This has been superseded for 2023 by an updated explanation of Pennsic fees.
If this is giving you a headache, it's not you. I've been going to Pennsic forever, and explaining it still gives me a headache.
This is an attempt to explain the camping fees for Pennsic, but this page is in no way, shape or form any sort of official information. For official information see the Pennsic Pre-registration Page.
Pennsic fees are a bit complicated, due to a number of factors I'll explain below.
This page was originally written a few months before Pennsic 2022, so the following explanations use the various 2022 dates.
I actually left this off the first several drafts, because we almost never have kids camping with us. But Pennsic's fee structure is very, very, very kid-friendly, and simple, so let's get it out of the way first:
$30 per minor child, $10 per infant. That's it, no further complications.
This table is a summary of the different amounts you'll pay both ahead of time and at the gate. Feel free to refer to it to refresh your memory, but it'll make a lot more sense after you read the explanations below.
| Dates | Amount | Prepay amount | Pre-paid discount | SCA discount | Gate | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7/29 to 8/14 | $240 | $205 | -$10.00 | -$25.00 | $0 | $205 |
| 7/29 to 8/14 | $240 | $205 | -$10.00 | $25 | $230 | |
| 7/30 to 8/14 | $240 | didn't prepay | -$25.00 | $215 | $215 | |
| 7/30 to 8/14 | $240 | didn't prepay | $240 | $240 | ||
| 8/5 to 8/14 | $200 | $165 | -$10.00 | -$25.00 | $0 | $165 |
| 8/5 to 8/14 | $200 | $165 | -$10.00 | $25 | $190 | |
| 8/5 to 8/14 | $200 | didn't prepay | -$25.00 | $175 | $175 | |
| 8/5 to 8/14 | $200 | didn't prepay | $200 | $200 |
Note 1: Pre-registering and pre-paying is required for camping group space allocation. See "Space Allocation" below.
Note 2: Even if you pre-register only for the second week, you can decide to arrive sooner and just pay the extra amount at the gate (aka Troll).
This page was originally written a few months before Pennsic 2022, so the following explanations use the various 2022 dates.
The "Second Week" starts Friday, August 5. That means that you get 8.5 days for your money (the .5 being because everyone has to be off site by noon on Sunday August 14). Also, they take that August 5 date literally, so you can check in one minute after midnight on Thursday, August 4. Troll (the gate where you check in) is open 24 hours on Friday, August 5, to enable this.
The final day, Sunday, August 14, everyone must be packed up and off site by noon.
Camping as a single camper means you don't get to set up camp until Sunday, July 31.
Camping groups get to set up camp on Saturday, July 30, or even on Friday, July 29 but in both cases only AFTER the groups (ALL of the groups) on their block get the camp locations/borders agreed upon and signed off on, aka "completing Land Grab".
Note: Camping groups are required to leave space in their block for single campers, but they're not required to leave the best space, and in some blocks the terrain is quite obnoxious (steep slopes, mud, trees, etc).
But to be a member of a camping group, you must pre-register and pre-pay for at least the Second Week.
Camp space is allocated based on pre-registration and camping groups are not allowed to include a single camper's space allocation in their camp. Camping groups can try to squeeze a single camper into the the group's existing allocation, but generally this is a huge pain in the ass.
See also "space allocation" below.
Note: Even if you pre-register only for the second week, you can decide to arrive sooner and just pay the extra amount at the gate (aka Troll).
| 01/01/2022 | Pre-registration of individual campers opens. |
| 06/16/2022 | Pre-registration of individual campers closes. |
| 06/20/2022 | Land group registration and group updates close. |
| 07/29/2022 | First Friday, "land grab" for camping groups starts. |
| 07/31/2022 | Saturday, Single campers may enter and set up camp. |
| 08/05/2022 | Second Friday, "second week" begins.* |
| 08/14/2022 | Sunday, noon, all campers must be packed up and off site. |
* Note: Troll will be open 24 hours on Friday, August 5, so you can check in just after midnight on Thursday, August 4.
Register for SCA membership here.
Scroll down on that page and click on the big brown button that says "Purchase Membership Now".
On the next page, scroll down read the Waiver (in the whtie box) and then click the checkbox labeled "This check indicates my acceptance of the Waiver", then click the button to the right of the checkbox, labelled "Continue to Membership Application."
The SCA associate membership is the one I usually get. You can get the "sustaining" membership for $45 and get access to mailings and so forth.
In normal years there is a cancellation refund deadline, after which Cooper's Lake Campground does not give refunds. That date will be at the the Pennsic Pre-registration Page. In 2022 it was June 19, which was also the deadline for pre-registering and pre-paying online.
Note, the official Pennsic Pre-Registration page still mentions 2020/2021 fee rollover, so I'll explain that in a bit more detail:
Due to COVID-19 forcing the cancellation of the Pennsic War in 2020 and 2021 there was a special "fee rollover", meaning that pre-registration fees for Pennsic were applied to the next year's Pennsic. This is not a normal thing, do not expect it to be repeated:
If you pre-register and hence pre-pay, but don't cancel before the end of pre-registration aka the refund deadline, you don't get a refund or rollover.
(Also, to be clear, there are three legal entities involved in the big picture: Coopers Lake Campground, which is where the event takes place; The Pennsic War, which organize and run the event; and the Society for Creative Anachronism. I don't know much about the relationship between the Pennsic War and the SCA, but for example if the SCA imposes rules about COVID-19 safety, the Pennsic War will certainly abide by them.)
As mentioned above, at Pennsic you're either a pre-registered camping group or you're a "single camper". The system and rules are set up to encourage people to pre-register as camping groups, but if you show up without pre-registering as part of a they'll still let you attend. You just won't get to choose your camping location until all the pre-registered groups have chosen theirs.
Even if your "camping group" has only a single person in it, it's still useful to register a camping group. As mentioned above, single campers aren't allowed onto the site until the day after "land grab" is completed and all of the pre-registered camps have had first pick of camping sites.
The only downside to a camping group is that you have to have at least one person who pre-registers and pre-pays. Note, you don't have to pre-pay for the entire event in order to pre-register, you can pay for only the second week. If you do pay for only the second week, you are allowed to show up earlier and pay for the first week at the gate.
Note: However, note that there must be at least one person representing the camping group at Pennsic for the entire event.
The main thing about pre-registering as a camping group is that you get a little more control over where in the campground you can set up your camp. I don't want to get too far into the details, but the campsite is divided up into regions called "blocks", and the camps list their first, second and third preferred block. If there's enough room in a block for all the people who signed up for it, great. If not, one or more of the groups will be moved to their second or third preferred block. Usually it's the smaller groups that get moved.
See The Pennsic Land website for more details.
Finally, now I can get to the point of this section, "space allocation". The groups assigned to a given block are required to sort out which group camps where in that block. Each camp is assigned a space allocation based on the number of paid, pre-registered people in the group, times 250 square feet.
Each camper is allocated 250 square feet. That doesn't mean you can bring a 10x25 foot tent and set it up. The space allocation is for your entire camp. For a single camper, that's things like:
Camping groups generally pool space allocation for common resources, typically things like:
Most camping groups require members to notify them ahead of time of tent footprints. This is especially the case for camping groups in blocks with "challenging" terrain, which requires even more planning ahead for where tents will go, based on terrain obstacles.