Inside ‘Rainbow Family’ hippy commune who host NAKED festivals to ‘express love’ as cops throw them off nature reserve
THE “Rainbow Family” who enjoy congregating in nature and being naked have been thrown off a nature reserve in their latest meet-up.
The hippy commune were hosting a “Rainbow Family Gathering” before being kicked off a nature reserve by cops in Harz, highland Germany.
The free-spirited events are hosted every year and are attended by bohemians who gather in remote places to be at one with nature and away from consumerism.
But this gathering has been drawn to a close after cops arrived at the bizarre “family” gathering to shut it down.
In the Harz mountains, around a whopping 2,000 hippies from the Rainbow Family gathered to celebrate their beliefs in the annual celebration over the last week.
Rainbow Gatherings are a worldwide occasion, with over 60 nationalities joining in on the eccentric convention.
But police and emergency services spun into panic as each gathering has a so-called “ritual fire”.
The Rainbow Family have these ritual fires to celebrate the full moon, which reportedly took place on 19 August.
Cops were quick to stop this, however, out of fears of forest fires starting and consequentially destroying the landscape.
On top of this, illegally parked vehicles that prevent emergency services passing through were threatened to be towed.
Images show police approaching near-nude campers to attempt to get them off the nature reserve.
Cops were also captured removing tents that had been set up in a bid to get the festival-goers off the land.
Incredible footage even shows gathering-goers totally unbothered while emergency services arrive as they continue to dance.
Goslar’s district administrator Dr. Alexander Saipa said: “Camping in the landscape conservation area is strictly prohibited.
“This applies to everyone, including the Rainbow Family supporters. What has been going on there for over a week is simply against the law.
“Unfortunately, not all participants have complied with our requests over the past few days to leave the area.”
The large-scale police operation is expected to carry on until the landscape is cleared.
A fine was even imposed last week of a whopping €5,000, or around £4,260, on entering the site as campers started to slowly arrive.
But many arrived over the weekend, causing cops to ramp-up the operation.
Despite the worries among emergency services, as the Rainbow Family are so close to nature, they’ve assured that they’d take all their rubbish with them after the event.
Marlies Dornieden from the Göttingen district administration said in a statement: “Our main goal is to prevent a large ritual fire that the Rainbow Family wants to celebrate on the occasion of today’s full moon.
“The danger of a wildfire and forest fire is real despite the rain of the past few days.”
What is the Rainbow Family?
The Rainbow Family of Living Light has been around since the early 70s and do not have a leader.
Each year they put on camping events on public land, dubbed “Rainbow Gatherings”.
The gatherings are for people worldwide to come together for a month to cook together, sing around fires and take part in workshops among other things, Festivals and Retreats report.
They last for a month – which is the same length as the cycle of the moon – and are typically known to happen in Europe.
Countries have regional Rainbows but the Rainbow Gathering happens at a random location worldwide each year where members gather to.
History of the hippie movement
'HIPPY' is a term which can refer to anyone who rejects mainstream culture in society.
The movement began to reach massive levels in the early 1960s and expanded as the years went on.
It began – bizarrely – in the US on college campuses, but soon spread across the world.
Despite the movement emerging in part as opposition to the Vietnam War that ended in 1975, hippies weren’t directly involved in politics.
The hippy population was initially a white and middle-class group of teens and early-20s who belonged to the baby-boom generation.
They felt alienated from middle-class society which they thought was controlled by materialism and repression, Britannica reports.
This meant they started to develop their own lifestyle, like living communally, sticking to vegetarian diets and even practising natural, holistic medicine.
It has historically been renowned for the use of recreational and hallucinogenic drug use which impacted the way-of-living for community members.
The hippies have always been a small minority, and began to fade out in the late 60s – but still remain today.
Hippies used to be and may still be recognisable with long hair, colourful clothing, and their embracing of nature, peace and love.