I’m not even kidding–one of my daughter’s long-term plans is to start a festival. Yes, I’ll be on board if she will have me! 
@glassharmonica, yesterday I was trespassing on, er, I mean walking through a now-defunct state school for troubled youth and was envisioning how I would refurbish the property to accommodate my music festival/adult workshop pipe dream. After all, there are some functional (not beautiful) buildings, a swimming pool, a nice slope around a flat area that could become an outdoor performance space, a couple of acres of woods and fields…
Oh, yes. Please count me onboard as well 
OP – did you figure something out for Aspen? My S decided not to do Brevard. He got about 2/3 of the cost covered by scholarship, but that still left a chunk. Hornet, he applied for an RA position, but didn’t get one. We’re happy with the decision to stay in SF. He’s going to work, practice and seek gigs. I’m happy to report that he’s getting more comfortable with the prospect of putting himself out there more, and living without a structured environment. I think it will be a good taste of what’s to come after grad school! Thanks, everyone, who responded to my question. You helped us come to the best conclusion AGAIN! You’re all wonderful.
I’m so glad that onekidkid is doing so well!
Onekidmama-good to see the festival issue settled. I like your son’s plan. Very much a preparation for what is ahead . . Quiet, unstructured time with no new living adjustment is important for musical and personal growth. Acclimating to a new festival and people carries its own stress and distraction. It can also be counterproductive, particularly for a graduate student who has already spent summers attending festivals. Your son is also living in a great city-why leave!
Sounds like a great plan onekidmomma. We are paying for my son’s summer camp this summer and he got a decent scholarship, but we can’t do it every summer. I told my son to start researching free ones and looking at their requirements for next summer so that he is prepared, or he can just work next summer instead.
Well, our son, who came of the wait list, appealed to Aspen and was told there were no more funds at this time. However, today they called him with news that a local person is happy to host him for the summer, leaving him with only tuition to cover. So he may be able to attend after all.
What a generous offer from the host!
Wow. That is wonderful lkj2643!
Don’t forget to check the details with the host family. One summer DD stayed with a host family that lived pretty far away and she absolutely had to have a car.
Was that in Aspen? Did the family provide any meals? Thanks.
No, it was a different one for voice. They did not provide any meals. Another thing to check.
@glassharmonica what are some of the free festivals for vp college underclassmen? My d searched and found very few even low cost ones. Yap tracker had one in Ireland for 300 pounds. Maybe I’m not looking in the right places but most of the free festivals we found were for vp are for graduate level students. Won’t help this year because she’s artending a pay to sing in Austria. But we’re looking at it as training and she’s getting college credit.
Voice is not my bailiwick, sorry! I’d ask Mezzo’sMom, whose daughter has been very successful . I don’t think she went to many summer festivals as an undergrad.
The “long haul” nature of classical voice precludes the availability of “free” for opportunities for young undergrad singers. Young voices are not ready for main stage full roles and there are more than enough mature grad students available for festival productions. I do know of a few seniors who were qualified enough to perform at Wolf Trap or Music Academy of the West but they are few and far between.
Sguti, what do you consider low cost? DD received partial awards so her total cost was under $2000 for 4-8 weeks, depending on the program. She determined the value and whether a program was worth it by how much she would get out of it for where she was in her development. There are so many VP out there now that what used be available to undergrads is now taken by grad students or even young artists still willing to pay to sing. Many of the ones that do have a cost also have merit money available to reduce that cost. As in applying to college as a VP, you won’t know your actual cost of attendance until offers come in.
“even young artists still willing to pay to sing” This is a disturbing trend. Two Falls ago D, while at her NYC Fall auditions, sang for a program that was still listed as a professional opportunity (a paid summer YAP) on Yaptracker, got “accepted” and later that week when she was expecting her offer she was informed that it would “only cost her $500”. They had “just that week” decided to become a pay to sing. She gave them a big NO.
I would think at her age upcoming sophomore that pay to sing will be in her future for a while. At first it looked like everyone was saying you shouldn’t have to pay and I was thinking we must be making some big mistake…sometimes I forget who’s an instrumentalist and who’s a vocalist and that at times different rules apply.
@Singersmom07 When giving her a budget we went with $4000 total…including “tuition”, room and board, flight and incidentals. We are west coast and everything’s an airplane ride. It also required minimum 3 weeks for the program. She auditioned for two. One sent her a really encouraging letter letting her know that freshmen rarely, if ever, are offered a spot but that they loved her voice, see a lot of promise and encouraged her to audition again. The other accepted her with scholarship and that’s where she’ll go. I think she’s the only one in her freshmen class who is attending a summer program. Most are taking language classes. She never attended a formal program prior to college like a lot of her peers and she will be able to get her language first hand in country with credit.
If it were mt it would be “so easy”…at least I know that world.
Yes, it’s very different for instrumentalists.