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Welcome to Strawberry Jam Camp!
We are looking forward to celebrating our 17th year of Strawberry Jam Camp this July 22-24, 2026!
Our Camps
Strawberry Jam Camp
Strawberry Jam Camp is a 3-day long bluegrass music camp focused on helping people learn how to jam with others. The camp covers what to play for rhythm backup, how to play songs you don't know in a jam, improvisation, and more!
Songwriters Workshop
Songwriter's Workshop is a 3-day long workshop that runs concurrently with Strawberry Jam Camp. Led by acclaimed songwriters Donna Ulisse, Rick Stanley, and Jerry Salley, the camp is designed to help songwriters improve their skills, connect with other attendees, and collaborate on songs.
Our history
The Idea
Strawberry Jam Camp was the brainchild of Keith Yoder. Back in 2008, Keith was teaching at several camps across the country and noticed that the participants were all becoming quite accomplished on their particular instruments, but many of them didn’t know how to jam/play with others. Those that did didn’t know the unwritten rules, or “jamming etiquette”. He thought, “If only there was a camp where people could learn to enjoy the fun of playing with others”. While attending the 2008 Backbone Bluegrass Festival, Keith discussed his idea with Linzy Martin and found an instant willing partner. At the time, the group of folks that put together the Backbone Bluegrass Festival were aging out and Linzy was looking for something to spice up the festival and get more younger folks involved.
Putting it in Motion
Keith and Linzy decided to combine their considerable talents and divided up the workload. Keith knew how to teach music and knew musicians. Linzy was an organizer and promoter at heart. The Backbone Lake Promotion Association, Inc. (the official name of the Backbone Bluegrass Festival) agreed to give the idea a chance, and the rest is history. With this camp taking place in Strawberry Point, IA the name was a natural- Strawberry Jam Camp.
Recruiting Instructors
The original instructors were Keith Yoder, Bob Black, Bill Cagley, and Paul Roberts. Later on, Scott Amos and Daryl Yoder were added. Eventually some of the original students were aging out and becoming young adults. Linzy and Keith noticed that they were spending much of their camp time working with younger students and even assisting some of the adults. Noticing that the original instructors were not getting any younger, the idea of working them into positions as instructors came about. Evan and Graham Anderegg and Kaitlyn and Ashlyn Briggs were added to the staff in 2022 with Andre Garcia and Nathan Anderegg being added later. With a core of assistant instructors, the future looks bright and Jam Camp should continue well into the foreseeable future. Read more about our instructors here!
Attendance and Location
The first year (2009) had 18 participants and was held at the Community Center in Strawberry Point. The class sizes kept increasing and the camp moved to the Franklin Hotel. After a couple years of growth, the camp moved once again to the Emanuel Lutheran Church where it remained until the Covid epidemic. Following the epidemic, there was a huge increase in attendance and the camp was moved to the much larger St. Mary’s church. Over 50% of campers are, as Linzy likes to call them, repeat offenders - meaning they've attended for at least 1 year prior. Some have attended every year! Check out what previous campers have said about our camps here!
Our Partners
