Saya pertama kali mendengar tentang Rainbow Family Gathering sekitar delapan tahun yang lalu. Di seluruh Eropa dan aku dijemput oleh sekelompok hippies Italia yang mengatakan kepada saya tentang ini hippie meet-up tahunan yang berjalan damai dan nyata. Pada awalnya, sulit untuk menemukan informasi apapun tentang acara ini di online, tapi saya akhirnya menemukan site yaitu Rainbow Family Gathering, Eropa Rainbow Mengumumkan akan berlangsung pada bulan baru Agustus 2008, di suatu tempat di Serbia. Undangan akan dikirim via email segera setelah mereka menemukan lokasi.

Sekitar dua minggu sebelum acara, saya menerima lampiran dalam email. Itu scan dari kartu pos dengan peta digambar tangan, ditutupi dengan motif bunga psychedelic, Hearts the Words: "Welcome Home".

The Rainbow Family is an anarchist, utopian, new age community that comes together during Rainbow Gatherings. The emphasis during those gatherings is on freedom and love. There is no entrance fee, no hierarchy and no actual organisation behind the gatherings. Everyone is responsible for planning and setting up the event – scouting the location, cooking, providing first-aid supplies and peacekeeping. The costs are covered by donations from the attendees during the gathering, who spend their days giving and taking workshops at the gathering, dancing, meditating, sitting in council circles, women's circles and drum circles or doing herb walks, yoga, tantra or psychedelic drugs.

The first Rainbow Gathering in 1972, in Colorado was attended by more than 20,000 people. It wasn't meant to be that big – the idea was for a few people to get together in a remote wilderness for four days, to pray and meditate for world peace. But that first gathering gave way to a bunch of annual events now held all over the world.

Usually, the locations of the Gatherings are about 20 to 30 kilometres away from the nearest town. From there, Family members follow colourful pieces of string hanging from trees or piles of stones to find their way to the location. That's exactly how I reached my first gathering in 2008 – after a four hour hike on Serbian dirt roads.( Sorry English males translate hehe)