I'm on the committee for Camp New Harmony, the 6-day annual song-and-dance gathering of the San Francisco Folk Music Club. For almost 25 years, the camp was located at the adjoining Camp Campbell and Camp Harmon, in the redwoods near Santa Cruz. The spectacular setting added to the camp experience, but eventually the camps got too rugged for our aging clientele.
So, we moved last year to a Jewish camp, Camp Newman, on a former military base near Santa Rosa (north instead of south of San Francisco). We drew a lot more people (300) than we had been drawing to the old camp, but there was something missing - the tradition, the wonderful redwoods, the intimate feeling of the old camp, and Debby McClatchy's cooking.
We had a good camp last year, but part of the reason for that was the novelty of the new location. People came to camp who hadn't been there for years. Now we have to make the new camp into a tradition, and bring back as many of the good aspects of the old camp as we can.
The most important ingredient of a music camp, is the people who attend. If they have the feeling that they're customers, then making a good camp is going to be a tough row to hoe. If they they have a community feeling that THEY are the camp, it will be a good camp.
-Joe-
(hope you don't mind that I moved this to the music section, Mary)