Drugs, Nudity & World Peace: The Rainbow Family Gathering

Mar 08 2023

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Last July, thousands of hippies convened in a remote Colorado forest for the 50th annual Rainbow Family Gathering. It started as a counterculture movement whose mission was to establish a utopian society that would last thousands of years. But 50 years later…things have deviated from that plan. In recent times, the Rainbow Family has been plagued with crime, sexual assault allegations, and even suspicious deaths. So which is it—a prayer for peace, or a refuge for vagrants with no oversight? VICE’s Erica Matson trekked out to Routt County National Forest to attend the week-long gathering to see if peace is real, or if it's just an acid trip.