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“I went to camp Matoca in Maine and I went for seven summers from 2013 to 2019 So for ages 9 to 15 and every single summer, one of the biggest camp traditions was the sing festival so basically college league every year there’s four teams in the camps divided into four different college teams, and you compete throughout the whole summer and like different like Greek games Sports whatever and then at the end the last Wednesday of camp there’s on the sing festival so basically the captain and co-captain will Lead the entire team there’s about like 90 people per team With a chant and we start with a cheer, which is basically like a remix to like any song But like with something about your team, like Pepin zest from the colors, red and yellow, if that was the colors something like that, I don’t know if that makes sense and then there was a remembrance which is like a slow song Which usually has like a deeper meaning so like for ours I remember my last year camp. It was about a girl graduating college, and going onto the next chapter of our life so it kinda tells that story but also like Jack exposes that with him. Her last summer at camp and taking that all in I guess she was probably graduating high school And then the last one is the Alma matter so this one starts like slow like The Remembrance and then the captain gives a speech halfway through and the cocaptain leads the team through like a B of Nanas like basically just like in the background everyone’s Nana Nana Nana, Nana, Nana, Nana, Nana Nana, like just as background color And the captain will give a speech, kind of thinking The whole team And like addressing like her time at camp and how it’s coming to close and everything that she’s learned leading this team and some other sappy things and then the comeback is after the speech so that’s kind of like the climax of the song so it’s like the upbeat part and this is also usually like Where the whole room shakes because it gets so loud and four teams go each do their own songs, and after everyone gets fudge popsicles, it’s camp tradition, and they announce the college winners and the senior co-captains who are also 15 years old, like the co-captain for the cat whatever Give a plaque to their captain with a nice snow and the whole camp listens to their speech and it’s like one of the best nights of camp and then there’s a fireworks ceremony by the lake and I will never forget saying after all these years oh also You wear like your sing shirt so it’s like your college league shirt that like the captains make and then white I think it’s white shorts and then French braids. Everyone is in two French braids with ribbons of their colors.”

Context

My informant attended Camp Matoaka, an all-girls summer camp in Maine, for seven consecutive summers from age 9 to 15. The Sing Festival was the climactic event of every summer, held on the last Wednesday of the season. She participated as a camper for years before eventually being on the senior side of the tradition herself. She remembers it as one of the best moments of the summer and still recalls every detail of the structure, costume, and ritual.

Analysis

This is the kind of tradition that lives inside a specific community (in this case, a summer camp) and gets transmitted year after year through performance and participation rather than through any written rulebook. Sing Festival has is made of a fixed structure (Cheer, Remembrance, Alma Mater), required costuming, specialized vocabulary (“banana,” “comeback,” “college league”), and a fixed calendar slot. None of this is written down anywhere official. It’s passed from older campers to younger ones through years of watching and eventually doing.