I'm planning on going to Band Camp for the first time?

[ANH]

I'm in 8th grade and this summer I'm planning to go to band camp for the first time. Many of my friends are going to and it sounds like a lot of fun, but I'm really nervous. First off, I will probably have to be a resident camper since the camp is far away from where I live, which means it will be very expensive. [ I think about $450 ] I'm not sure if my parents would won't to drive me all the way there and have to pick me up too. Also, I heard on the very first day, there will be auditions to see what band I will be in. [ 1st, 2nd, or 3rd band ] I will have to play scales and chromatics as well as a piece of music from 1-2 minutes long. I really don't like playing in front of people, so I'm not so sure I would like to audition in front of everyone. Since I will have to be a resident camper, I will have to share a dorm with someone. I play the flute and most of my flute friends [ All of my best friends play the flute too ] are already dorming with each other, so I really have no idea who I should dorm with. It just seems like so much to worry about that it's kind of overwhelming. Anyone been to band camp that can help explain to me how it's like? Thank you so much!
Also, do you know what would be a good audition piece for the flute ?

 

[§hannon]

Well... honestly, if you want to know what expieriences you will have in band camp, you should talk to someone who's already been in band camp at your school. After reading your story about what your school does for band camp... it's totally different from mine.

Band camp is indeed expensive, but for my school, you can do fundraisers that puts money into a "band camp account" that you can keep filling up. My mom ended up saving about $120 or $140, so that cut the cost for us almost in half. Try doing that if your marching band has that option.

For transportation to and from band camp, we have 3, maybe 4 school busses that take us there since our band camp is about 2 hours away from our city.

We don't have to audition, we just join & we learn on the way.

For rooming, we have a band banquet that is held months before band camp. There, we sign up for rooms and we get to choose who we would like to room with.

ps: I play the flute too :]
pps: my Freshman year @ band camp, I signed up for a room with all Seniors & Juniors because all my friend's already signed up (I missed the band banquet) for their own rooms together. That was a really great decision -- I made friends who were older than me & continued on to be one of the most loved Freshman haha. I suggest doing that! Chances are you'll have double the amount of friends, which is what happened to me.