So this was my very first Summer Camp Music Festival experience and I was not disappointed in the slightest. I was, however, extremely surprised with a lot of things. I was really excited to be attending the festival and even more blown away by the line-up but a few things (pre-festival) were bugging me. These things that I thought would disappoint me actually turned out to be AWESOME. Summer Camp took my frowning pre judgments and turned them into a super smile.
For starters I was disappointed and intimidated about the “no camping next to your car” rule. I was scared because I had a ton of camera equipment that I would have liked to have kept safely locked next to me in my vehicle. I was also concerned about lugging all my camping stuff to a site. I was quite surprised that I actually enjoyed not camping near my vehicle. And there were no problems and no issues.
It really felt like I was at a real summer camp and a sense of community was built based on the fact that there were no cars making boundaries. At other festivals when you have to walk through rows of vehicles you don’t really get to know your neighbors that well. When I thought “oh damn, I can’t charge anything,” I found outlets close to our site and enjoyed walking through the tent city making friends. When I thought “oh damn, I have to carry all my stuff to my site,” it showed me that packing less is actually better. When you bring ALL the comforts of home with you sometimes you don’t want to leave the campsite to see music. I had nothing at my site besides my tent and a chair. No excitement there!
The number one piece of advice I would give anyone: BRING A WAGON! I found this cheap one at Dicks Sporting Goods that was collapsible. I will definitely get more use out of it this summer. Mine helped so much with the small amount of things I brought with me. I even lent it to new friends for their trips to the cars.
The setup and layout of the venue was super easy. If you had a far trek you could pay for a cheap festi-cab. My group of friends camped in the woods as opposed to camping in the fields. We camped next to a smaller stage that had great music playing all day and night. The woods seemed to fill up pretty quickly on Thursday during the pre-party. The shade was MUCH nicer, especially if you didn’t have an ez-up.
I was wondering about the “no bringing your own alcohol” rule. With all the shenanigans going on I definitely like to partake in a little drinking and hate when a festival charges $10 for a beer/mixed drink. Again Summer Camp you made me re-evaluate my judgments. Honestly, not having to worry about obnoxious drunk people and glass and bottles everywhere was really nice. I feel like the number one item people steal from other people’s campsites is booze. Not having to worry about someone rummaging through my cooler for a cold one was pretty nice. Individual drinks were fairly priced and they even sold 12 packs for a reasonable price.
Lastly, I came to Summer Camp kind of bummed out that the Red Barn Late Night Sets with some of my favorite artists were not accessible to everyone. Tickets to them sold out weeks before the festival. Well Summer Camp, you did it again. You turned my frown upside down. All of the artists featured in the Red Barn also had other sets during the festival. I really didn’t need to see these artists twice and this gave me the chance to check out some new music late night. There was ALWAYS something going on. Late night was always poppin off somewhere other than the Red Barn.
There was so much stuff going on other than music if you found yourself needing a break. One of the things I wish I had gotten a chance to check out was some of the field day activities: Kickball, capture the flag, pizza eating, tug o war, scavenger hunts; I don’t know how I missed that. I did happen to check out a lot of the great informational speeches and music at the vibe tent. I listened to a great speech on GMO’s. I was also informed there was a raffle where you got tickets when someone saw you do a random act of kindness. I received a ticket when someone saw me picking up pieces of a glass bottle someone had dropped. Its things like this that make festivals something more than just a rager.
I’m not going to talk about the music, because I cold go on and on about how awesome it was. I would rather talk about the awesome people that made an event like this run so smoothly. BRAVO to the staff and planning that went into this festival. Many people dont realize what it really takes to successfully pull off an event like this.
This experience has proved that you can’t pre judge a festival on the words of your friends or on the few things you might think are an inconvenience. Get out there and see for yourself! You can definitely tell this festival has been going on a number of years. It was very organized and well planned out. With such an eclectic line-up, from EDM to Country, and everything in between, Summer Camp Music Festival really had a lot to offer me. A lover of all music, I sometimes found myself torn between stages and stopping to listen to something new on my way to check out something else. I don’t think there was ever a time where I asked “what should we do?!”. I can’t wait until next year!
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