Sadleir House is bustling with life over the week of July 28th to August 1st, as fifteen young campers take on Rock Camp 4 Girls*, a summer camp organized by local musician and Trent Radio Director of Programming Jill Staveley to encourage girls and gender non-conforming youth to let out their inner rockstars.

“When we first started in 2006 it was Jean Greig, who had been inspired by the Rock Camp 4 Girls*, or Girls Rock Camp, or whatever it was in Portland, Oregon,” Jill tells Arthur.

“She was like, ‘Can we run a rock camp for girls?’…We thought, ‘Sure, we can pull this off.’”

Back then, Jill’s own experience enlightened her to the importance of such a program.

“As a musician and a sound technician, I was in a good spot where I was, like, respected a lot of the time by the people who I worked with, but I was always different—people would assume I was the bartender,” she says.

“Rock Camp is a place where we’re just bringing those people who we can identify in our community and help who are traditionally marginalized in the rock ‘n’ roll community,” Jill continues. “We can bring them closer to the starting line and then create opportunities that aren’t gender-exclusive or gender-determined.”

Jill says she’s “trying to build that confidence in the beginning to be like, ‘It’s okay to suck, it’s okay to be loud, it’s okay to take up space, it’s okay to be confident and think you're good and it’s okay to participate.’”

This year represents the grand reopening of Rock Camp since its hiatus from 2019-on, amidst COVID-19 lockdowns. While the absence of any campers returning from past sessions might signal a fresh start for Rock Camp, behind the scenes, the programming is organized by many alumni yearning to feel the camp spirit once again.

“My mom runs Rock Camp 4 Girls*,” says Charlie Watson, an intern volunteering for the camp. “I went here once when I was younger—the last year before it closed for COVID. I've always been around this community, and I've loved it so much, and so I figured, why not come back and help out?” 

Like their fellow interns, Charlie’s responsibilities at Rock Camp involve travelling between the different bands into which campers are divided to help out their managers—other volunteers who accompany campers in their day-to-day activities.

“I lead them, keep them on the right track, manage what they're doing,” says Edie Burton, who manages the band Bloody Love. “Yeah, it's very cool. It's fun. I used to go here, 2016 to 2017. I'm very, very happy, and I feel very fortunate that I get to be part of what I was learning.”

During Arthur’s Rock Camp 4 Girls* visit, Edie helps the five young members of Bloody Love design their band logo and write a song for August 1st’s “big gig,” a concert put on by the campers to showcase their work throughout the week.

“I don't know what order it’s gonna be in,” Edie tells Arthur, “but each band mentor will go up and present their band, and everyone will play. And then at the end, we will all sing the Rock Camp song.”

As for the song Bloody Love will perform, “one of the main themes is mental health,” says Verna, the band’s guitarist. “The first bit is basically a mental struggle. And then the protagonist of the song, AKA Beatrice, is having a conversation with her internal voices, AKA me and Ellen. I’m the positive voice. She’s the negative voice.”

“We talked a little on the first day about struggles with mental health, feeling accepted, just feeling very conflicted with yourself,” Edie explains. “I'm glad that we get to do this.”

“They wanted to do this topic, and they have, they have just continued to push it and make it fantastic.”

The band formed by the oldest campers, Rebel Clef, is writing a song titled “Rock Quietly” about being the quieter band among a camp full of loud little rockstars.

“I think that when you’re in Rock Camp, you can be quiet or loud,” band member Meara explains. “There's a lot of mixture of all different kinds of people at Rock Camp. There’s a place for everybody.”

“Everybody's skill level is very different, and it's not even by age, necessarily. Some really young kids are insane drummers and bassists,” says Natalie Garbutt, an intern at Rock Camp. “It’s just nice that they all get the same chance and they’re all included.”

“You don't even notice how old these kids are sometimes,” Charlie adds.

“They’re all so excited, they’re all so focused and so driven, and collaborating so well, that age isn’t really a huge factor when it comes to these things, because you can start learning something at any age.”

“There's not a whole lot of guidelines,” Martin, another intern, says.

“The adults and leaders give them all this room to grow, and all this support … it’s a really accepting community and accepting space, where everyone can be themselves,” she explains.

“If you want your kid to be surrounded by some of the coolest women and gender non-conforming people to inspire them and be who they want to be, this is the camp for them.”