Team Clermont Summer Camp

No Invite Required!

originally published July 30, 2008

Okay, so, nostalgia for prom was misplaced to begin with. Sure, there was a moment when it seemed that night could be revisited and remixed, so to speak, now that you're long past your high school years, but that moment has come and gone and you're starting to realize, upon hearing the new theme for local PR firm Team Clermont's music festival, that summer camp was a far superior experience. Prom gave you a few hours to try to become cool around everyone who already knew you weren't, whereas camp let you try on a completely new identity. Or, as Team Clermonter Lucas Jensen puts it, “Last year was our 10th anniversary, and it felt right to call it a day as far as the prom theme goes. We had a Wild West theme, a '50s theme, a James Bond theme... there weren't a lot of themes left. Plus, every year we've had wonderful teams of diligent volunteers decorating all day long for the thing, and it just becomes this whole production where everybody is on edge and all nervous before the 'big event.' After My Morning Jacket totally stole our idea (yep, you heard me right), we decided to shut her down after this year and try something different. Summer Camp just seems to be very apropos given the time period and everything.”

Jensen can't promise Kool-Aid, water balloons, whistles or short shorts, but those things have a way of showing up. What he can promise is a fine three days of music from July 31 to Aug. 2, beginning with “Camp Orientation” at the Caledonia featuring So Many Dynamos, Mostly Bears, Megafaun and Benji Hughes. Jensen doesn't want to pick one particular event as more worth your time than any other, but, if pressed, he leans toward this showcase, calling its artists “all of tomorrow's stars today.”

“We've had a lot of bands before they were 'big,' and we hope to continue that tradition with this night of music,” he says. That's dance-punk, anthems, vocal harmony-based experimentation with traditional sounds and a singer-songwriter, if you're counting, so there should be something for you to appreciate.

Friday night is “Talent Night” at Little Kings and promises an atmosphere that's part camp, part carnival and part the usual debauchery, with face painting, arts and crafts, cornhole and four square tournaments, a dance party with DJ team Cookies and Cream (Mark T. Weathersby and Jensen) and karaoke to conclude the night. The ability of the radio people in particular to get up and get out the door by 11 a.m. the next morning to participate in a kickball game at East Athens Community Park is impressive, but the presence at the annual “athletic” event (now entering its fourth year) of unusual musical accompaniment is a motivating factor. Last year, Calvin Johnson was scheduled to play while the K-stations battled the W-stations. This year Graham MacRae, a Californian acoustic songwriter with a delicate touch on the guitar, will perform. Note that it's an all-ages attraction, so if you want to keep indoctrinating your kids into the Athens music scene, add it to your calendar.

The festival concludes with the “Camp Time Covers Sing-Along” at the 40 Watt, featuring Tiny Sticks (ESG covers with Josh McKay, Bryan Poole, Heather Heyn and Aaron Wegelin), Hi Hi Hi (Paul McCartney and Wings covers with Bryan Poole and Jason Nesmith), F*ck This Band (Mclusky covers with Jeff Tobias, Scott Smith, Andy Pruett and Brion Kennedy) and Nic Fit (Sonic Youth covers with members of Dead Confederate). So, do you have to be a radio station employee or a friend of Team Clermont or some other kind of person with an “in” to go to any of this stuff, especially the final party? Jensen is emphatic that you do not: “We had a private party the first couple of years and then ditched it, but that meme continues on unabated! Anyone can come to any of our events, and a big aspect of our festival is bringing in people we work with from around the country and showing off our wonderful town. We love to introduce locals to the out-of-towners and have everybody co-mingle. There is absolutely no private party, exclusive aspect to it; we swear. Every year we hear about someone telling someone else that you have to have an invite to get in or something, and they end up not showing up! No more! It ends now!”

Smaller and more manageable than either AthFest or Popfest, though equally steamy in temperature, Team Clermont's festival may be a PR event, but it's a low-key one that embodies the evangelical tendencies in most of us who've chosen to make Athens our home. Comparing it to other festivals, Jensen says, “Festivals in Athens offer a more relaxed opportunity to see bands in venues that actually are used to having bands play. The sound is better, the beer is cheaper, the company is more friendly, and there's a real lack of patchouli and mud. It's nicer this way.” It is indeed.

Hillary Brown

WHAT: Team Clermont Summer Camp Festival
WHERE: Various Venues
WHEN: Thursday, July 31–Saturday, August 2
HOW MUCH: $6–$8 per show