holley4734
Punk rock families, if you are looking for a family friendly camping and music festival, then please check out Camp Punksylvania! The festival is happening on Sept. 1-3 in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Camp Punksylvania co-founder Laura Rose is on the blog today to explain what the festival means to the people at Riot Squad Media. Please welcome Laura Rose to the blog!
Hi! I’m Laura, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Operations and Relations.
Who came up with the name for Camp Punksylvania?
One of our partners at the time!
How did you decide on Scranton for the location?
Our first year was actually in Artemas, PA. The property itself was absolutely breathtaking, it just wasn’t the right fit for us. Oddly enough during COVID, The Circle Drive-In Theater hosted an outdoor, socially distanced Horror Film Fest that featured some amazing vendors, food trucks and local music. A couple of us attended this event and thought ‘man, this would be really cool for the future.” As soon as our first event in 2021 came to an end, we immediately got on the phone with The Circle Drive-In. The relationships we have developed with the venue are everlasting and we have truly found our home here in the Electric City.
Have you ever been on “The Office” self-guided tour?
Embarrassingly enough, I have not just yet!
What is the most punk rock thing in the Riot Squad office?
I have a piece of the original barricade we made for our very first event on my desk. We let the attendees have at it and burn it at the end in the bonfire, so it’s cool to have a little chunk of that still. To me, it doesn’t get much more DIY than that.
Would older dames like me be welcome at the festival?
Of course! Camp is for EVERYONE. There are tons of activities and things to do, or you can honestly just cruise around and hang with your friends at the campsites.
If my teenagers insist on coming along to the event is that cool?
That is super cool. Camp is all ages and we encourage the younger crowd to come out! We have some really amazing younger bands, such as Froggy on our lineup that I think everyone needs to check out, especially the younger crowd.
What was the inspiration for starting the festival?
A lot of us met at a festival in Ohio and formed some really beautiful relationships. We enjoyed that for a couple of years and then they canceled. We did what we always do and decided to do it ourselves, because why not?
In what way do you hope that the festival benefits the community?
At our core, Riot Squad Media stands for equity. We seek to showcase and uplift the voices and talents of those in marginalized communities at our shows and truly hope to bring people together. If we can get you to come out because you love The Suicide Machines, but you end up falling in love with Fat Chance, Working Class Stiffs & ASMR and making an entire new group of friends…our job is done. We want to give people something to look forward to and a safe place to be themselves.
How do you choose the punks at the dunk tank? Like do parents volunteer their teenagers as tribute?
They sure can! Sign-ups will be open all weekend, or you can just pop on over and ask to toss your spawn in. We WILL say yes. You can expect a few of our finest RSM bands to be in there soaking and roasting people all weekend.
Has anyone been weird about dealing with an all-female executive team?
Of course. I won’t lie and say it’s an easy thing, because it is not. There are times we just don’t get responses, we get kind of laughed at, not taken seriously or people just straight up being creepy. For the most part however, the amount of support we receive for this is really amazing. We are here to show the world we can do this stuff just as good, if not better than anyone. And we’re here to do it with that passion, drive and DIY attitude we’ve always had.
Camp Punksylvania Links
Listen to the artists performing at Camp Punksylvania 2023 on Spotify.
####
Buy Tickets Here
####
What a fun and cool idea! You and your daughters should go to this.
I’m hoping that we all have time at the same time. 🙂