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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — About 8,000 members of counterculture group the Rainbow Family have arrived in eastern Utah for the annual gathering's final celebration, officials from the U.S. Forest Service said Friday.
Members on Friday join hands in prayer for world peace, releasing one big "om." The ritual takes place every year on July 4th.
"It's just so beautiful," said Karena Gore, who travelled from Montana. It's her fourth time participating in the gathering, she said earlier this week as she listened to friends strum a guitar and sing along to a Cee-Lo Green song. The prayer is one of her favorite parts of the gathering, she said.
Also on Friday, the group communes for a picnic. In days leading up to the main event, cooks in about a half-dozen makeshift kitchens prepared to cook about 500 pounds of pasta for the event.
The Rainbow Gathering has proven to be a burden on local law enforcement and the courts, Wasatch County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Jared Rigby said. Since the buildup to the gathering began in mid-June, police have investigated two unattended deaths, an attempted murder, an attempted robbery and numerous felony drug offenses, Rigby said.
On Thursday alone, authorities made 18 arrests for offenses that included interfering with a police investigation, interfering with a police service animal, driving under the influence, and felony drug possession, Rigby said.
The Wasatch County Jail has also been overwhelmed. Sixty-four members of the Rainbow Family were booked into the jail in the past two weeks, Rigby said. The jail only has 100 beds.
Last year, the gathering drew 10,000 to Montana, where officials put together a list of advice for other forest service workers policing the gathering in future years.
"Usually on the 4th, they're really quiet," forest service Spokeswoman Kathy Jo Pollock said in a Thursday telephone interview. Officials expect little commotion in the area until the group begins moving out on Saturday or Sunday, she said.
The group was originally formed in the wake of the Vietnam War. Its creed revolves around nonviolence, and it has convened every year since 1972.
No official leaders head the group, but members refer to organizers as "focalizers." Most defer to a council of elders, who set guidelines and urge members to avoid drinking alcohol on the vast campsite.
"We just come to love each other individually and as a group," member Red Carlin said.
Contributing: Geoff Liesik
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