Location Eindhoven | Type LAN party | |
CampZone is a large outdoor LAN event organized by Duh-Events. It takes place in the summer and lasts for eleven days. The first eight editions were organized by GameParty.net. Duh-Events took over organizing CampZone in 2009. British software house Codemasters (2003-2008), Getronics PinkRoccade (2007-2008) are known for being the main sponsors of the event. Since CampZone 2012, Rabobank has been the main sponsor.
Contents
2001–2006
From its beginning in 2000, until 2006, CampZone was held on the festival grounds surrounding the Walibi World amusement park. These grounds were originally created to accommodate the 18th World Scout Jamboree. Since then the terrain has been used for several large scale events, such as the annual Lowlands music festival. These fields are fully drained, so they could be used for camping in the relatively wet Dutch climate.
The festival grounds are subdivided into smaller fields separated by a thin treeline. CampZone used two of these fields: one for entry, car parking and sports activities, the other for the event itself. The fields used are approximately 56,700 m2 (67,800 sq yd), about nine soccer fields in size.
Due to the nearby presence of a hostel for terminally ill children (the Colombinehuis), strict rules pertaining to sound were enforced during the event. The sections of the field used during CampZone nearest to this hostel were reserved for participants generating only moderate noise levels. People bringing sound systems capable of generating over 100 watts of output were required to use the sections of the field furthest away from the Colombinehuis.
2007–2015
In 2007 CampZone moved to Oirschot, near Eindhoven, the Netherlands. This is easily accessible from Eindhoven Airport, to draw more visitors from outside the Netherlands. The new location received a lot of criticism, due to the bad road leading to it and because the extreme amounts of rainwater did not drain well during CampZone 2007.
The 2009 and 2010 editions of the event continued the success of the previous editions, although the organization of the events was more difficult than before due to the financial crisis. Over time the event changed from an outdoor LAN party to something more like a festival. This change is mostly visible in the growing amount of non-computer related extra activities. In the past years the organization has teamed up with the Dutch Army to provide some of those activities, which range from running obstacle courses to shooting simulations.
As of 2012, CampZone has booked several music groups to play during the event.
The 2013 edition featured a new field layout, to make the field more centered on the central activities field and the main-tent. The parking was moved further from the main road to make it less accessible for non-visitors. These changes were also made to save some cost on the power and networking grid.
2016–present
In 2016 CampZone moved to Kronenberg, near Venlo, the Netherlands.
Origin
CampZone originated from WAN, a smaller LAN party which was held in the recreation area "De Kibbelkoele" near Emmen (NL). WAN was held from 1998 until 2000 (WAN NULL).
Past events
CampZone 1 (2001)
CampZone 2 (2002)
CampZone 3 (2003)
CampZone 4 (2004)
CampZone 5 (2005)
CampZone 6 (2006)
CampZone 7 (2007)
[8]
CampZone 8 (2008)
CampZone 9 (2009)
CampZone 10 (2010)
Organisation
The organisation behind CampZone consists completely of dedicated volunteers. The basic structure of the CampZone organisation is as follows:
Network
Until CampZone 7, the network was based around a central high-speed glass fiber switch, with cables to sub-switches on each field. Those field switches are operated and supervised by the field admins for that particular field. Connected computers needed to manually configure a fixed IP address for the network. The core of the network, as well as many servers brought by visitors, resided in the Network Heardquarters (NHQ), a temporary air-conditioned building. Wireless network access and Internet were also available at CampZone 7 (although limited).
For the next edition, an entirely new network has been designed. The new network is a routed network. Each field gets its own high-speed switch (HP Procure 9300 series) which are interconnected using 8 to 20 gigabit links. Every end-user switch has its own subnet so that network issues remain local problems and do not affect the entire network, as well as limiting unneeded broadcast traffic. Also, DHCP is used, removing the need to manually configure IP addresses. In order to allow for certain types of broadcast traffic, a custom-built system is used that relays certain packets (such as gameserver discovery packets) across the entire network. In addition, thanks to the high speeds at which fields are connected, every participant can use gigabit ethernet to connect their own PC to the network. Previously gigabit connections were available in few numbers and reserved for people who shared the link with several others. Altogether this should prove for a much more advanced, faster, more stable network.
Power
Since there is no normal power source at the location of CampZone, the power has to be generated there. The entire event greatly depends on trustworthy stable power, because computers and other hardware can very easily damage when the current fluctuates, or is not properly aligned or consequent.
Some power usage facts of CampZone 7 (2007):
Competitions and activities
During the event, many official and unofficial competitions are held. The official PC competitions are organized by the CampZone crew. All official competitions offer prizes for at least the winner, most of which are provided by sponsors.
The official outdoor competitions are organized by the activities team of Duh-Events. Most competitions are announced long before the start of the event, but some outdoor competitions are announced during the event. Examples of outdoor competitions held during previous editions of CampZone are riding a mechanical bull and playing soccer on a field of soap.
Unofficial competitions can be organized by visitors and vary from playing old-fashioned board or card games, to sports and a "strongest man" competition.
Notable groups on CampZone
The following groups are amongst the biggest on CampZone. They vary from 10 to 30 people in each group.