Community Members Share Concerns Regarding Upcoming “Rainbow Gathering”

The 2019 Rainbow Family Gathering will be in the Chequamegon–Nicolet National Forest.

BAYFIELD, Wis.- Community members in and around Bayfield County are speaking their concerns on the thousands of expected visitors coming to camp in the Chequamegon–Nicolet National Forest through the first full week in July for an event known as the Rainbow Family of Living Light Gathering.

The Rainbow Family Tribe is a group of people who claim to be working toward world peace. Their gatherings have taken place in various national forests since 1972.

The Rainbow Family has worked closely with the National Forest Service for several years. But one of the biggest raised concerns is their last minute decision on where their annual gathering will take place.

This years event in the Delta Township of Wisconsin wasn’t made aware to the National Forest Service until June 12, merely a week before gathering participants began traveling to the area.

.”This is something we specialize in. We are very good at leaving no impact and the forest service knows this. We have it documented year after year after year,” gathering participant Loretta Reddog said.

A heated discussion between community members and Rainbow Family Tribe members at the Iron River Community Center answered the questions of what the group was doing in a rural Northern Wisconsin national forest.

“They’ll pray for world peace, they’ll mediate for world peace, they’ll blow bubbles for world peace, do yoga for world peace– pretty much anything that’s like a quiet, slow moving action,” gathering participant Karin Zirk said.

But the conversation didn’t ease the concerns shared among locals.

“You sit around in your spring council, you pick a community that doesn’t have the resources to facilitate your gathering and then you show up– it’s guerrilla tactics,” one local called out.

Up to five thousand people are expected to come to Bayfield County for the prayer event happening July 4, and community members are worried that that many people will use too many of the area’s resources and cause traffic, especially since many roads are still closed thanks to last year’s flooding.

“The community is not use to large scale events and long term events so there’s just a certain uncertainty about how the community might be effects,” Bayfield County Sheriff Paul Susienk said.

Karin Zirk has been attending rainbow gatherings for decades.

“Up until the prayer starts, people are coming in and coming in, and as soon as the prayer’s over, people start leaving,” Zirk said.

She says there’s misconception about who the rainbow people are.

“Usually once we get to meet each other and talk face to face, we realize we may not be exactly alike, but we’re all focused on the same things,” Zirk said.

She says the group has no mal–intentions.

They want to open their gathering to all of the surrounding community.

“This event is open to the world, and when you invite the world, some people show up who aren’t the nicest people. So number one, don’t judge all of us from the few bad apples, because every community has them.”

Bayfield’s sheriff says logistics are of concern, but law enforcement’s number once priority at this point is making sure every person in town is safe.

Another concern among locals was the amount of trash the group may leave behind. Rainbow Tribe members assured the community that they’ll cover their tracks completely.

When almost ten thousand Rainbow people visited the Superior National Forest in 1990, reports show that they barely left a trace in the area.