The World Rainbow Cafe tent functioned well during Aquarius50, in a central and popular area, Cullen Street Nimbin, opposite the Nimbin School of Arts., site of the old Rainbow Cafe before it burned down. It was in August 2014, some nine years ago now, that the buildings in this area caught fire and burnt down in the middle of the night. A basalt wall, curving like a rainbow, now stands as these buildings’ tombstone.
Thanks to Michael Balderstone of MardiGrass for the use of this red and white tent, which was laid out with pennants, flags, couches, carpets, mats and cushions. Walling was done by Ron of Nimbin recycling. Crystella and Sati made the Cafe signs, thank you.
A chai stall was well run and set in the far corner, thankyou. GOVINDAS, from the Hare Krishna farm, caldera north, brought in their mobile kitchen and fed people hundreds of delicious prashadam meals.
A fire-can was maintained out front of the tent. A small group gathered there on those cold nights, during those ten days. It was the only fire in the centre of town and was carefully managed.
Travellers rested there, and some crashed overnight. The area was kept tidy.
Pop up or fringe events were catered for by booking a spot on a chalk board showing the daily programs. The first event, the BE-IN HARE KRISHNA , somewhat channelling San Francisco 1967. Srila Prabhupada book readings by Gurudkshine, and bhajana by Garuda, held a sacred space.
A kirtan party took off out of the World Rainbow Cafe onto the Nimbin streets. Amazing! Fantuzzi was singing in the Nimbin Hall, and hearing them go by, he invited them in. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna the song went om n’ om n’ on around. The hall PA excitedly exclaimed “it’s a Hare Krishna take over!”. Singing and dancing on the streets of Nimbin was a necessity, for the auspiciousness of our dear Aquarius anniversary.
A massive vinyl sound system blew the cobwebs out of central Nimbin’s empty burnt out building sites. Thanks guys, you did well.
Peter Pedals daily led discussions about many social issues. Many of which lay on the periphery of people’s awareness… Perils perplexing our society. How to deal with them. Feather was there, and Tor n’ Dom n’ many more dropped in.
The impressive thing about the use of the old rainbow cafe site was that its re-use for Aquarius50 left zero footprint. Thanxx so much for keeping things clean, and cleaning up. Thanks to Tuntable Falls Coordination Cooperative for permission to use the space.
No incidents were reported.
Service to All.
Perhaps the World Rainbow Cafe was a myth, legendary, but its stories persist through the universal wide Rainbow Regions.