We welcome any and all to our circles of dance and music—circles of inclusion, not exclusion, and we strive to enlarge these circles that manifest the strong values of community and support to all who join our numbers.

• Labor Day Weekend
• Staff
• Fees and registration
• Camper information
• Kids at Pinewoods

Labor Day Weekend at Pinewoods 2020

Friday, September 4, 3 pm – Tuesday, September 8, 10 am

Pinewoods Camp, Plymouth, Massachusetts

Dear Pinewoods Community,

It is with sadness that Pinewoods Camp, along with our five program providers, Country Dance and Song Society, Country Dance  Society–Boston Centre, Royal Scottish Country Dance Society, Folk Arts Center of New England, and the Folk Music Society of New York announce  the cancellation of the 2020 summer season. Your health and well-being are of the utmost concern to us, and it is with that in mind that we  all feel that it is safer to wait until next year to resume dancing and singing under the pines.

After careful deliberations by our entire Board and looking at various scenarios including postponing the opening date, we have decided that  the safest scenario is to close Camp for the season. Camp takes at least two weeks to open, and so any date we thought might be safe to open would need to be proceeded by getting crew here two weeks earlier — when it wouldn't be safe. In addition, the fact that our pastime is social dancing, which involves touching hands with everyone in the room, is a recipe for disaster. There are also economic considerations to consider, as even the partial opening of Camp requires a significant investment with the looming possibility that we would have to close a short time later, if we experienced any outbreak.

It is therefore time, dear Campers, to sit this dance out and come back stronger than ever in 2021.

Be safe, my friends.
Carl Mastandrea
Executive Director
Pinewoods Camp

To all our members and friends:

It is with enormous sorrow that, in conjunction with Pinewoods Camp, Inc., I announce the cancellation of all Folk Arts Center sessions at camp this summer. In these historically uncertain times it is the right thing to do – but it is also a most difficult decision to make.

Pinewoods itself is an extraordinary and special place; many have grown up there, some have discovered it but recently. Some plan their summers around attending sessions and we all look forward to reuniting with members of our far-flung folk dance and music diaspora. Each reunion brings marvels over many things: how our children have grown, how beautiful and unique the camp environment is, how talented our leaders and musicians are, how generous campers are in their unique contributions to the overall experience. In short, how bounteous are our lives and how lucky we are that Pinewoods is part of it.

It is a great hole, this loss of a summer. But Pinewoods Camp and the Folk Arts Center of New England will be ready next year, as strong and vibrant as ever, welcoming you back with open arms, great smiles, fervent hugs, talks on the docks, and waltzes on the dance floor.

Until that time, you all remain in my heart and my thoughts. May you stay well, be well, and may our paths cross again soon, both carefree and healthy.

Sadly, but looking ahead in the hope that the photo of the rainbow in the sky over Long Pond represents the future.

–Marcie Van Cleave, FAC Executive Director

Background photography: Sue Flint