In this post, guest author Lucya Lalita Kostiw is writing about how no-tech eco events are organized. The most advanced eco events / gatherings / festivals all unite the same spirit of tribe, which is the Rainbow mentality. Since our guest author has the deepest experience with the utopian-minded consciousness sphere, this article primarily examines the organization of Rainbow Family eco gatherings.
The events can get quite big and complex, so apart from certain offgrid implications, everything here is valid for any eco event. We will cover event planning topics for eco events with utilities and direct roadside access in another post.
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You hear the drums, you see the fire, you smell the earth, you get all the hugs you have ever needed and wanted in this life in the first hour after you arrived. You know you are home! Home in this case is a place as far outside of developed society as possible. A home in nature, like we have lived over millennia. It is a temporary home with people you don´t know â but still it feels more like home than every flat or big and beautiful house ever could.
How do these eco-conscious people do that? A bunch of hippies somewhere in the woods, a tarp under which we cook on the open fire, holes in the ground to do your business in and lots but lots and lots of space for playing, dancing, relaxing and loving each otherâs presence. All this carries the incredibly comforting feeling of something that somehow got lost in society: True togetherness, flow, trust, love and songs that become your favorites after a week.
It all started somewhere in the 1950´s in North America. While others were partying and drugging at Woodstock, another group of eco conscious people went into the woods with no electricity, no running water, and no sanitary systems and recultivated the art of living in and with nature.
They had no drive to drug and dance to loud, electronically supported music. They wanted to celebrate life in its most natural way: Sitting together around a fire, listening and dancing to drums and guitars, cultivating deep conversations and conceptualizing structures to make decisions in a communal way.
Nowadays these gatherings are way more structured, organized and visited by much more people. In the US gatherings reach about 10,000 people. In Europe there are about 2,000-3,000 people at the European gatherings and between 100-600 people at the local gatherings. Rainbow people call the place of the gathering their home and the other people their brothers and sisters. The whole tribe is referred to as family. And, believe it or not, this is exactly how it feels.
One of the most amazing things for me personally about these eco gatherings is that they run almost without money. There is no entry fee, no food stands, no rent the family has to pay to stay on the land, no water nor electricity to be paid. Food is shopped by a crew of volunteers from the money that lands in the âmagic hatâ â a hat that gets passed around after the âfood circlesâ, the commonly shared meals, which happen twice a day. Everybody donates what they can as a contribution for food and other necessities but nobody is obligated.
Tasks and duties are as well commonly shared amongst the visitors: Cooking and serving food, collecting firewood, giving workshops, playing with the kids, building certain areas, decorating, making music, giving healing sessions (ranging from sound, to touch to yogic, massage or incense healings, amongst others).
Everybody does what they feel called to do. When there is no firewood and you think it would be nice to have some so we can be warm at night and keep the sacred fire going, you scream âfirewood missionâ, wait 10/15 minutes and go get it with the other people that feel like it would be nice to have some.
Most gatherings, especially the bigger ones, have the following areas to ensure that there is a space for everything the family needs:
To make such a gathering works out well for a high number of people under these very basic conditions, it needs a few guidelines around hygiene, safety and the shared tasks. These guidelines and regulations are for the most part not ideological but common sense and based on experience of what works and what does not.
They are shared by the older family members and passed down to the newer. Mostly in the welcome area and usually after the first food circle there is someone who announces a circle for the newcomers to explain a bit around the philosophy under which we gather and the guidelines to make the gathering work.
The most important guidelines at these eco events are:
Every country has a core family that scouts for places, starts the set up (2 weeks before the gathering starts officially) and keeps the tents and tools during the time when there is no gathering in the country. A lot of countries have their usual months for their gathering. Portugal for example does one in spring and one in autumn every year. The place for the bigger international gatherings are decided communally in the vision councils where people can make suggestions and explain why it would be good to do a gathering in this particular country.
Cooking and cleaning is organized communally. Usually there is always someone awake. Some people like to go sleeping at 5 am and some get up at 5 am and do their morning yoga or meditation practice. So whenever a person feels hungry he or she can go to the kitchen and see if there are already people starting breakfast and if not start it themselves. Every other activities like workshops, firewood missions, shopping missions are organized voluntarily as well. And this usually works quite well!
There is an opening and a closing ceremony at the new moons that are the starting and the end point of a gathering and a full moon celebration at full moon, Usually a team of volunteers gets together a few days before to organize it. When the gathering is over, there is a cleanup team that tears down the structures, collects trash and does their best to leave no trace. Painted stones or wooden signs are often let there as a reminder for other visitors or scouts.
Because the land is usually quite big the announcements especially of the food circles need to be heard everywhere. Remember, there is no cell phones or speakers or even radios!
How the Rainbowsâ eco event organizers do it:
There are 3 food circle calls. The first one means we are starting, the second one means we are about 80% through so please start coming to the main fire and the third one is food is ready and will be carried over to the sacred fire.
The kitchen starts these calls and every individual or group that hears it counts to 3 and then repeats the call âfood circleâ. Other people who are closer to those who passed on the call hear it now and pass it on themselves. Other common shouts are âhelp in the kitchenâ or âfirewood missionâ and they are passed on in the same way.
The first and second food circle is the main communication hub for sharing info, love and concerns. After food and after the magic hat goes round there is the time for announcements. People step into the middle of the circle and shout âfocus familyâ to get the attention of the others. They then say what they have to say and make room for the next. Talking circles are another way of communicating things more for a smaller group of people who are interested in a certain thing.
There are organizational talking circles, for example for food missions. There are heart sharing circles for just coming together and sharing what moves us in good or bad ways. There are the vision circles to speak about the future gatherings and there are mens and womens circle for coming together amongst our sisters or brothers to help each other heal and work through more gender-specific issues. And of course there are lots of individual or smaller group talks going on spontaneously!
Another important communication form are painted signs, for example to the water source, the defecation pits, the different areas or just to remind of important things like âLoveâ or âBreathâ or âBe in your body and feel the earth under your feetâ.
Especially with the rise of the internet and the moral, political and psychological downfall of society the Rainbow gatherings are faced with a trend of more and more newcomers. This is great on the one hand because in my opinion everybody should experience this lifestyle, but it comes with new difficulties on the other hand.
A lot of newcomers are disconnected from the roots of the gatherings and see it as another festival or the next entertaining thing. Often as well the eco events are seen as nothing more than a free holidays or a way to get excessive because of the level of freedom. That makes even more communication about guidelines important. The outer world guidelines I mentioned above but as well the inner world guidelines of togetherness, self-responsibility and responsibility for others and the spiritual components.
I see that we only have a chance when people feel the internal call to obey both the outer and the inner world guidelines because they see and feel that it makes the gathering more enjoyable for everybody. In terms of written documentation and task papers I see the advantage but as well the logistic difficulties in terms of printing and handing them out.
Rainbow gatherings have been brought to life as a very idealistic idea that works brilliantly in its own messy way. The structures have been formed over generations now and passed on mostly verbally.
The gatherings are a tech free zone which I absolutely appreciate because it is one of the last tech free zones we are holding in our generation and this makes room to be in the present moment with what is relevant around you. This makes digital processing and documentation harder of course. so we will rely on painted signs and verbal communication in the future.
The welcome centers usually do an amazing job by educating on the guidelines but ultimately it is the responsibility of every single visitor to keep up the spirit and use mind and heart together to keep creating these amazing last resorts of freedom, love, peace, harmony and togetherness!
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