Behind the Scenes: Making Carnival Happen

This year, we’ve been pulling back the curtain to show you some of the “Behind the Scenes” processes of how camp really works. We’ve told you about how we hire our staff and how we add in a new class, and today we are debunking our most popular Evening Program: Carnival! So, how do we put together the amazing Carnival experience? Let’s find out!

• First, we choose a date on our calendar. While Main Camp is easy, as we always have our Carnival on the 4th of July, for our other three sessions, we look at the calendar each year to find the perfect date. We want the campers settled into camp so they can enjoy the night with abandon, but we also want to add this wonderful celebration at just the right time to spark the excitement we want to feel.

• We select our amazing inflatables. While we do use many of the same inflatables each year (we know our campers’ favorites!), we always try to switch things around to see what fun new rides we can add to the mix. We send our inflatable company hunting for what is out there, and they often buy new rides to add to their fleet just because we are interested – cool!

• We order our Carnival shirts. It’s no surprise that Carnival usually pairs up with a fun t-shirt giveaway, so we start designing a Carnival shirt for each session in the winter. (And, not to give away too many hints, but if you’re a blog reader, I guess that means you can be given a little inside scoop…our t-shirt designs for Carnivals this summer are going to be EPIC! We’ve had two years to design them!).

• We get organized with the Kitchen crew. A big part of the Carnival experience is the food, so as we’re nearing the big date, the Kitchen staff puts in overtime to pull off the delicious feast. We make sure we have ordered all of the non-food supplies (like snow cone cups and cotton candy sticks) as well as making a plan for serving the food. It takes almost 70 staff to pull off a Greystone Carnival (when you combine our Kitchen crew and Program Staff), so it’s quite a few details to get in order.

• We have reached Carnival day, and set-up begins! While our inflatable gurus set up our fun rides, our Greystone crew orchestrates the rest of the process…and it’s truly a well oiled machine! Everything has to move from the Kitchen down to the softball field, and so many details have to be remembered. We work from a master map and a master list to make sure we don’t forget anything. Everything from popping up tents, setting out tables, hanging up food booth signs, finding Sharpies to mark hands, rigging up the photobooth, assembling the speakers for music, finding cups and paper towels for face painting…the list is endless, but with a great team and many hands, we get ‘er done!

• We have an amazing staff who pulls off the magic. As I’ve mentioned multiple times already, the staff makes the magic happen, and our crew really works their magic during Carnival night. An enthusiastic army of counselors works the entire night to make sure the event is fun and safe. And, we can’t forget the glory that is the dance contest! Even coming up with the songs we play during the contest is a “sacred camp art,” so even the smallest details aren’t overlooked.

• We clean up so that no trace is left behind. It is always amazing to me that we can have a camp party of the epic proportions of Carnival, and by the next morning, the only signs that Carnival just happened are the muddy spots of grass where the dance contest was especially intense. Our staff stays as an entire group to clean up after Carnival, and because of their willingness, we are done in no time!

Well, there you have it – the necessary pieces of pulling off a Greystone Carnival. While there are so many people and details to remember, we feel like Carnival is a breeze of an Evening Program – it is just so much fun! I think that’s what makes camp events so great…you assemble a great team, have a great time, and enjoy seeing delight in the campers’ faces…you really can’t lose!