People in field looking at double rainbow
Bearded men in large crowd of people in field
Festival attendees forming a line in a field
Elderly man with beard and dreads
Man smoking against religious bumper stickers
Pile of goods on ground
Two women on stilts in field
Group of naked people in mud
Man flashing the peace symbol
Wedding couple in field of tents
Shirtless guitarist in park
Man playing upright bass
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Double RainbowIn July 2009, the American Festivals Project attended the Rainbow Gathering in New Mexico's Santa Fe National Forest. The annual event, held in national forests across the U.S., grew out of the 1960s counterculture movement and usually draws between 10,000 and 20,000 people focused on peace, love, and respect for nature. Traditionally, thousands of people meet in the central circle of the Rainbow Gathering camp on the Fourth of July to meditate and pray for world peace. Everyone is expected to keep silent from sunrise on the Fourth to the moment when the prayer circle is broken, sometime after noon. During the 2009 gathering, dark storm clouds broke minutes after the prayer circle ended—and a double rainbow appeared in the sky. Read more about the Rainbow Gathering on the American Festivals Project blog.
Photograph by Ross McDermott, American Festivals Project

Rainbow Gathering

See photos of the 2009 Rainbow Gathering in Santa Fe National Forest in this American Festivals Project travel photo gallery from National Geographic.

April 05, 2010

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