A band camp typically refers to a high school, college, or university marching band summer camp. Band camp is often mandatory for members of the band, and constitutes the majority of the preparation a marching band makes before its marching season (learning how to march, learning "sets" on the field, memorizing show songs). A high school marching band may travel to a college or university for band camp for use of its facilities (dormitories, fieldhouses, fields) and services. The time at band camp is used for focused rehearsals and time for bonding between band members.
Band camp might also be used to refer to an individual camp where participants focus on developing their own musical skill, in which case it would more likely be called a music camp.
Famous quotes containing the words band and/or camp:
“Nothing makes a man feel older than to hear a band coming up the street and not to have the impulse to rush downstairs and out on to the sidewalk.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“When the weather is bad as it was yesterday, everybody, almost everybody, feels cross and gloomy. Our thin linen tents—about like a fish seine, the deep mud, the irregular mails, the never to-be-seen paymasters, and “the rest of mankind,” are growled about in “old-soldier” style. But a fine day like today has turned out brightens and cheers us all. We people in camp are merely big children, wayward and changeable.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)