CHEYENNE - Federal officials began arriving in Riverton on Monday to prepare for the Rainbow Family gathering, which is expected to be held on U.S. Forest Service land in the Big Sandy area near Pinedale.

A national incident management team made up of about 40 Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management personnel was setting up shop to deal with the potentially thousands of people who could turn out for the event in early July.

"The Rainbow Gathering of Living Light" is a weeklong campout that has been held on federal lands around the country each year since the early 1970s. Thousands of people typically attend the events, which include music and socializing focused on the group's themes of peaceful living and caring for the earth.

Rita Vollmer, a Utah-based Forest Service employee serving as information officer for the incident management team, said Monday that 300 to 500 Rainbow participants had already set up camp in the Bridger-Teton National Forest near Pinedale. The campers were concentrated near Big Sandy Campground and Dutch Joe Guard Station, she said.

Vollmer said the incident management team had not received official word from the loosely organized Rainbow Family regarding exactly where the gathering will be held. "Unofficial" Web sites maintained by Rainbow Family participants said the event will take place in the Big Sandy area.

The Big Sandy River runs through the southern Wind River Mountains in Sublette County; the Forest Service's Big Sandy Campground is located about 25 miles southeast of Pinedale.

Vollmer said the national incident management team includes officials who will work with Rainbow participants on logistical issues, as well as law enforcement officers.

The team also includes resource officers who will work with festival-goers to protect natural resources when it comes to issues such as the location of latrines and kitchens.

"They'll work together pretty much throughout the duration of time the group is on public land," Vollmer said. "It's pretty much to ensure that resources aren't damaged."

Gene Smithson, a senior special agent in the Forest Service's Washington, D.C. office for Law Enforcement and Investigations, is leading the incident management team, Vollmer said.

Vollmer said it's standard for the Forest Service to create a management team for Rainbow Family gatherings.