CLARIFICATIONS / NOTES FOR SINGLES CAMPERS

Singles campers are not allowed to set up until Sunday the 27th of July.

There are a few specific scenarios that come up (more below), but if you have a situation not covered by these or if you’re still unsure how you need to proceed, please email DMLand@pennsicwar.org .

COMMON SCENARIOS – Listed Individual Camping but Not actually camping as singles

SCENARIO: YOU ARE CAMPING WITH A GROUP – YOU JUST DID NOT PRE-REGISTER WITH THEM

If you have a land group that is allowing you to camp with them despite not pre-registering with them:

When you are at registration (formerly called Troll / Trolling in) you update your land group listing to point to the ACTUAL CAMP you’re camping with. This is a safety issue – so we could find you in case of emergency.

This WILL NOT allocate any extra land to your group – that time has long passed. This is just so staff / EMS can find you in an emergency (if something happened to your car etc.).

If that is the case you can go through registration any time after noon Friday, July 25.

SCENARIO: YOU ARE CAMPING RV CAMPING BUT LISTED AS INDIVIDUAL CAMPING

RV Campers are registered through Coopers Lake – for the intents and purposes of Land, your “group” is really “RV Camping”. You may register and gate in any time after Friday, July 25 at 12:00 noon.

SCENARIO: YOU ARE CAMPING IN A MERCHANT SPACE

Merchants are assigned merchant space through Coopers Lake Merchant office – for the intents and purposes of Land, your “group” is really “MERCHANT”. You may register and gate in any time after Friday, July 25 at 12:00 noon.

SCENARIO: YOU ARE NOT CAMPING AT PENNSIC (Day tripping)

A few people choose to “day trip” into Pennsic – they pay for their site fee etc but are staying in a hotel or other local campground, or maybe they’re locals:

In this situation you’re not actually needing singles camping space, so you may pay your site fee and get your medallion any time after Friday, July 25 at 12:00 noon.

COMMON SCENARIOS – PEOPLE WHO ARE CAMPING SINGLES

If you are actually camping singles, we will not be able to provide singles space until Sunday the 27th.

SCENARIO: YOU ARE CAMPING SINGLES BUT HAVE SOMEWHERE TO STAY BEFORE SUNDAY

Perhaps a friend in a registered group is allowing you to camp with them for the first couple days until singles is available…

This is fine – just register as if you’re with that group (put that group as your land group in theory even when you move to singles eventually, they’ll know where to find you).

In that situation, simply come to the Land Office tent (Corner of Dragon Trace and Chandlers at the south-west corner outside the Great Hall) and our Singles Liaison will assist you and get the info for what block you’ve ended up on.

You WILL NOT be allowed to set up in singles camping until Sunday the 27th since we don’t have the needed info on where all the singles are (see below in the wall of text for a more thorough explanation).

SOME OTHER SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCE

Although we’ve tried to come up with every typical common to less common situations, there could still be a situation we have not covered above. In that scenario, please email DMLand@pennsicwar.org and we can discuss your situation directly.

SHORT EXPLANATION OF WHY IT WORKS THIS WAY

For those who really enjoy the details…

The Short answer is – we do not have the singles spaces finalized until we’ve done a bunch of work behind the scenes and have produced maps for the Singles Liaison…

If someone tries to set up before we have that, they risk that they’re setting up in land that is designated for another camp, which could lead to sanctions or even removal from site.

OK BUT I REALLY WANT TO UNDERSTAND IN EXCRUCIATING DETAIL

Every year, we get people asking, “But why can’t they just come in?”

But why can’t we just come in Friday or Saturday?

The answer is that singles camping maps are made up of space left over after registered groups have signed off on their maps, and that process is not truly complete until every group is accounted for. Remember, all groups MUST check in by Friday July 25 before 9:00 pm.

Every year, there are at least a couple of camps where the land negotiations simply did not work out to be on the block the group had planned (perhaps there were un-recorded changes we did not become aware of before arriving on site, or maybe recent rain has made otherwise usable land unusable, or there is a dispute that can not be resolved with all groups on the block) … Any one of hundreds of unique circumstances could lead to the land office needing to relocate groups.

The unused space left on settled blocks is essentially our blank slate for handling those moves.

So until the entire process is complete and we have finalized every single group, there is no spot of singles space that is guaranteed to end up open for singles camping.

Once we have settled all the groups, we then have 106 blocks worth of maps to scan and load into a digital and physical set of map books for staff. At that time we review the space designated as singles, we make certain estimates as to what is on paper versus our knowledge of the terrain to come up with a good number to say is available and we build a list.

We take that and generate a “heat map” that Singles Liaison and the land office can use to show the relative number of available spaces, and the Singes Liaison and other land staff has a physical book with printed maps where we’ve got the actual location of the space and number of spaces we feel we can fit.

All of this has to happen in between the end of land grab Friday at 9:00 pm and the opening of Registration to Singles Campers Sunday morning.

This is why we can’t “just let singles in” – because we can’t be 100% certain until we’ve done the work.

Wait.. There’s even more to it? TELL ME EVERYTHING!

If you’ve read this far, perhaps you would be interested to know that it doesn’t end there.

Each singles camper that comes in to the Singles Liaison will be guided to a suitable spot, the Singles Liaison will record the name, medallion# and block for each. We use this information to UPDATE our list of singles availability as they go.

We also physically visit every singles space on all 106 blocks sometime in the first week… we check that camps are not impinging on the space, we check that the space size and shape and location matches our map, we estimate based on actual conditions how campable it is (has it been raining, is there a big ditch left by a vehicle that should not have been using Singles space for parking?). We take that plus the list of those campers and we update the heat map before middle weekend when we get a huge influx of singles…

We repeat that process early War Week so we know what we actually have available for the late comers.

TL;DR:

This is a very long way of saying, “It’s complicated and requires a lot of coordination.”

If you still have questions or concerns, please email DMLand@pennsicwar.org .

Lady Tananda

Deputy Mayor of Zoning and Planning (Land) – PW52