Todd Rundgren’s Getaway takes over Trapps

Trapp Family Lodge is alive with the sound of music this week, but not the kind you might think.

The resort is the latest site of a rock ’n’ roll retreat put together by 1970s rocker Todd Rundgren.

He bills it as the “TyRolean Getaway,” and he rented the entire resort this week to host it.

Rundgren’s camps are part workshop — where anyone who fancies themselves a budding rock star can learn from the real deal — and part leisure time spent bonding with a growing community.

“They kind of just go where Todd goes,” said Chris Belanger, the group sales manager at Trapp Family Lodge. “They’re 60-year-olds who act like 21-year-olds.”

Most people attending TyRolean Getaway have attended Rundgren’s camps before, and some have been coming for upwards of a decade, so they all know each other.

“They are the coolest bunch of people,” Belanger said.

The Getaway was put into motion last July, when organizer Dreamcatcher Events contacted Trapp Family Lodge.

“It was kind of a cold call,” Belanger said. “They called and said, ‘We want to do a buyout.’”

That means the entirety of Trapp Family Lodge — all 2,500 acres, all the rooms, all three swimming pools, the restaurant, the tennis courts, the rock climbing wall and the wedding tent — is dedicated to Rundgren and his campers.

As far as Belanger knows, Trapp Family Lodge has never had a complete buyout before.

To get the full experience you need a ticket — and they start at $1,000 without accommodations. The event website (toddstyroleangetaway.com) mentions Nazis, nuns and “The Sound of Music,” which campers have been re-enacting all week.

“I about fell out of my chair when I saw” the description, Belanger said. “(But) it really flourished. People jumped on it.”

Belanger said the event was 75 percent booked a month after tickets went on sale, and 186 campers came to Trapps.

‘Like a reunion’

Rundgren runs one of these camps every year, in different locations. And every time, “it’s like a reunion,” said Billy Hulting, events director for Dreamcatcher.

“We have a 90 percent return rate, so there’s no nervousness” of meeting new people, he said, though new people are welcome. “They’re just as excited to see each other as they are to see Todd.”

Rundgren said after a handful of years hosting the events, “we know what works and what doesn’t. People seem to prefer the Northeast over other places.”

He suspects the relatively cool summer weather might have something to do with his fans’ preferences — that and the chance to spend time in the beauty and isolation of the great outdoors.

“Some of these things are intensely musical,” but this event is more of a retreat,” Rundgren said. “People expect to be able to joke around with you and each other.”

Tuesday morning, Rundgren himself led a 2-mile hike on Trapp Family Lodge grounds while chatting and catching up with his fans.

“I am over the moon,” Belanger said. “I’ve been working on this for a year straight. When I told the von Trapps about it, they were over the moon too.”

So were Carolyn Siddall, 60, from the United Kingdom, and Don Slovin, 62, from Wilmington, Del. Slovin, a tour guide, actor and musician, said he’s been coming to Rundgren camps for about 10 years.

“We just really appreciate Todd as a wizard and a true star,” Slovin said.

“We are an absolute family,” Siddall said. “The first night was all just greeting and hugging. I lost my voice from it.”

“One community member drove two hours when he found out another one was in the hospital. He wanted to make sure she was okay,” Slovin said.

Siddall said she first heard a Todd Rundgren song in 1972 and “two notes hooked me.” She said the campers call themselves Utopians, a nod to the musician’s 1974 album, “Todd Rundgren’s Utopia.”

Slovin attributes the success of Rundgren’s camps to a shift in the way the music industry views fans.

“It used to be that they were told to keep their fans away, you know, have bodyguards,” Slovin said. “Now, I think as you get older and his fans get older, he’s not trying to push people away. He’s a full member of this community. It just happens to be named after him.”

Rundgren’s first getaway was in 2008, a 10-day campout at his home in Hawaii to celebrate his 60th birthday. He invited anyone who could make it and chip in for food. Many of those people also made it to Trapps this year.

Rundgren had never been to Vermont before, although he thinks a childhood road trip from Pennsylvania to Maine crossed through the state.

He called Trapp Family Lodge “possibly the best accommodations we’ve ever had,” while his wife, Michele, praised the overall attention to detail throughout the town of Stowe.

“It’s beautiful,” she said. “You don’t often see it in other places. We really appreciate our fans.”

“They’re our sales force, and we appreciate them,” Todd added. “They leave here reinvigorated and then they go out into the world and evangelize.”

So don’t be surprised if you see a rogue gaggle of folks in lederhosen and Todd Rundgren T-shirts around Stowe. They’re probably just spreading the word after a rousing re-enactment of “The Sound of Music” with their hero.