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A Summer Camp For Big Kids

May 18, 2017 - By Brando Rich

It was Memorial Day Weekend in 2001 when Summer Camp Music Festival made its first debut. The original idea for Summer Camp was to create a resting spot for a tour. It would be a small festival where touring bands could set up camp in between shows. Essentially it was a jam band festival with moe. as its headliner. Now going into its 17th year, Summer Camp has evolved into a 3 day festival (4 days if you count the Thursday pre-show) with over 20,000 attendees, 100 bands, and 7 stages. The lineup has evolved to more than just bands in the jam scene, eventually adding EDM artisits to the roster as the genre's popularity grew.

Derek Chamberlain, a Camp Counselor since the beginning, recounts Summer Camp's first year.

"I found out about Summer Camp by a paper flier being handed out at a live show in the Chicago area. At that time, you walked up, handed someone some money and walked into the forest for a couple days. The tree line (now inside the gates) was the main entrance, and there was just a short, orange construction fence as a main gate. There was no security, and no restrictions on what you could bring in."

Of course, these things change when an event becomes 20 times larger. There was less room for those attending to simply hang out; the grounds became covered in tents. The two intial stages began to multiply in order to accomodate more and more musicians. Luckily, the grounds were large enough to expand upon and as the festival grew, so did everything else.

Three Sisters Park has been the home to Summer Camp since the begining. In fact, before Summer Camp it hosted the Summer Sessions Tour. The spot was chosen for the festivals when moe. was looking for a place in the midwest to set up camp for a weekend. This would allow them availability to fans in the midwest and would be a perfect compliment to moe.down. They teamed up with Jay Goldberg of Jay Goldberg Entertainment to create what is now Summer Camp. Three Sisters Park was large enough to support festival growth that would happen as the years went on and the park owners were always willing to work with Summer Camp to help with festival management each year.

Summer Camp chooses their lineup in the same way that most large festivals do. "There are a lot of emails and balancing acts of numbers," says Chamberlain. But that's not the only way they find bands, they also have a street team dedicated to attending shows around the midwest to seek our the freshest up-and-coming bands. This system is called the On The Road Tour.

"A camp representative works with venue owners and industry contacts to stay in the know of who are the hottest bands in each market. There are 16 stops on the tour. He tries to cover all of the hot markets for live music in the midwest."

Who doesn't love an awesomely huge festival that also supports local talent? Summer Camp clearly knows what they're doing. The lineup is always killer and this year will be no exception. From huge acts like Trey Anastasio Band, Umphrey's Mcgee, Pretty Lights, and, of course, moe. to smaller acts like Aqueous, The Maine Squeeze, Turkuaz, and The Werks, you really can't go wrong.

Summer Camp Music Festival takes place in Chillitcothe, IL at Three Sisters Park on Memorial Day Weekend, like it always has. I asked Derek if he knew why Memorial Day was always the Summer Camp weekend and he gave me an answer I could get behind.

"Don't tell anyone, but Memorial Day weekend is when the happy, good-time, fun spirits all awake in Three Sisters Park and throw a wild music orgy in your ear...if you let them in. But it only happens once a year over the 4 days preceding Memorial Day."

Yup, that sounds right. If you don't believe him, I guess you'll have to see for yourself. You can get tickets for Summer Camp here. Also, if you want to be even more hyped up for the fest you can check out Derek's podcast. He has some great interviews with Al Schnier from moe., Keller Williams, Oliver Wood of the Wood Brothers, Dave Jonston of Yonder Mountain String Band, and Matt Butler of Everyone Orchestra. Ok, are you overly excited now? Because we sure are!