---
type: "Talk"
title: "Rainbow Gathering"
description: "Rainbow Gathering"
resource: "https://aurelijus.banelis.lt/en/talks/rainbow-gathering/"
timestamp: "2024-07-27"
tags:
  - "community"
  - "philosophy"
  - "NoTrollsAllowed"
lang: "en"
date: "2024-07-27"
---


A hippie festival through a geek's eyes. What can be learned from an anti‑technology festival, and how its ideas are close to the "NoTrollsAllowed" or Open Source communities.

I usually never miss the "NoTrollsAllowed" festival — unless there is Covid, a honeymoon trip, or... friends talk me into travelling to the European Rainbow Gathering in Bulgaria (2022). So I think it is symbolic to tell the story of the hippie‑gathering phenomenon.

During the talk I plan to:

- Introduce where the Rainbow Gathering comes from.
- How and why an anti‑technology "mini town" works:
  - No microphones, no phones, no electricity – yet it communicates across kilometres.
  - No clocks, no supervisors – knowledge sharing and workshops (what it has in common with "NoTrollsAllowed").
  - No money, no single leader, illegal – yet things do not fall apart.
  - No police or security service – conflicts get resolved.
  - Open to everyone, yet naturally protected from trolls.

I will not try to convince you to try a Rainbow Gathering yourselves, but rather to illustrate where we forget that it is possible to think differently. To illustrate, I will use the European 2022 Rainbow Gathering in Bulgaria – in size and location, they differ.

Read more: <https://www.welcomehome.org/>