Course FAQ’s

Camp Creative uses every hall and venue in our small town. We also use every single available room at the High School and St Mary's Primary School.
There is literally no more room in town, we wish there was!
We try to provide as many course options as we can for our students, but we are still restricted by the amount of rooms we have and also need to have course proposals to fill this requirement.
Half day courses also need to be paired with another half day course, so that rooms don't go to waste for half a day.
The final factor is that we need a tutor who is offering to teach a half day course format.
Great!
We would love to see a course proposal from you. You can find more information here.
No, the cost of managing this would not be viable for us. Logistically, this would also be very difficult to manage.
In 2026 we are offering 2 and 3 day courses, so that provides scope to do 2 courses for the week if you wish.
No, we don’t do part charges on our courses. They are all for set amounts of days, this info is stated on every course page.
Also, refunds are not provided if you leave your course early.
No, our classrooms have set student capacities. Please fill in the wait list form on the course page.
If a place becomes available, you will receive a ticket offer email to see if you would like to take it, depending on your place in the waiting list.
Places are offered according to who put their name on the waiting list first.
Yes!
Well, to a certain point. You can’t swap courses after 30th November. This is so that the tutor doesn’t end up out of pocket for materials they need to purchase in advance.
If it is before 30th November, just head to the website and press the account icon.
- Login to your account
- Click ‘Bookings’
- Click the 3 lines to the right of the ticket you want to exchange
- Click ‘Exchange tickets’
- Click the checkbox next to the ticket you are exchanging
- Click ‘Exchange’
- Click ‘Add to Cart’
- Now you can go to the ‘Courses & Tickets’ menu and go shopping for your new course
- When you add the new course to your cart and go to checkout, the total should either be $0 or you will need to pay the gap if booking a higher value course.
- Note that you will not be able to check out if you are changing to a lower value course that requires a gap refund. Please call Nicole on 0419 379 146 in this instance.

Classes & Venues

Class numbers always have been and always will be very difficult to manage.

Current class numbers are already at a reduced level to what they were previously.

There is a fine balance between class numbers and course viability.

If there aren't enough people in the class to cover the costs of renting the space and paying the tutor, then the course is no longer viable.
This is common feedback received from students at Bellingen High School.

Air conditioners are all set on a timer and the button at the front of the class needs to be pressed every hour to keep it running.

As we use rooms/venues that we hire at a cost, we must use them 'as is'.
Lots of things are considered when we decide where to 'room' a course.
The high school has 50 usable rooms, so when we have over 80 courses it stands to reason that not everyone can fit at a single venue.

These include student numbers, required facilities, whether the course is adults or kids, which room the course was in last year.

Some courses have to be in the same room each year eg. Life Drawing needs privacy and Spaghetti Circus must use the school hall.

So some things are always set and we have to shuffle the other 80+ courses to fit in.
Sometimes the tutor also decides on their course location, it isn’t mandated by Camp Creative.
If you are at an external venue, students are always welcome to attend the high school at lunch time.
With 80+ courses, it is a huge game of tetris to fit everyone in!

Aside from that, Camp Creative has to comply with complicated child safety laws.

We understand that this may be inconvenient for some families, but the easiest way to manage child safety issues is to locate as many of the kids courses as we can in the one place.
It sure was!
But as our kids offerings have grown and child safety compliance has changed over the years, we have to change with that.
In the interest of child safety and logistics, it is much easier and safer to have most kids courses at the one venue, St Mary's Primary School.
Even if we could shuffle courses around and put a combination of kids and adult courses across both schools, then adults would be unhappy to be placed at St Mary's and 'miss out' on the high school.
Please see the venues page on the website for full access information. If you have a mobility issue, you MUST advise us of this on your course booking so we can ensure we are prepared to meet your needs.If you are at the high school, we offer a valet parking service. This involves driving up to the office block and meeting a staff member, who will park your car and keep your keys safe for the day. Please phone Rob Stockton on 0403 227 599 to arrange this.

Fees & Payments

Camp Creative 2024 was the first event in 13 years to cover costs.
We feel that our prices are actually quite reasonable.
For the price of your ticket not only do you receive a full week of tuition, you also get access to 4 free evening events.
There aren't many creative workshops that we could find in our google and Facebook searches,
where you would receive tuition for less than $100 per day.
Yes, both Afterpay and ZipPay are available at checkout.
While we would love to offer cheaper tickets, we also need to cover our costs.
Camp Creative is a huge event to facilitate, with over 90 tutors and 1000+ students. Our event is mostly run by volunteers, but we still have bills to pay for the canteen, venue hire, insurance, marketing, sound and vision for events, and so much more.
Not to mention that we also need to pay our tutors and the Camp Creative Coordinator.
Camp Creative has always been a non-profit organisation. Every cent goes back into putting the event on for you again next year.
As Camp Creative is a non-profit business, this isn't a viable option for us.

