Theme Camps: Guidelines and Registration
Due October 1st!
If individual participants and volunteers are the lifeblood of our community and of our event (is there any doubt?), then projects such as theme camps are the gloriously strange organs pumping and pushing and beauti-weirdi-fying the landscape.
To get your theme camp placed on the Engulf 2023 map, register by October 1st.
But, what is a theme camp?
There is no right or wrong answer; they are the inspired camp you bring. Usually, they are a group of people with a connected vision or visions. Many theme camps are interactive: a place folk may congregate, may be entertained—a place to visit. Lights and decoration are highly encouraged. Like the event itself, some theme camps may be places we go to push our own personal boundaries and explore ourselves and each other. There may be music, noise, or hilarious silence. There may be food or drink. There may be games. Theme camps are often designed to be a place where gifts are shared and where much of our mobile art comes home to lay its weary head.
They are our artistic contribution in camp form, the eccentric physical foundation of our extraordinary event.
Typically, a theme camp contains both an interactive/artistic component for the entire community as well as a camping area for the theme camp members. So a theme camp is both what you build and the people who build it with you.
Any individual theme camp might offer: a music venue, a chill space, a snack, libations, a game, costumes or accessories, an event or events, something for people to make or do, massage, grooming, storytelling, kink, visuals, sounds, weirdness, a safe space, shade, performance, curb appeal, classes or demonstrations, yoga, healing, sculpture, any combination of these, and anything else you can think up!
Theme camps should not offer: illegal substances, alcohol to minors, or unsafe activities. Participants have the right to consent and theme camps have the obligation to ask.
(Don’t have or don’t wanna do a theme camp? Don’t worry! Our open camping area is in a beautiful pine forest with lots of shade and places to set up. No amplified sound beyond a boom box. Quite hours: no amplified sound or generators between 10pm and 10am. No registration necessary.)
Theme Camp Criteria
You should register your Theme Camp. This gets you placed on our city map and allows us to see what you’re bringing and where you should be located in the city. (Theme camps who do not register by the deadline mentioned above may still be placed when they arrive at Engulf, but they will not be on the map.)
Criteria for registration:
Camps should be visually, aurally, and/or sensually stimulating, have an inviting design, and a plan for crowd management.
Camps must be interactive. They should include activities, events, or services and they must be available to the entire Engulf community.
Camps must be neighborly. This includes keeping sound within set limits, controlling where camp generators vent exhaust, and easily resolving any boundary disputes that arise.
Camps must have a clean up and leave no trace plan.
Camps must follow safety protocols designed by the organization (this includes traffic management on the streets, proper handling of fuels, and anything else defined by the organization).
Camps should have a sense of their footprint in terms of space, sound, light, etc.
The Engulf Board has the right to prohibit the erection or request the dismantling of any art work or structure that it deems unsafe or otherwise inappropriate and/or prohibit attendees from climbing on any art or structure.
Thank you for creating a Theme Camp for Engulf!
Theme Camp Registrations For Engulf 2023.
Due October 1st!