There's a group of hippies that call themselves The Rainbow Family of Living Light or just the Rainbows for short. Every year since 1972 the Rainbow Family has held an annual gathering on public land somewhere in the country in the first week of July. The number of people varies each year but some gatherings have been as large as 30,000 people.

This year the Rainbow Family announced they would hold their gathering in Northern California at a site called Plumas National Forest which is about 2 hours north of Reno. Anyone is allowed to enter national forests for recreation but large groups (over 75 people) are supposed to get a permit which allows the forest service to plan for their arrival with things like porta-potties. 

But the Rainbows are hippies and claim (perhaps accurately) that their group has no membership or leadership structure. In their view, they are just small groups of individuals who happen to be showing up in the same place at the same time. Local officials are not pleased.

"The Rainbow Family Gathering, known for attracting large crowds, has historically refused to complete the required permits for their event. We anticipate the arrival of 5,000-10,000 attendees by July 4th," the sheriff's office says in its release. "This influx will create substantial challenges, including environmental impact, and public safety issues."

The sheriff is warning residents about "illegal or socially unacceptable behavior," which it lists as including drug and alcohol abuse, confrontations with locals, and public nudity.

"Attendees are known to set up extensive infrastructure, including welcome tents, camping areas, outdoor kitchens, and health care zones," the sheriff's office says. "There have been significant challenges during previous gatherings, including increased criminal activity, environmental damage, and abandoned vehicles."

As of the start of this week, as many as 10,000 Rainbows were expected to descend on the forest. The two primary objections to this are 1) California has a serious wildfire problem and having 10,000 people camping in one area creates a fire risk and 2) 10,000 people without porta-potties means a lot of human waste left behind. The Rainbows generally dig their own latrines each day to deal with this but no surprise that locals aren't thrilled with this prospect on public land. 

Already, about 500 Rainbows have showed up to prep the site. One county supervisor was planning to have locals block the access road to prevent any more Rainbows from going into the forest. Local Native American tribes are also concerned.

Lassen County Supervisor Jason Ingram has visited the gathering site and already reported illegal campfires and water diversions. He said he and some friends pulled piping out of a creek that he said carried water almost a mile to campers.

Ingram was planning to do what he could to prevent the event from escalating from 100 or so people to thousands. At his directive, he said, a few hundred local residents would begin barricading the road to the gathering on Friday evening in what he called “respectful” resistance. 

“If you’re a Rainbow, sorry, you’re not going up the grade,” he said. “Go somewhere else.”

Robert Joseph, vice chairman of the Susanville Indian Rancheria, said he’s worried not only about physical harm that might come to sacred Native American sites but also about the home of their ancestors being disrespected. 

“It’s similar to Burning Man, but these guys here are just a little dirtier,” he said. “They kind of leave a trail (of trash) when they come to these places.”

But Tuesday something unexpected happened. For the first time in more than 50 years, the Forest Service told the Rainbows to clear out. They were given 48 hours after which they would face fines.

"The Forest is concerned about the 500 plus individuals already dispersed camping in a concentrated area," said Plumas National Forest Supervisor Chris Carlton in a statement. "We are always willing to work with any organization or group interested recreating on the national forest. There are existing and projected impacts on natural and cultural resources and other authorized uses. Our priority is maintaining public health and safety and the appropriate stewardship of public lands and natural resources."

The order came amid a Red Flag Warning that was issued Wednesday for Plumas National Forest due to high winds and increased wildfire risk.

According to the order, campers were given 48 hours to vacate the area, and anyone arriving or refusing to leave could face fines of up to $5,000 and up to six months of jail time. Only residents and those with special-use authorization permits will be allowed in the area.

The brief order is here. Ingram, the County Supervisor who was planning to block roads was thrilled:

“I believe this is the first rainbow gathering event to be shut down, and you all had a hand in that,” Ingram said.

“As I’ve said from the beginning, my concerns with this gathering were always the illegality aspect, the increased fire risk this would have created, the environmental impact, and the blatant disrespect shown to our local tribes,” Ingram said. “Events are fine, but not events that blatantly disregard the law and endanger our land and community fire safety.”

It hasn't happened yet but I wouldn't be surprised if the ACLU jumped in on the side of the Rainbows. I guess the argument would be that they are being unlawfully discriminated against. But the fair question here is whether any other group of 5-10,000 people would be allowed to hold a weeklong campout in this location under the current conditions, i.e. where wildfires are a major risk and insufficient sanitation is a problem. 

My guess is the answer is no. In other words, if the Rainbows bothered to follow the rules and apply for a permit, their permit would probably be denied. So the question is whether they can get special treatment simply because they refuse to follow the rules.

Apart from any intervention by the ACLU and the courts, the question is whether the Rainbows will show up anyway and how the Forest Service will respond. Will they pass out some $5,000 fines? And what happens if the Rainbows dump those in the latrines and carry on regardless? Is there a police force capable of arresting and jailing 10,000 hippies in the area? It seems to me the 48-hour deadline to leave the area ends today so we should know something by tomrorrow.

Finally, here are two video clips. The first one is a local news report about the Forest Service decision to shut this down. Below that is a report that Vice published last year on the 50th annual Rainbow Family gathering which took place in Colorado in 2022.