About

JessCamp is a yearly get together for Twitter friends (and THEIR friends) who have somehow come together in the tribe known as TPOT (ThisPartOfTwitter), formerly Ingroup, formerly rats and post-rats, crit-rats, meta-rats and other rats that have nothing to do with rodents. This is the third JessCamp to run in Europe and it's finally COMING HOME TO LONDON!

It's a literal summer camp to allow us to go outside and Touch Grass and even more importantly, to be in community with each other.

While the "official" structured events tend to be very light touch (NO WORKSHOPS says Jess), the event is designed around communal living, with cooking for each other being the main activity (and with over 100 people there is in fact very little of that required, many hands make light work). Once the chores are done there is a great deal of Unstructured Time for unwinding, relaxing, hanging out, chilling, and seeing what magic comes from a few day's intensive conversation.

However, there is an opening ceremony and a closing ceremony lead by Jess, plus one workshop to generate a timetable of activities in an "unconference" style - participants both suggest and lead the events they want to see, so there will be plenty of activities to participate in, from lockpicking to clowning, from Fight Club to Epistemics. We have 4 separate meeting rooms, the main one being HUGE and carpeted, the other three slightly smaller but if anything too big for our needs. We'll have a speaker/PA system for the main room and whatever tech you like for the others. there's also plenty of outside space, both within and around the venue.

Location

JessCamp3 is in London's Lee Valley area, a beautiful natural park and reservoir area just outside of central London, but easily accessible on National Rail and on metro. Contactless debit card payment can be used all the way from the airport through to the venue. The local train station is called Cheshunt and is on both national and metro routes. 

The journey from Heathrow is 1hr15mins by train, with just one change at London Liverpool Street station and fully integrated ticketing (just touch in with a debit/credit card and touch out again at the end) Journey cost approx: £15. 

The venue is a 2 minute flat walk from the train station. The journey time is similar from Gatwick, Luton, Stanstead and City. Just don't use Southend that one's far away.

What's Included?

Included in your ticket is the following:

• 4 nights ensuite accommodation
• Bedding and towels included
• 1 evening meal on the first night provided by the venue
• 3x packed lunches, one per day provided by the venue
• all other food for evening meals, breakfast, snacks, soft drinks, tea, coffee and some alcohol for at least the first night
• Food will be 60% vegetarian or vegan, but some lodges will have meat. We'll have lots of chickpeas and lots of eggs.
• 1 priceless improvement to your wellbeing (see testimonials on twitter)
• generous entertainment budget - soft mats, lighting, music, big speakers for the main room, magic fire powder, bouncy castle (???)... whatever else you can think of!

Not included: extra alcohol, your special snacks to keep you sane, £expensive alternative foods for minority dietary needs, extra meat. Please bring these with you.

Accommodation and Tickets

The accommodation is a youth hostel with 118 beds, made up of five lodges of ~24 people each. Each lodge has an accessible toilet and lounge/kitchen room on the ground floor.

Each lodge has one 4-bunk, one 6-bunk and one 8-bunk room (all ensuite) and three Twin/Triple rooms (ensuite), total 24 but NB these Twins and Triples will be allocated to the following attendees:

1. people with physical access needs
2. couples with children
3. volunteer team
4. people with other needs like neuro-atypical or that are not technically a disability (eg snoring)
5. everyone else on a lottery system

Please assume you will be in a bunk bed with a group of others when buying your ticket, we will only allocate any spare twin rooms after the people with the above needs are all met. Paying more money will NOT affect the bedroom that is allocated to you.

The accommodation also has a main building with laundry, 4 meeting room spaces, a dining hall and other shared facilities. 

