SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Thousands of young people and some
more weathered hikers are trekking up a path that cuts through aspen and
pine to a summit of a Utah mountain about 60 miles east of Salt Lake
City.
The group includes train hoppers, students, lawyers,
architects and others, members say. But each belongs to the Rainbow
Family, which has convened every year since 1972, sometimes in two
states at once, to join in prayers for peace, sing-a-longs in the
travelling Granola Funk theater and unkempt free-spiritedness that has
irked some residents in neighboring Heber City.
"People call us
misfits, drug addicts, homeless, useless. That’s not true," said Red
Carlin, a retired carpenter and unofficial ambassador for the group.
"Because of our existence, we’re outsiders. We’re the people your mom
and dad pointed out beforehand and said, ‘Don’t be like that.’"
The
gathering is expected to double in size this week as more members pour
in to the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest for a four-day celebration
that ends Friday. On Tuesday, some came in pairs, groups or by
themselves in a variety of looks: dreadlocks, sundresses, with pets and
dirt-caked faces.
Members began arriving about two weeks ago in
Heber City, where residents say they’re wary of disorderly conduct and
question how much the gathering will cost their town.
About 10,000 people are expected to arrive by Friday, the height of the celebration.
Last
year, the same number of members set up camp in Montana. The group
there racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in law enforcement
costs, officials said. The festival prompted U.S. Forest Service
officials there to draw up a list of lessons learned for other states.
In Heber City, authorities have doubled their force with help from state agencies.
The
Rainbow Family has no official creed or website, and it doesn’t
publicly identify any leaders or list of members. It revolves around
peace and nonviolence, various unofficial websites say.
A roving
courtroom returned to the site Tuesday to handle misdemeanor citations
for drug possession and having a dog off-leash on national forest land.
Another judge is expected to go through about 50 more such cases this
week.
Police cars, roving officers and a drug dog dotted the two-mile path from a parking lot up to various
camp sites.
Authorities
say a New Hampshire woman and a man from Texas at the celebration
apparently died in their sleep. Police also say a New Mexico woman at
the campsite last week stabbed a participant, seriously injuring him.
But
most people at the campsite have been peaceful and have complied with
rules restricting where they may set up camp and draw water, officials
from the U.S. Forest Service and the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office
told The Associated Press last week.
The last time the Rainbow
Family set up in Utah was 2003, when members camped in Summit County.
The group has convened every year since 1972.