We do offer a small discount for students with a pension card, but this is all we can manage at this stage.
Yes, we accept Creative Kids and Active Kids vouchers.
Please use your voucher code in the box at checkout.
Some basic supplies are included for SOME courses. Please ensure you carefully read all course requirements on the course page before you purchase.
All material costs are clearly outlined on the website, on each individual course page. If there is a materials cost for your course, your tutor will be in touch to arrange payment before Camp Creative.
You will also receive the course materials list via email when you book your ticket.
So basically, the cost of your ticket helps pay the tutors’ wages. The tutor still needs to recoup their cost of materials after their wage has been paid, so this is why they charge a materials cost.
Please ensure you read all of the information on the course page before purchasing your ticket.
Yes, we can arrange a set payment plan. It is a manual process though, so you have to email us info@campcreative.com.au
No.
As an event provider, we are not required to provide a refund UNLESS we cancel or change the event.
We still incur the cost of running the event, whether you attend or not.
If you can no longer attend you can either sell your ticket (this is not the responsibility of Camp Creative and you need to inform us of the new ticket holder details) OR you can exchange your ticket for a voucher to use to purchase tickets for the next Camp Creative.
If you wish to exchange for a voucher, follow this process:
- Go to the website and press the account icon.
- Login to your account
- Click ‘Bookings’
- Click the 3 lines to the right of the ticket you want to exchange
- Click ‘Exchange tickets’
- Click the checkbox next to the ticket you are exchanging
- Click ‘Exchange’
- Click ‘Buy’ in the ‘Voucher’ section
- In the ‘Other’ box, type the value of your ticket, not including the booking fee.
- When you add the new course to your cart and go to checkout, the total should be $0.
- If you have any issues with the cart not being $0, please call Nicole on 0419 379 146.

Food & Drink

As we only have one canteen facility available at the High School, we put out the opportunity for tender to the local community.

The canteen is then the sole responsibility of the business chosen from the tender process.

The menu is provided by that chosen business, and agreed upon by Camp Creative. There is a need to keep it simple as it is difficult for the canteen to cover costs and it is very common for the canteen to operate at a loss.
We do our best to cover all common dietary needs.
While we would like to provide this convenience, local coffee van providers won't work at an event if another coffee van is onsite.
We appreciate that queues are annoying but the volume is only enough for one main vendor.
We don’t have enough staff to facilitate this. Most town venues are a 1-2 minute walk to the nearest cafe.
We trialled running the high school café in 2025, and while it was popular with students, it unfortunately wasn’t sustainable for us to continue.
Running the café created significant financial losses across the week, including reduced income for our existing food and coffee providers and additional operating costs. As a not-for-profit event, we need to make careful decisions to keep Camp Creative financially viable, and this is one of those areas where we’ve had to make a tough call.
We know it was appreciated by many, and we don’t take that lightly. We’ll continue to review options where we can, but for now we’re focusing on supporting the food and coffee services that are already in place across the event.
Running the high school canteen is tricky! It is a small space that can only fit a limited number of staff. So preparing all of the orders in time for lunch is a huge job for all involved.
With deliveries, we only have a limited number of people available to run the orders around. It really comes down to a lack of people power. It is very difficult to find reliable volunteers, and as a nonprofit organisation, there simply isn’t enough budget to pay extra people to join the team for the week. Please bear with us, we are doing our best.

Transport

While we used to provide this service, we can no longer logistically manage this.
The main reason is due to child safety law compliance. The other issue is that parents need to fill in permission slips for this service in advance. Chasing hundreds of parents to do this before the event via email is a near impossible task reliant on either parents answering emails or the coordinator needing to make chase-up phone calls.
The secondary reason is that we don’t have enough volunteers to drive the buses.
Some students have suggested more shuttle buses.
Suggestions include a lunch time bus to/from the Showground and also buses to towns further away like Coffs Harbour and Macksville.
While this is a great idea, we don't have the staff or resources to make this happen.

General

This is fully explained here.
All of the venues are hired by Camp Creative, so we are required to comply by the rules of those venues.
The Department of Education specifically forbids dogs on their premises.
Plus, we cannot rule out allergies and/or fear of dogs amongst campers.
Service dogs are of course allowed, but we need to know about this in advance so we can inform course participants.
In the interest of public health and safety, we must ensure all of our venues are smoke and vape free.
The Department of Education specifically forbids smoking/vaping on their premises.
Camp Creative follows NSW Health’s public health advice.
COVID is now endemic in the community and it’s up to all of us to make decisions that reduce the risk of infection for both ourselves and others.
NSW Health advises to:
Stay home if you have cold or flu symptoms and wear a mask if you need to leave home.
Stay up to date with your recommended COVID vaccinations.
Discuss with your doctor your eligibility for anti-viral medication if you are higher risk.
More information is available from NSW Health https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/protecting-yourself
Camp Creative does not offer refunds or credits in case of illness.
If you are already very familiar with venues/rooms at Camp Creative, it isn't necessary to check-in on Sunday.
But if you've never been before and your course is at Bellingen High School we recommend you do, to save any confusion on Monday morning.
Please make sure you read the full check-in info provided on the check-in page here.
All other school holiday periods are only 2 weeks, while the summer holiday break is 6 weeks.
Camp Creative is a huge event and we need more than a 2 week period to set up, run the event and pack down.
The event also takes a whole year to organise, which is why it can't be held more than once a year.
Please sign up for our newsletter here.
You need to ensure that our email is in your email contacts, otherwise there is a risk that our emails will go to your spam folder. Please add info@campcreative.com.au to your email contacts.

Bellingen & Town

Camp Creative does encourage businesses to alter their hours during the week of the event.
Ultimately though, the choice remains with the business.
Like all small town/regional venues, the Showground is run by a volunteer committee.
Facility upgrades are very costly and would need to be fully fundraised by the community, which isn't an easy task.
Unfortunately, community grants are not as prolific as they once were for community projects
There is a huge amount of accommodation available in Bellingen and surrounds.
Providing a list of available accommodation is currently being discussed by the committee.

Illustration of a house with a large green tree in front, surrounded by bushes and plants.

Frequently Asked Questions

Course FAQ’s

Classes & Venues

Fees & Payments

Food & Drink

Transport

General

Bellingen & Town