Dear Kat:
I thought you would get more responses and that this might develop into a discussion of festivals and folk camps. It still may develop that way.
I go to 3 or4 fests a year and to camp about once every other year. I plan to go to camp next year. I prefer "camps" over "festivals". Festivals are usually 2 to 3 days of crowds, harried activities, and seeing your favorite performers in concert or workshop along with 40 to 2,000 other people in the audience. If you are lucky a "big name" may stop by a campground or parking lot jam for a while.
Camps, on the other hand, are characterized by 5 to 6 days of group living a life of exploring, learining, and sharing, in an enviroment of music, song, and dance. Work shops run an entire 5 to 6 days, giving the instructors and campers a chance to really get to know each other and to share knowledge, technique, and experience. There are also mini and impromptu workshops and, of course, spontaneous jams throughout the day and night. At Pinewoods, for example, everyone has a small job (perhaps clearing the tables after one meal a day, or sweeping the dance pavilion each evening), which furthers the sense of communal belonging. The instructors live like the campers in small cabins and share the entire camp experience. The only bad point, is that its really Hell to get back to the 'real life' of schedules, dress-up, traffic, meetings, presentations, and political correctness.
Go to camp as an adult, you'll be hooked for life!