History and Archives

June Camp International Folk Dance Camp in the Midwest  - a brief history

June Camp has been a feature of the upper Midwest folk dance community for more than 60 years.  We know that there was a June Camp in 1957, but have sparse information about the early years.

In 2007, we celebrated fifty years of June Camp. In honor of the anniversary, Edie Spear and others on the June Camp committee compiled historical information about previous June Camps. That information has been combined with more complete details about the camps since 2001. We also held a 60th anniversary celebration in 2017.

June Camp moved to wider recognition in 2021 when COVID necessitated an online camp that attracted some 400 participants.  In 2022, we returned to an in-person event, at a new venue, Trinity International University, conveniently located in the northern Chicago suburbs, and had a second happy year there, until we were forced to find a new location again. We hope that Lake Forest Academy in 2024 can provide us with a more lasting home.

As we learn and curate more of our camp's history, we intend to include more on this website. We welcome your contributions to this collection, whether photographs, memories, scans of flyers or dance notes -- or information needed to correct or fill in blanks in the spreadsheets below. Please contact us at JuneCampIFD@gmail.com if you have something to share.