# General Mandolin Topics > Jams, Workshops, Camps, Places To Meet Others >  Maine fiddle camp

## mandosis

Has anyone attended Maine Fiddle Camp? 

It sounds interesting, is affordable, and has a variety of instruments listed (including mandolin). 

NFI....just looking for feedback re: first hand experience.

Combining music, camping, and Maine for a week sounds very good. 

Thanks!

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## Stephanie Reiser

Vicky, I did not know of this, but I'd love to attend.
Can you give any details?
Thanks.

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## yoods

I have not been but David Surette, who is the main instructor for mandolins, is a gifted teacher, great player, and just an all around good guy. You would not be disapointed with him as an instructor. (I have attended two camps with him as the instructor). You can find his information on the web if you don't know him.

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## mandosis

Hi Stephanie,

I found it online at http://www.mainefiddle.org/

I will be attending in August, I just received my CD and music for "advanced beginner level". The website has additional samples of music to "pre-learn" so we all know some tunes to play together when we first arrive. 

I am very excited, camping, music, loons, vegetarian food....life doesn't get any better than this. 

Vicky

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## mandosis

Dave,

Thank you for the information about David Surette, it's nice to know you enjoyed his teaching and playing skills.

Vicky

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## joanne

Maine Fiddle camp has a huge mandolin group, led by Glen Loper, David Surette, Jeff Lewis, Eric Macdonald and others.  It is a family friendly multi-generational lakeside camp with great Maine grown food, great musicians, great music, dancing, jamming.... and all for a  very reasonable price.  check it out at [URL="http://www.mainefiddle.org"] and on Facebook "Maine Fiddle Camp"

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## walt33

This part of the site is an interesting resource:

http://mainefiddle.org/tunes.shtm

Thanks!

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## Douglas McMullin

I have heard great things about it from fiddlers and guitar players I know locally.  I am thinking of attending if I can free up the time mid-summer.

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## Douglas McMullin

Deleted - duplicate post

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## Betsy Biemann

My family has gone to Maine Fiddle Camp for a June weekend for each of the past two years.  My kids (now 9 and 11) play the Irish whistle, but last June my son decided at Fiddle Camp that he wanted to learn how to play the mandolin.  He started playing mando (Kentucky KM-150) this fall and will be bringing his mandolin to Fiddle Camp this year.

Maine Fiddle Camp is a very family-friendly experience.  Not playing the mandolin myself, I can't comment on the mando-specific aspects of Camp, but it is an informal, scenic, fun and musical weekend (they also have week-long programs).

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## Rob Gerety

I have never attended - couldn't get the time given my addiction to early season canoe trips - but I know many of the folks on the list of staff from various contra dance bands and they are all great people and wonderful musicians.  Also, everyone I know who has attended has loved it.  Hard to go wrong.

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## Stephanie Reiser

I attended the Maine FIddle Camp last August for a week, and never had so much fun.
The only mistake I made was in bringing only the Fiddle. I wish I had brought along my
guitar and mandolin as well. Even if you are studying one particular instrument, they have
special workshops that you can also take for others. For example, they had a shop on
DADGAD tuning and backing up fiddle players, which I would have been very interested in.
THey have numerous guitar and mandolin instructors there, all very very good.
Family oriented, great food (and I am a fussy vegetarian), great shower facility,
so much fun, and I cannot say enough about it.

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## Douglas McMullin

Stephanie, was there a significant mandolin group?  I am thinking of going this year, but I am still trying to figure out what the experience is like for non-fiddle players.

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## Baron Collins-Hill

Maine Fiddle Camp is my favorite place on earth, bar none. The mandolin group is great, with about a dozen students. My good friends Jeff Lewis and Glen Loper teach the mandolin class(es) and I sit in sometimes and we do workshop style classes. I recommend camp to anyone interested. It is one of the most affordable fiddle camps in the country and the music, food, knowledge base, facilities, scenery, and people are all top notch. 

All the best and hope to see you there,
Baron

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## Douglas McMullin

Thanks Baron, do you know if one of the August weeks in particular is best for mandolin?  I just noticed that David Surette is listed for the second week only, so I was eying that one.

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## David Surette

Maine Fiddle Camp is the bomb. My family and I have been going for 5 or 6 years, and it's one of the highlights of our musical year, something we all really look forward to. There's a strong mandolin presence all weeks. We go for the 2nd August week, but I think anyone would get a lot out of any week. Especially if you are into jamming non-stop, and have an interest in a "Northern"-oriented fiddle tune repertoire. Hope to see some of you there.

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## Douglas McMullin

Thanks David.  I am hoping to make one of the weeks in August if I can fit it in with my work schedule.  It is so close to home it seems a bit silly for me not to go.

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## Gkar66

I went for the first time last year in August and had a great time.  I was looking at doing the week in June and a week in August this year.  Anyone with any experience going there in June?  Mainly interested in how buggy it would be then.  Blackflies get a bit nasty in Maine that time of year but not sure in that area.  Thanks for any insight.

Doug in NH

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## Douglas McMullin

While I have not been to camp, I have lived in that part of Maine, and there certainly is potential for lots of bugs in June.  It depends on the year, but along the mid-coast the black flies are usually winding down by mid June and the mosquito's are ramping up.  

I am still looking at a week in August once they release the staff roster for this year.

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