Rutland Daily Herald
Thursday Morning, June 13, 1991
Granville Braces for Counterculture Influx
By MICHAEL MAYNARD
GRANVILLE - Residents fo this small Addison County town are
preparing for up to 20,000 visitors to flock to the Green
Mountain Forest for Rainbow Festival, a national gathering
featuring meditation, music and camping. Members of the Rainbow
Family of Living Light, a loose-knit organization whose
gatherings resemble 1960s hippie festivals, are quietly
converging inthe forest for the Rainbow Festival. It will be the
first national gthering of the Rainbow Family to be held inthe
Northeast.
About 300 "family" members are in the forest preparing trains and
setting up kitchen and sanitary facilities. Most of the visitors
are expected to come to the gathering between June 29 and July 7,
according to Susan Denoncour, a Green Mountain National Forest
official in Rutland.
Rainbow gatherings in Vermont are not new. Granville hosted a
regional gathering in 1988 that attracted about 2,000 people and the Red
Mill Brook Campground in Woodford was host to a similar gathering in 1989.
Denoncour said that relationship with Rainbow members had been
cooperative in the past. "The New England Regional Rainbows have been real
good to work with," she said.
But with up to 20,000 people expected in Granville, Denoncour
said, the Forest Service is bringing in extra people. A Forest Service
command post will be set up in Rochester and a team of 25 Forest Service
workers will be specifically involved with the gathering.
Capt. James Nolan of the Vermont State Police in Bethel said
patrols would be set up in the area during the 10 days of the actual gathering.
Denoncour said Rainbow leaders had been warned about state drug
and liquor laws.
"We strongly watch what's going on around the perimeter of the gathering,"
she said, "We reserve the right to go inside the gathering."