Music festival to support Camp Krem programs

For the third consecutive year, a weekend-long music festival is coming to Boulder Creek to support the music programs at Camp Krem from April 24 to 26.
Called the Do-It-Ourselves Festival, three stages at Camp Krem will play host to more than 20 bands and performers, including local groups such as The Naked Bootleggers and the Coffis Brothers and the Mountain Men.
According to Jon LaBeaud, one of the co-founders of the event, the Do-It-Ourselves Festival was created out of a desire to ensure that the special-needs children of Camp Krem would continue to have access to music.
“The main reason why we do it is to spread awareness of (Camp Krem),” he said. “There are a lot of devoted people that are working to make it happen.”
LaBeaud, who currently lives in Florida and still helps plan the event from afar, is a former employee of the camp. He described a shared wish to do something to help the Camp Krem kids before he moved.
“I’d worked there for about five years or so and I was getting ready to move to Florida and we just said ‘let’s go for it,’” he said. “We’ve got lots of people that are willing to put in the time and energy … it’s pretty exciting.”
Now, LaBeaud said, there are 10 people helping plan this year’s event.
“It’s a community effort at the core of it,” he said. “The way it’s set up, everyone pitches in and tries to help out.”
LaBeaud said that festival-goers would be able to camp out at the festival, which he described as likely to host around 750 people.
“It’s smaller, it’s more intimate,” he said. “Everybody’s just connected.”
Kendra McKinley, a San Francisco-based musician and Aptos native, is set to be one of the performers at this year’s event.
“I’ve been involved since its genesis,” she said. “My dear and closest friends from college were the founding folks.”
McKinley said that, initially, she was involved mostly as a favor to her friend Steve Stubblefield, one of the organizers, but has since become clearly aware of the importance of Camp Krem’s work.
“Last summer, I visited Camp Krem, and it really became clear to me how special it was,” she said. “It’s been able to bring in instruments, instructors.”
LaBeaud said that, in addition to the funds raised, the festival organizers also help the camp by doing grounds work prior to the festival itself, which goes toward having the grounds ready for campers come summertime.
Katie Giampa, program director for Camp Krem, said that the funds contributed by the festival go specifically to the camp’s music enrichment program. Music, she said, is very beneficial for children with developmental disabilities as it can serve as a avenue for communication and expression.
“Music enrichment program opens up a lot of therapeutic benefits for our kids,” she said.
For more information and for tickets, visit http://diofest.com For more information about Camp Krem, visit https://campingunlimited.org/