On the Fourth of July, while Buffalo families mix potato salad, light charcoal and fire off bottle rockets. Leon Gunn will be cooking for a crowd, too.
The stove might be wood-fired, built of rocks and clay, its roof an artfully hung tarp. But when pancakes, popcorn or soup comes off the fire, Gunn and his crew will never want for customers. They'll be surrounded. In Pennsylvania's Allegheny National Forest, around Gunn's kitchen and dozens more, the Rainbow Family cf Living Light, some 20.000 free-spirited souls, will be celebrating independence in a distinctly American way.
Gunn. 29. in civilian life a baker at Spot Coffee, will give it away. As at any decent picnic. the chow is free. The similarities end there. Sweaty drum circles around bonfires, not uniformed brass bands, will provide background music. The hot dogs sizzling on the grill will be, more likely than not, Tofu Pups. It won't be fireworks sulfur but wood smoke, patchouli incense and perhaps a whiff of cannabis carried on the night breeze. But the idea of giving thanks for freedom is as much a part of the agenda as it will be in Riverside Park or any volunteer fire department barbecue.
Give me your tie-dyed, your dreadlocked, your vegan masses yearning to breathe free. Over the Internet and by word of mouth, the drumbeat has sounded. All are invited to the jamboree, formally known as the Gathering of the Tribes for Peace and World Harmony. In July. they will pour into the woods around a central meadow and settle down for a week or so, creating an instant community. At its peak. it will be the largest city between Pittsburgh and Erie.
A city without government, except that agreed on collectively. Recycling stations amid the trees, water piped in from neighboring springs for purification, work crews to dig Rainbow-designed latrines.
A city with distinctly alternative way of making decisions: by consensus. No leaders, just planners and doers and slackers (or "Drainbows"). A community held together, however briefly, by a commitment to contribute what they can, take what they need and look out for their neighbors.
No wonder greeters hug people at the entrance gate and proclaim, "Welcome home!" It's fair warning that inside, they cross into another country -- or at least a state of mind.
The gathering has been held in a national park every year since 1972, and one would hardly do it justice to call it a hippie jamboree. Last year's, held in the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest near Carnero Lake, Ariz., was hampered by a shortage of clean water but still drew an estimated 20,000 participants.
"Rule No. I for setting up a kitchen at a gathering," said Gunn. "Never rely on hippies to bring water.
Gunn's not a hippie, or a New Ager. He's a full-time biology major at Erie Community College. "I don't have to meditate on my third chakra to have a good time," said Gunn. He doesn't do drugs, just the occasional beer. But the spirit he finds at gatherings "invigorates me," Gunn said. "I walk out refreshed, with a better attitude and hope for the human race."
At its best, veterans say, the national event serves up a hybrid of political theater, counterculture fair and spiritual megamall. "Weirdstock," the wags say. How's this for theater: On a main path to the central meadow, the Rainbow town square, you might find a tollbooth barring the way. You may pass after you share a joke with the waiting audience, and you might get hugged.
Rainbows are much more than aging flower children and their progeny, said Michael Niman, a Buffalo State College lecturer who explains Rainbow Nation roots in "People of the Rainbow: A Nomadic Utopia." Anyone who walks in is a citizen. Whether tattooed punk or silent drifter, Christian evangelist or Buddhist vegetarian, Niman said. they find their place. The gatherings give members, often social activists of some stripe, a chance to live in a community they can actually shape - if only for a week.
All are welcome - and, by Rainbow custom,- - all are fed. "Bring a bowl and you'll eat; bring a cup and you'll drink," Niman said. Following the food chain helps illustrate the all-inclusive Rainbow philosophy. Many people attending Gatherings bring extra staples such as sacks of rice or beans, Niman said, destined for a central supply depot. There's a1most always enough to go around.
The only time money comes out is when the Magic Hat, a community fund-raising device,. comes by. - The money goes for more staples or overlooked needs of the Family.
Reflecting their customers' tastes, and: the demands of backwoods sanitation, most kitchens serve vegetarian food The few kitchens that serve meat are accepted under the do-your-own thing spirit of the gather ring, Niman said. Some kitchens specialize in making tofu sprouts and bread. There's even a doughnut kitchen, run each year by a man who shows up with his pack and a big iron kettle, Niman said
Running a kitchen in the woods is hard work, Niman said, but a sense of communal labor gets most people to pitch in. Whether carrying wood or water, digging. Rainbow-prescription latrines or helping transport supplies, Niman said, Rainbows learn that community takes work.
The Gathering represents a place of "peace, respect, diversity and people who honor those values," said Albert Brown. 33. Diversity, and the tolerance it demands, explains the presence of "A" Camp. Alcohol, though frowned upon at Gatherings for the violence and disruption that chronic drinkers can cause, is not banned.- Instead, drinkers -are shooed toward "A" Camp, usually on the outskirts of-the site, Brown said. The Rainbows' open-arms policy occasionally does attract people with partying, not peace, uppermost in their minds, said Brown.
"If you go to a pro football game it's the same thing," he said. "There are people who will go just to hang out and see what kind of trouble there is to get into." Brown,. who has spent years managing an organic farm in East Aurora and following the Grateful Dead on tour, is currently trying to organize the beginnings of an agricultural commune somewhere' outside Buffalo. "We're trying to build a community of people - living with the earth in harmony," said Brown. "and trying to share our spirituali ty and joy with one another."
At the Rainbow Gathering Brown said, if only for a few days. he can catch a glimpse of what that life might be like.
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