Dear IMC Family,
After many conversations with public health officials, government leaders, and our IMC Joint Board of Directors regarding the COVID-19 global pandemic, we have decided to postpone our 65th Anniversary season (including the Old-Time Fiddle Weekend) to the summer of 2021. Our number one priority is and has always been, the safety, health, and well being of our campers, staff, and faculty. Since 1956, the International Music Camp has brought people from all around the world together to grow as musicians, performers, and artists. We plan on continuing that tradition in 2021 after this brief and necessary pause. Our 65th Anniversary Season will now run June 20-August 3, 2021 and our Old-Time Fiddle Weekend will be June 10-13, 2021.
Everyone currently registered for programs and events will be contacted by phone regarding options for carrying any payments forward to registration for the 2021 season, making a donation, or receiving a refund in accordance to IMC’s cancellation policy. Staff and phone lines are limited at this time but communication will be made as quickly as possible.
Summer camp operations make up over 90% of the International Music Camp’s annual income and this decision has a major financial impact on our organization. IMC has established a COVID-19 Stabilization Fund in order to cover operating expenses in the interim and expenses related to preparations for the 2021 camp season. Please consider donating today to ensure that the International Music Camp is able to run in the future.
Please know that this decision was not easy to make. For many of us, the International Music Camp is our summer home. It is where we reconnect with friends and make new ones, broaden our horizons, and rekindle our love of the fine arts. Join us in keeping the IMC spirit alive throughout the summer and into next year wherever you are at. Have pizza for dinner on Sundays, start the week off right with Bright Mondays, celebrate Tye-Dye Taco Tuesday, share the love of 9-square when social restrictions are lifted, practice instruments outside (weather permitting), check in with friends you met at IMC, spend time reading, drawing, writing, dancing, creating, or hanging out under a tree or at a picnic table, cook a camp meal (oatmeal counts), make and wear name badges for meal times, have a cookout on Fridays, and most importantly start making plans for IMC next year.
Share your IMC moments this summer on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. We will be sharing what you have shared with us through Instagram and Facebook Stories. Please use @internationalmusiccamp or #internationalmusiccamp to tag us and share those IMC Moments.
Once travel restrictions are lifted and it is very clearly safe for large groups to congregate again, we hope to host a clean up event to take care of our buildings and grounds. We also hope to have some IMC gear available for sale this summer and will be in touch as soon as these are possibilities.
Our Founders’ Day Annual General Meeting originally scheduled for June 27, 2020 has been postponed. We will post on social media as well as issue a press release when this meeting is rescheduled.
We love you all and appreciate your support. We are so excited to see everyone back at camp for our 65th Anniversary in 2021 and hope to catch you at various events starting this fall.
Take care of yourselves, your families, and each other,
Christine and Tim Baumann
Camp Directors of the International Music Camp
p.s. To the Class of 2020 – we would like to extend a special invitation to you. We don’t want to take away your last time at camp and so if you are able, you may attend IMC as a camper one last time in 2021.
