Camp Culture

CloudCatcher is a camp for All Ages

Reclaiming’s Principles of Unity state that ‘We welcome all genders, all gender histories, all races, all ages and sexual orientations and all those differences of life situation, background, and ability that increase our diversity. We strive to make our public rituals and events accessible and safe’.

At CloudCatcher we strive to create an inclusive and accessible space. Each year our radical village experiment has grown more graceful in welcoming and celebrating our diversity of needs and experiences. Our camp community has always been blessed to include a range of ages, from young adults of 18 through to glorious self-identified crones. Also in the past years, we’ve been graced with young people under 18, from babies to teenagers.

An all-ages camp is distinctly different from a “family camp” in that the main focus of the camp experience is an “adult” centred model. “Child” centred paths or activities are not offered, and young people are in the company of their caregivers and remain their responsibility at all times. All the usual aspects of the adult cultures fostered at CloudCatcher such as the Bower, and intense and edgy ritual work, remain the same.  As organisers, we commit to facilitating camp with strategies in place to ensure the magical and mature experience of CloudCatcher is as potent, fierce and volcanically sexy as the day it was born. We continue to review our approach, with feedback from campers.  The CloudCatcher organisers welcome anyone to contact us to discuss any questions or concerns.

Parents - before registering your child (or registering yourself when you are responsible for children) please carefully read the FAQ section of our website for information about attending camp with your young person, including what to expect at CloudCatcher and our requirements for parents attending with young people. …

 Information for parents:

We welcome parents to contact the organisers directly if they have any particular concerns. Our intention is for parents to be able to make the most informed choice possible when deciding to participate at CloudCatcher. Also please discuss camp with your young person and ensure this is an experience they understand and would like to participate in.

WitchCamp is run as a structured intensive of powerful magical work. CloudCatcher is not a slow-paced, ‘drop in and out of offerings’ kind of camp. Our rituals and paths are participatory and experiential opportunities for intense growth. We expect that all campers will participate in the full experience of camp as they are able.

We ask that parents understand this and accept the following to support our camp’s workings:

  • Supporting their young person’s experience of camp will be the responsibility of parents. We ask that parents carefully consider their ability to engage both their own camp work and be available as a parent. If this is your first Witchcamp, consider if you might prefer to experience it alone if possible.

  • If a young person under 18 is attending camp there will be one supervising adult (over the age of 18) per each young person attending. The child’s legal guardian must be present at camp.

  • The supervision of children is the responsibility of their paired adult at all times during camp, including path, rituals, meals, affinity groups and optional offerings. “Child-centred” activities, entertainment and supervision will not be provided.

  • The parent must commit to being with their child at all times.

  • This year there will not be a path offered specifically for young people. Children and their paired adult are expected to take the Elements of Magic path together. It might be possible in the case of a teen-parent pairing that they might take another path, by negotiation with the organisers and path teachers, IF they have both previously taken Elements.

  • Parents should be aware that CloudCatcher started out as an over 18 space, and there are some cultures and spaces we have fostered, such as the Bower, and the option of nudity at times at camp. As such there are spaces at camp that are designated as over 18’s only. Please see our website’s FAQ section for more information about this.

  • Please see CloudCatcher’s Safer Spaces Policy and Code of Conduct.