Vinland Music Camp appeal

Vinland Music Camp was founded in 2001, with a mandate to encourage the learning and performance of music and dance traditions of our province, and to foster relationships among those people who love and cherish them.  The camp was started by musician andmusic publisher Eric West, who observed that the transmission of our oral culture was declining, and decided to try to do something about it.

For the past eleven years, Vinland Music Camp has been inspiring traditional musicians young and old by making Newfoundland and Labrador tradition-bearers available to them during a week in August.   Participants have come from all across the Island and from Labrador – places like Conne River, Torbay, Fogo, Appleton, Happy Valley, Baie Verte, Burin, St. John’s and Woody Point, as well as from mainland Canada and the U.S.

The best young traditional musicians on the music scene today have all benefitted from Vinland – Aaron Collis, Alan Ricketts, Danny Mills and Julia Bowdring, to name but a few. In order to keep the cost as low as possible, and make the experience accessible to people from rural areas of the province, Vinland camp has relied upon a yearly benefit concert donated by camp faculty, as well as project grants from the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council. It speaks volumes about the value of this event that the Arts Council has funded it without fail for eleven years. This year, the quantity of requests, particularly from emerging artists, was such that the Arts Council was unable to fund Vinland Camp, and so we are experiencing a shortfall of $5,000.00.

In 2009, the non-profit Soundbone Foundation was incorporated to be the sponsoring organization of the camp.  Plans are in place to develop sponsorship materials and a fundraising drive to put the camp on a solid financial footing so that we can continue to nurture our Intangible Heritage.  But -

 In the meantime – Vinland Camp needs your help this year.   

If you value the traditional culture of Newfoundland and Labrador, please consider giving us a donation towards this shortfall.   You can go to our Donations page  to make a donation online by credit card or Paypal,  or you can send a cheque or money order to: