternative energy resources with a Georgia college professor in her 40s and a Michigan architect in his 50s.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photos/Tony Maine.
