About
Bay Area Girls Rock Camp offers instrument instruction, band formation, and collaborative songwriting, along with Music Herstory, Image & Identity, self-defense, zine-making, and screenprinting workshops. Campers take part in performances, and each program ends with a showcase performance at a live venue. No musical experience is necessary, and instruments are provided for all participants.
• Ages: 8–18 years old
• Schedule: Girls Rock After School Program is a 10-week, twice-weekly after school music program from January to March; Girls Rock Camp is a weeklong, 8-hour daily summer camp with one-week sessions between June and August; Women’s Rock Camp is a 3-day weekend program for adult women in the spring
• Price: Summer Camp costs $450 and Girls Rock After School Program costs $350.
Bay Area Girls Rock Camp is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization with founding organizers Natalie, Melissa, Anna, Sarah, and Carey. The inaugural summer camp took place in July 2008, and the organization has provided radical music education for queer Bay Area youth for 16+ years. Its mission is to empower young people through music, foster self-confidence, creativity, and teamwork, and center the experiences of girls, trans, and/or non-binary youth with an explicit commitment to gender justice and an inclusive environment for a wide range of marginalized gender identities and expressions. The program states that it challenges gender stereotypes, encourages collaboration and tolerance among peers, and offers a space for people of all backgrounds to express themselves through music lessons, workshops, group activities, and performances. Bay Area Girls Rock Camp states that it exists to build confidence in youth through music education, provide youth with positive role models as they discover their own voice, foster a space where youth support each other without judgment and competition, celebrate and nurture difference, empower youth to recognize, understand, and respond to discrimination, and work toward a world free of myths that limit young people based on gender.
Bay Area Girls Rock Camp is affiliated with the Girls Rock Camp Alliance, an international coalition of programs with a common mission of empowering girls through music. The organization supports the Black Lives Matter and No Dakota Access Pipeline movements, acknowledges that its office is on traditional Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone land, and has started paying the Shuumi Land Tax to support the Sogorea Te Land Trust’s work. It relies on support from its community and invites volunteers to offer skills, donate goods or services, fundraise, or spread the word, and its culminating spring event “The Kids Are All Right” is hosted in partnership with Dollfest.
The program is open to self-identified girls, trans, and/or non-binary youth aged 8–18, with separate tracks for younger and older campers, and an internship program for campers between 15 and 19 who have participated in two or more programs. Campers may participate in multiple sessions of summer camp if space permits. Financial aid is offered for all programs on a needs basis, Bay Area residents are prioritized for financial aid, and the organization states that no one is ever turned away for lack of funds and that it provides services to youth regardless of their families’ ability to pay. Bay Area Girls Rock Camp describes its approach as nurturing an intergenerational environment that brings together youth and adults, encouraging self-discovery through hands-on experience and risk-taking, and aiming to balance technique and experimentation. The organization states that it believes music is a powerful tool for self-expression and empowerment, that music connects people across differences, and that making music together inspires creativity, collaboration, communication, and respect.
Last updated March 24, 2026.
• Ages: 8–18 years old
• Schedule: Girls Rock After School Program is a 10-week, twice-weekly after school music program from January to March; Girls Rock Camp is a weeklong, 8-hour daily summer camp with one-week sessions between June and August; Women’s Rock Camp is a 3-day weekend program for adult women in the spring
• Price: Summer Camp costs $450 and Girls Rock After School Program costs $350.
Bay Area Girls Rock Camp is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization with founding organizers Natalie, Melissa, Anna, Sarah, and Carey. The inaugural summer camp took place in July 2008, and the organization has provided radical music education for queer Bay Area youth for 16+ years. Its mission is to empower young people through music, foster self-confidence, creativity, and teamwork, and center the experiences of girls, trans, and/or non-binary youth with an explicit commitment to gender justice and an inclusive environment for a wide range of marginalized gender identities and expressions. The program states that it challenges gender stereotypes, encourages collaboration and tolerance among peers, and offers a space for people of all backgrounds to express themselves through music lessons, workshops, group activities, and performances. Bay Area Girls Rock Camp states that it exists to build confidence in youth through music education, provide youth with positive role models as they discover their own voice, foster a space where youth support each other without judgment and competition, celebrate and nurture difference, empower youth to recognize, understand, and respond to discrimination, and work toward a world free of myths that limit young people based on gender.
Bay Area Girls Rock Camp is affiliated with the Girls Rock Camp Alliance, an international coalition of programs with a common mission of empowering girls through music. The organization supports the Black Lives Matter and No Dakota Access Pipeline movements, acknowledges that its office is on traditional Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone land, and has started paying the Shuumi Land Tax to support the Sogorea Te Land Trust’s work. It relies on support from its community and invites volunteers to offer skills, donate goods or services, fundraise, or spread the word, and its culminating spring event “The Kids Are All Right” is hosted in partnership with Dollfest.
The program is open to self-identified girls, trans, and/or non-binary youth aged 8–18, with separate tracks for younger and older campers, and an internship program for campers between 15 and 19 who have participated in two or more programs. Campers may participate in multiple sessions of summer camp if space permits. Financial aid is offered for all programs on a needs basis, Bay Area residents are prioritized for financial aid, and the organization states that no one is ever turned away for lack of funds and that it provides services to youth regardless of their families’ ability to pay. Bay Area Girls Rock Camp describes its approach as nurturing an intergenerational environment that brings together youth and adults, encouraging self-discovery through hands-on experience and risk-taking, and aiming to balance technique and experimentation. The organization states that it believes music is a powerful tool for self-expression and empowerment, that music connects people across differences, and that making music together inspires creativity, collaboration, communication, and respect.
Last updated March 24, 2026.
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