North American Calendar of Events for 2003

For more regular potluck info, go here
For more info, try one of these regional LightLines.
For the 1995 calendar, go here
For the 1996 calendar, go here
For the 1997 calendar, go here
For the 1998 calendar, go here
For the 1999 calendar, go here
For the 2000 calendar, go here
For the 2001 calendar, go here
For the 2002 calendar, go here
For the International calendar, go here

Information on the annual gathering, July 1-7th, is, on this page. You might want to go there rather than read this long rant about why I nuked this calendar of events recently.

Thanksgiving council information can also be found on this page.

Most of you reading this web page may have no idea what I'm talking about, but there are some serious issues effecting Rainbow Gatherings today that I feel have forced me take down my calendar of events. These issues are the ongoing disagreement over permits, and the more basic issue of how Rainbows talk about how there are no leaders, but when it comes to my calendar of events, people were considering it to be "Officially Rainbow".

Worse than that, many people wanted this calendar of events to be the official arbitrator of what is a "Rainbow" event or not. Years ago when I started the calendar, this wasn't a problem. But the permit issue has forced this to a head. Regardless of the fact that I believe strongly in our right to peaceable assembly without the need for permits, it's obvious that other people, supposedly acting as individuals disagree with this. Instead, they believe full compliance with the permit regulation is the only way, and ignoring the majority of Rainbow opinion, they have taken to signing permits and making deals with the Forest Service.

While these Paper Chiefs have taken to claiming they are only signing as individuals, the Forest Service obviously considers their permit application to be for the entire "group". The signers then, are naturally the representative of us all, and the rest of us have nothing to say about it. And of course this new leadership group is supported by Forest Service Law Enforcement rangers.

So somehow in this whole mess, various egos wanted their permitted events, or private parties in the woods, or whatever, to be considered Rainbow Gatherings, and maybe they were, but somehow folks decided it was up to me to decide. And that of course led to all the big egos posturing for position, and when I wouldn't necessarily agree, verbal and cyberspace abuse. So I've decided I don't want to be elevated into the position of being the secret leader of Rainbow. I'm just the self-appointed maintainer of this web site. I'm probably sadder dropping this calendar after 8 years, than ya'll are about it being gone. :-(

There will likely be other calendar of events on other web sites in the near future. Something I have noticed is that there seem to be more rumored Rainbow gatherings than real ones. Some people define a regional as anytime Rainbows get together in the woods, I see a regional as an event focalized by local family. Many of these rumors are annual ones, that have little basis in reality. You might be suprised how many people travel great distances to a "regional" to only find it's not even happening, and never was. I always attempted to sort out the rumors from the real regionals, but I'm not going to do it anymore. So please check your source, try to verify what's happening on your own. And if you ever wind up at one of these rumored regionals where there are other people that heard the same rumor, *please* clean up like you would any gathering.

I'm sorry this labour of love has become a labour of burden...

Last updated July 30, 2003

Please don't email me asking about regionals or directions.