According to the director of the Britney Spears Camp for the Performing Arts, Taylor Swift didn't attend the camp as a camp-goer but performed there for students around 2003. Also, while Spears claimed the photo of her with Swift was snapped backstage on her "Oops!... I Did It Again" tour, that tour ran in the year 2000. Spears did not tour in 2003, when the photo was purported to have been taken.
For more than a decade, a claim has circulated widely online that singer-songwriter Taylor Swift attended a summer camp for underprivileged kids founded by pop star Britney Spears. The rumor recently gained traction on social media, with posts like this one on X from the account Tom Brooks, who in early July 2024 shared a throwback photo of the two singers, along with the following explanation:
A 14-year-old Taylor Swift attending 22-year-old Britney Spears' summer camp for future performers in 2003. It was a 10-day summer camp created by Britney Spears in 1999. The camp program was for 250 "economically disadvantaged students" and relied on donations and sponsors to help keep the organization going. It was located in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts. The camp was originally named the 'Britney Spears Camp for the Performing Arts', until Spears cut ties with the organization in 2004.
In 2013, this rumor was shared on X , accompanied by the familiar throwback photo of a young Swift posing with Spears. Generally, whenever the photo and narrative resurfaces on social media, the claim is made that Swift attended the "Toxic" singer's performing arts summer camp for economically disadvantaged students.
Even in 2009, fan forums discussed Swift attending Spears' camp in 2003.
But the claims are incorrect. Swift was never a camp-goer, but, rather, performed for the youth there in 2003. For this reason, we have rated the claim as "Miscaptioned."
Oops! ... Spears Potentially Miscaptioned Her Own Photo
According to reports , Spears did indeed launch a summer camp in 1999 called the Britney Spears Camp for the Performing Arts, located in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts. The camp aimed to provide high-quality performing arts education over a 10-day period, during which the campers stayed on location at the campsite.
One Reddit post from 2019 attempted to dive into Swift's career trajectory and posited that she could attend the camp due to her connection to Spears through the latter's then-assistant manager, Dan Dymtrow, who allegedly discovered Swift . The Reddit post claimed that "in summer 2003, Taylor became enrolled in Britney Spears' performing arts camp for 10 days. The camp ran as a charity and most of the kids were low-income but Taylor's parents apparently were able to get Taylor a spot there by making a donation (hopefully they donated enough to make room for another student so she didn't take another low income student's spot?)."
Adding to the confusion, Spears — who appeared to have deactivated her Instagram account in mid-July 2024 — shared the photo purportedly showing her and Swift at the camp to Instagram in November 2023 , alongside a snap of the two singers in 2008 at the MTV Video Music Awards. In her post, Spears recalled she first met Swift backstage while on her "Oops!... I Did It Again" tour, where she said they took the photo together:
This is way back when but kinda cool ... During my Oops Tour, I got a knock at my door. My good friend at the time was the assistant to my manager who was trying to become a manager himself. There was a knock, and then he said, "I have a girl named Taylor who wants to come in and sing for you." I was like of course !!! He walks in, and she sings a beautiful song with her guitar 🎸 I was like wow wow she's unbelievable !!! We took a picture, and she then became the most iconic pop woman of our generation. Kinda cool she plays stadiums, and I prefer her videos over movies any day. She's stunning !!! Girl crush 💄 💄 💄
(Instagram account @britneyspears)
Although Spears claimed the photo was taken during her " Oops!... I Did It Again " tour, which reportedly ran from June 2000 to November 2000, the version of the photo she posted was labeled "2003," a year in which Spears did not tour.
Swift Didn't Attend Camp, But She Did Perform There
Snopes reached out to several sources, including the current owners of the campsite, the founding director of the camp, and Swift's team. They confirmed that Swift never attended the camp as a camper. However, she did perform for the campers there at least once.
We spoke with the camp's founding director, Donna Milani Luther, who has more than three decades of experience as an arts and creativity educator. Luther recalled her first interaction with Spears and her subsequent introduction to now-34-year-old Swift, who she said would have been about "14 and 15 when we met her." According to Luther (emphasis our own):
"Twenty-five years ago, I was here in my office and I was called by Britney Spears' management. The phone call was in 1999 and our first camp was in August of 2000, so we're coming on to our 25th year. Britney was starting a foundation at the time and wanted very much to start some kind of program for kids that couldn't afford lessons in the arts. And essentially they decided starting a summer camp would be the thing to do. We would pull kids from the New York and Boston areas where arts programs had been cut, working with the school systems to find and identify kids from underserved populations who needed some kind of experience where they could be together and learn about dance, about singing and performing. We have a rock 'n' roll band, improv, theater, et cetera, et cetera. It's sort of an immersive arts experience, and Britney's management asked me if I would design and deliver the program.
"Britney's [management] used to send in two or three young people they had just signed to perform at one of the evening performances each summer. So Taylor Swift was one of the young people that they sent in, I think it was 2003. Taylor came to camp two separate years, around 2002 and 2003, and performed for the campers. And that time she was doing more country kind of music. But again, what it did was fulfill my wish to bring in different modes and genres of music and art.
"Taylor would also talk to the kids [who attended the 10-day camp] about such topics like how she created, where she got her inspiration for songs from, and so on. And then she would spend time in sort of a question-and-answer session because kids are very often interested in how you get someone to listen to the music that you've made and what the process of all of that was. She was gracious and kind and always wonderful with the students. She was at camp usually for a day or two out of the 10 days but she was never an attendant, she was a guest performer. And that was two separate years. "
Luther added that through her Britney Spears Foundation, the singer supported the camp for five years until 2004 when the funding was discontinued. After Spears' involvement with the camp reportedly ended , Luther said she renamed the organization Summer Stars Camp for the Performing Arts and registered it as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and continued to receive support from various celebrities.
"We've gone 20 years without Britney," Luther explained. "We never had full sponsors again, but other celebrities and performers of note have donated money and time to our camp." Those performers included the Jonas Brothers and 50 Cent, the latter of whom Luther described as "just wonderful with the campers."
Snopes asked Luther about Spears' post and her claim the photo was taken in 2000 while on tour: "No, that's not true because we have pictures of Britney in that same outfit at camp. So I'm sure it was taken at camp. Britney may not remember that. But that's OK."
We managed to source a VH1 clip on YouTube , allegedly from 2003, that shows Spears at her summer camp wearing the same outfit as she is in the photo with Swift:
Additionally, Luther shared a photo from her personal collection of Swift performing at the camp, along with an autographed two-song CD stamped with the year 2003, autographed by Swift and addressed to Luther.
"It's hard to see she's at camp," Luther explained of the photo of Swift, "but I know because I can see she's under the tent that I rent every year."
Photos provided by Donna Milani Luther, founding director of Summer Stars Camp. (Summer Stars Camp for the Performing Arts)
To further bolster the claim that Swift was a performer at Spears' camp and not an attendee, in January 2015, the Instagram account belonging to joie_music (who describes herself as a singer, songwriter and vocal coach) posted: "When Taylor and I were little ones performing for the Britney Spears performing arts camp ❤️."
(joie_music/Instagram)
In short, the claim that a photo proves Swift attended a Spears' summer camp for the underprivileged is miscaptioned. While Swift did perform at the camp at least once, several sources confirm she was not an attending camper. Although Spears posted that the photo in question was taken during her "Oops!... I Did It Again" tour in 2000, there is no proof to support the singer's claim, which has added to the confusion surrounding the photo.
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