A confluence of factors, including heightened fears and risks of wildfires in a national forest that has seen several devastating ones in recent years, led to an outsized response from local and federal authorities to the arrival of the Rainbow Family campout this year.

The hippies just want to be left alone in peace, man. But that is not how it was in Plumas National Forest, and in the communities of Janesville and Beckwourth, where separate responses by law enforcement and by the US Forest Service, as well as loud hostility from local residents in late June and early July led to a much smaller-than-usual gathering of around 1,800 Rainbows.

A hand-painted sign at the encampment proclaims, like they do at the Burning Man gates, "Welcome Home." But welcome they were not this year, when the annual hippie campout, which can swell to upwards of 10,000 people and was even larger in earlier times, arrived first to an area near Antelope Lake, outside of Janesville.

As was first reported in mid-June, the Rainbows, who often give little or no warning of their arrival, made their plans known to come to this part of Plumas National Forest. The gathering was met with pushback from local tribes as well as the local sheriff, with warnings going out to residents about criminal activity which can sometimes accompany the campouts.

These are mostly peaceful gatherings with roots going back to the original hippie movement, and the July 4th timing of the campout dates back to 1972 and the Antiwar Movement, marking a kind of protest for peace amid the height of the Vietnam War.

Over the years, the gathering has moved around to different national forests in different states, but without any central organizing body, the Rainbow Family likes to operate as if this is just a spontaneous affair and not an "event," and they never seek permits.

This has at times cost money to local communities for cleanup, though a spokesperson for the Forest Service has said that a contingent of Rainbows typically stick around to assist with the cleanup themselves.

Still, gatherings of thousands of people tend to have an impact on the environment, and these campouts usually involve kitchen setups with wood-burning and propane stoves, as well as "shitters" that are dug into the earth and shared by the group.

A threat of fines from the Forst Service and an official closing of the area where the initial 500 campers were setting up in late June led the group to relocate to an area near Beckwourth in Plumas County. The move happened amid a Red Flag Warning in the county from the National Weather Service, which would have made any outdoor fires illegal.

As the Chronicle reports, the new location, in an area that recently burned in a wildfire — the 105,000-acre Beckwourth Complex fires in 2021 — was thought to be less fire-prone.

The first location was also met with a planned car blockade by local residents, who eventually stood down. And at both locations, there was a heavy presence of law enforcement that left a bad taste for many Rainbows — and kept many from showing up at all, as the Chronicle reports.

"Honestly, I’ve never seen so many law enforcement officers in a single location in my entire life," said Bay Area resident Chris Bair who was returning for his first campout since 2007, speaking to the Chronicle. He drove up from Lafayette, got pulled over near the campsite for driving 21 miles per hour in a 15-mph zone, and tells the paper, "When I left, I was the most paranoid I’ve ever been, and I’ve got nothing to be paranoid about."

Another camper from Oregon, Fern Rose, who attended the gathering with her husband and children, tells the Chronicle, "We represent something that doesn’t align with most people. It’s not OK to be racist. It’s not OK to hate brown, Black and yellow people. But it’s OK to hate hippies?"

The pushback and law enforcement attention this year in California is not unique for recent years, and not unique to California. But this was the first time that the group was officially ordered out of a national forest area.

As one regular participant who's been attending Rainbow Family gatherings since he was a child, 36-year-old Adam Buxbaum, told the LA Times last month, such negative attention is having an impact on what really is meant to be just an innocent, peaceful occasion. "A lot of people have quit coming to the gatherings permanently because they’re tired of being searched and harassed every single year," Buxbaum said.

Previously: Rainbow Family Gathering Ordered Out of National Forest For First Time, Threatened With Fines

Top image: Hippies forming a Supper Circle at a 2004 Rainbow Family gathering. Supper Circles like this one are formed to pray and give thanks before eating meals. Photo by Tristan Savatier/Getty Images