Everything was there for a perfect gathering and the chosen spot allowed
a true rainbow way of life.
Imagine! Far away from Babylon, at an altitude of 1400 m, several clearings encircled by a huge forest, plenty of dry wood (for construction or fire),
relatively difficult access (one hour and a half walk with luggage, steep and sometimes very very muddy pathways...in a word : a place you had to deserve! And, on top of that, a very "rainbow autochthon", warm ,sensitive, smiling and a talented tractor driver who agreed to bring heavy loads twice a day up to the camp (he also took our disabled brothers and sisters up, using another route).


What about the other locals from the surrounding villages?
A few inhabitants of this Babylon province made their way up there and
went so far as to join their smiles and their "ti amo" for group photos,
dressed in their "official" mushrooms/bilberry pickers or day-tripper clothing,
thus answering the "we love you" coming from the colourfully dressed (or nude!) rainbow people.
Tears of joy (of love) were even shed on both sides!...

We could live there in all simplicity, naturally, hidden away ("to live happily,
let's, etc...) without being disturbed by the hatred of newspapers and their gossip (like "poisoning of hundreds of people" or "gatherings to get high on mushrooms, etc...).
Since then, the articles in the italian press are all the more flattering,
telling how nature respectful those rainbow people had been, cleaning the place up so over-conscientiously ;
The village mayor invited some of us at the local feast and talks nicely about us on several occasions in the local papers.
At the market, everybody declared they were enchanted to have met such new people (and the colours!) and they insisted : "not at all from a business point of view!"
They lowered their prices (at the cafe or elsewhere) for those who looked like they belonged to the "elves" from up there.
In number as well you could find at this gathering the glances all the rainbow family people are used to! Those eyes which always seem to be contemplating some paradise, so angel-like, clear, dreaming to the point of ecstasy, beaming with the joy of sharing or dimmed with tears of happiness...
Eyes that look at you with the heart.

Yes, indeed, (sure enough!) you could feel some negative side also.
But much less than at other gatherings (USA for instance) and only if you had a sense of observation : many people were having their first rainbow experience and alas (alas, alas, alas,!!!) many had not tried to get informed about the basic rules : so many dogs!
And other people answered the "welcome home" or "happy day" or "we love you!" shouts with silence or frowning faces.
And...those "drainbows" who obviously came just to eat for free without taking part in the movement or in the setting : nor in the huge and judiciously set up kitchen, or anywhere , or participating in social encounters. Some beings were retired within themselves or keeping to their black-dressed clique.

What else?
One or two tactless paparazzi : light boisterousness, even some fights.
And 2 cases only (as far as i know) of schizophrenia or agressivity (out of 3000 to 5000 people!)
But of course! can one expect paradise at once and everywhere (the European Rainbow gatherings first started in 1981)?
Let's not forget the rainbow philosophy : above all open and welcome all who wish to experience it. All..."Everybody is welcome, we are a gathering of many views, many colors, many races, many creeds..." says the info leaflet which everybody doesn't take time to read (there is just so much to live!) but may read before the next gathering!

Well! however! apart from this dent in our enthusiasm, what a joy everywhere! and an infectious one too!
Excellent singers : blues, jazz, medieval, musette,rock,yiddish hymns,hindu songs...
Fire blowers, jumbees, didgeridoos, accordions, bagpipes, double basses. . .
A bunch of professional musicians creating a paradise like harmony!

Pictures of oriental scenes in the dome (love temple), of ashrams,indian villages or ghats with sanyasins and chapati makers working rythmically.
All these women so beautifully dressed, wearing veils and ornaments (jewels, tikka, colours, spangles, mirrors...), dancing, walking, reading at the open air library, rocking some daring ones in a cradle, sweetly singing...
So many caresses, hugs, hands and bodies playing together the real game of real love (at the angel workshop, in the love temple or just like that) .

Pictures of a radiant future with beaming children laughing in the kindergarden, breast-fed babies or babies with parents visibly coming from "another world", from a more serene and more healthy universe.

Pictures from a dream world : butterfly women, thousands of soap bubbles rising towards the shining sun or the full moon, irreal tipi camps, fog layers...Birds made of wood and leaves, sadhus, shamans, sufis, Adams and Eves before wine leaves were invented...
Here and there... under the showers, at the sauna, in front of Ganesh, at the Peace-Love-Understanding place...Everywhere! And very often the feeling to be among beings who have truly understood the sacredness of existence and who perform every action as a conscious ceremony.
Ah! What about the 3 huge food circles where all gather in the celebretion hymn and join through the primordial sound of OM waking up with the ritual of clapping one another's palms...
Joy of sharing with the Whole under all its aspects : with Mother Earth,
with the rain of an instant, the Sun, the cold of an evening and all creations of Gaïa, her inhabitants and with the deepest core of ourselves!
Joy of finding the way back home to life's very essence...
Wasn't it,you, C... who, arrived very shy and dressed in black ,took to dancing like a true african woman, soon as the next day, your face painted, radiant and your body surrounded with beaming colors?
And you, A... and all your family repeating again and again : "we have come out of the forest and have found love"...
And you, G...a nervous 7 year-old boy, changing suddenly into the king of soap bubbles applauded by so many grown-ups!
"Isn't life beautiful?","happy day!" could be heard everywhere as a good summary!
We come from Babylon and we were very lonely. Let us create a sunny day full of light!Oh! how beautiful it is to be here, so good, so nice, all of us, like this.
To love one another all the time ...” ,did we say again and again, laughing, hugging, kissing...
And also :"would you like to join us for a cup of warm something?" "let me help you carry your bag!""would you come and sing with us tonight?""A biscuit? some grape?"
"How beautiful you are!These eyes! This pendant!" Whaouh!...
A Rainbow gathering as we know them, in a word!
In harmony with Rainbow gatherings : joy, colors, wisdom, being together,
party, music, dance, fire, expansion, meeting again, intelligent talking.
..

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOhyouwelcome