Summer Camp Festival Announces Indefinite Hiatus Following 2023 Event

As one of the few standing mid-size independent music festivals in the US, Summer Camp Music Festival has succumbed to the challenges of facing larger-scale corporate festivals, a post-pandemic world, and other inevitable setbacks.

Ahead of its 22nd edition this Memorial Day Weekend, Summer Camp Festival has shared an announcement that rocked many fans and supporters. After this year’s event, the festival will be taking a hiatus.

Ian Goldberg, the event’s founder, shared more details, citing a few unfortunate but understandable reasons as to why the event can no longer go on as it has for the past two decades.

Ian wrote, “The challenges of throwing a mid size independent music festival in the face of the big corporate festivals as competition both for fans and for artists, along with the logistical challenges (especially post pandemic) of throwing an event of this size in a small market in Central Illinois have had us reevaluating what we do for awhile now.”

He continued, “But reimagining Summer Camp had its own challenges, we could not figure how to scale back the event in a way that would feel true to everything Summer Camp Music Festival has come to be. Cutting pieces of it felt like leaving our children behind. So we decided it was time to put Summer Camp Music Festival to rest.”

Artists, vendors, and fans flooded to the comments to offer their support. Manic Focus wrote, “Love you forever SCamp fam, thank you for everything [purple heart emoji].” Grass Roots California offered a heartfelt comment, “Wow. Thank you so much for including our brand and having us make merchandise all these years for you. Thank you so much for the support and allowing us to grow through summer camp. The first music festival we ever vended, you always let us be us, and for that, we are forever grateful. Y’all some of the realest out there and we cannot express how much summer camp has meant to us over the years.”

Although Summer Camp will not continue (for the time being) as many remember it, Ian promises a new event to keep the Scamp tradition alive. He added, “We will be announcing more details on the new event after this years festival, but it will likely include certain elements that long time SCampers will find very familiar. Most importantly we have cherished our long relationships with our host bands, moe. and Umphrey’s McGee and we look forward to what the future may hold with this new event.”

Summer Camp Music Festival is still looking forward to a memorable event next weekend with Excision, The Disco Biscuits, Ganja White Night, and more.

Ashley

I’ve been a part of the dance music scene for nearly a decade and with Exron for more than half of that time. My first event was Diplo’s Mad Decent but these days you’ll find me at Club Space or the Brooklyn Mirage. Some of my top artists are G Jones, Tipper, Of The Trees, and CharlestheFirst. My favorite genres are techno, experimental bass, and ambient but I’ll get down to anything with a beat!

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