To see the full list of facilities on site, full address and travel directions etc. please check out their website: https://groups.yha.org.uk/hostels/yha-london-lee-valley/

Ticket Price

Tickets and prices are as follows:

• £350 x 12 - Early Bird tickets cheapest possible price 
• £380 x 20 - for low income / poor people
• £490 x 56 - regular ticket
• £590 x 22 - support ticket covering the reduced price of the early/low income tickets
• £50 x 10 - Child aged 3-16
• FREE - Child under 3
• FREE volunteer ticket x 8 (issued separately)
• DONATION BUTTON available for all ticket types optionally top us up for some of our costs

A voucher for 90% off is available for up to 8 people who are organisers of other TPOT community events, priority given to those who organise open-access events with financial and social risk, rather than just gatherings of friends.

Costs that your optional donation will contribute towards:

• ticket tailor fee (0.50p per person)
• food for child under 3 (£1 per person)
• accountancy fees (£8 per person)
• stripe fee (£14.70 per ticket)
• taxes (£90.90 per person)
• discounted ticket for other community organisers/Children (£441 per person)

THANK YOU SO MUCH in advance to anyone who donates, every penny counts 🥰

Low Income & Supporter Tickets

There are 20(twenty) low income tickets available, anyone can self-select to buy a low income ticket (until they run out). 

There are 22 Supporter tickets, these tickets support the offering of 12(twelve) Early Birds and 20(twenty) low income tickets and 8(eight) free organiser tickets. They don't fully cover these costs but it certainly helps. Anyone can self select into buying a supporter ticket (until they run out).

Praise be to Gametheory! *bows*

Refunds

Full refunds are available up to one week before the event. Obviously if we haven't sold out I would love it if you can do all you can to get someone to go in your place :-)

Children

Bringing children is actively encouraged at this year's JessCamp. We have 10 child places available for children old enough to need their own bed at discounted prices and younger children who don't need their own bed can attend for free. One lodge will be allocated as child-friendly where the communal space will be modified to cater to children, and guests can expect quiet at night times and possible early-rising times.

 3 of the 4 main meeting rooms will be set up with an area for children to play (and draw our attention whenever they like). The final meeting room will be an adults-only space for adult-only activities.

In the absence of an on-site play area we will buy/rent children's toys or outdoor playing, and the local nature reserve walks are just moments away.

We intend that some of the community-generated workshops will be child-lead and the rest will be child-inclusive except for adult activities.

Packed lunch will be served at the same time each day, and the lodges all have their own kitchen facilities including fridges & storage for breakfast & snacks. The evening meal will be prepared at roughly the same time each day but is subject to change.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to make your stay more comfortable!

Accessibility

We have several ground floor rooms available for people who would find stairs an impediment to a happy JessCamp, and the venue itself has level access or lift access to each part of the main building. In addition, two of the lodges have low-level bathrooms and kitchens for easier access. The venue's full access statement can be found here: 

https://groups.yha.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/YHA-London-Lee-Valley-Access-Statement.pdf

Please get in touch with us if you would like a ground floor room, accessible lodge, or if you think there is any other adjustment we can make to help make it easy to attend JessCamp.

Older People

Older people are very welcome at JessCamp. We have an ambition to be a truly intergenerational community, because all ages can be on Twitter (or the family member of a person hooked on Twitter) and a community that can only cater to childless adults is unlikely to be a community that ultimately thrives. 

At previous JessCamps our age range for adults was 21-51, but we can do even better! We have a dire need for elders in our community, because many of us have grown up under-parented in various ways. We need the experience and wisdom of those who have trod the paths before us. You will be held in very high regard at JessCamp. 

And you will probably (hopefully) not be the oldest person there! You might have to deal with strange internet lingo, but if you're down for that then we are delighted to have you.

If you have physical access needs feel free to get in touch about one of our accessible, ground floor rooms. If there are any other barriers to attending that we've not thought of, please do reach out and let us know.

Excite!

As always, I am bursting with excitement to see each and every one of you! If you're not already on the Discord please DM @frideswyth for an invite and for any other needs you may have. See you on the timeline, until MAY, when we'll see each other IRL OMG 😱😱😱 🥰🥰🥰

Lots of Love,

Jess & team xxxxx