A Camporee is the high point of a Pathfinder's life: thousands of tents side by side, uniforms of every color, marching drills, campfires, and worship services that stay in your memory forever. Brazil, home to the largest share of Pathfinders in South America, has hosted some of the biggest gatherings in the world. Here we've gathered the great Brazilian Camporees — both the South American Division (SAD) editions and the union-level ones — with the numbers we were able to confirm from official Adventist sources. Where the data is estimated or sources disagree, we say so honestly.
What a Camporee is (and why Brazil looms so large)
Camporee blends the words 'camp' and 'jamboree.' In practice, it's a large camp that brings together multiple Pathfinder Clubs at the same time, with spiritual programming, physical activities, honors, marching drills, and plenty of fellowship. They happen at different levels: club, region, association, union, and, at the top, the South American Division (SAD) Camporee, which brings together Pathfinders from several countries.
According to the Adventist Church, the first Pathfinder Clubs in Brazil were founded in 1959, in Santa Catarina and Sao Paulo, after the movement was officially established worldwide in 1950. Since then, Brazil has become the country with the largest number of Pathfinders in SAD — which is why nearly all of the South American mega-camporees take place on Brazilian soil.
The South American Camporees: all held in Brazil
The South American Camporee is the largest of them all. It brings together Pathfinders from eight to nine SAD countries, and to date every single edition has been held in Brazil. The growth over the decades is striking: it started with a few thousand participants and reached the 100,000 mark.
The first edition took place at the turn of 1983 into 1984, in Foz do Iguacu (PR), with the theme 'From Nature to the Creator.' Next came Ponta Grossa (1994) and Santa Helena (2005), both in the state of Parana. Starting in 2014, the event found a permanent home in Barretos (SP), at Parque do Peao — a venue normally used for the country's largest rodeo festival, capable of hosting a full 'tent city.'
"An Appointment Set for Eternity" and "The Best Adventure" are among the most fondly remembered themes for an entire generation of Pathfinders.Themes of the SAD Camporees of 2014 and 2019, in Barretos
Barretos 2019: the 'Best Adventure' mega-camporee
If there's one Camporee that made history purely by its size, it was the V South American Camporee, held in January 2019 in Barretos. To fit that many people, it was split into two editions — Alpha (January 8-13) and Omega (January 15-20) — adding up to about 100,000 participants from several SAD countries, according to Adventist press coverage. Some sources cite slightly different figures for each breakdown (overall total, Brazilians only, simultaneous attendance), so we treat 100,000 as the widely reported figure for the event as a whole.
With the theme 'The Best Adventure,' the program spoke to the teenager's journey as a Pathfinder, citizen, Christian, and missionary. It became one of those events that turns into a reference point: five years later, it's still common to hear Pathfinders say, 'I was at the 2019 Camporee.'
The great union-level Camporees
The calendar isn't just about the South American editions. Unions (which group together several states) hold their own mega-camporees, and some are enormous in their own right. A striking example is the Camporee of the Central Brazilian Union (UCB), which oversees the Church in the state of Sao Paulo: its eighth edition, themed 'Unshakable Faith,' brought together about 26,000 Pathfinders from roughly 600 clubs in Barretos, from July 12 to 16, 2023.
In the Northeast, the 'Protagonists' Camporee gathered about 19,000 Pathfinders in Parnamirim (RN), from November 13 to 17, 2024, with clubs from six northeastern states. The Southeast Brazilian Union (USeB), meanwhile, brought about 16,000 Pathfinders from Rio de Janeiro, Espirito Santo, and Minas Gerais to its VII Camporee, in Lavras (MG), in July 2023, themed 'He Is Coming.' These are numbers that, in any other context, would match the population of entire cities.
Why these numbers get so big
Bringing tens of thousands of children and teenagers together in one place demands infrastructure that few events in the country can match: thousands of tents, dozens of kitchens, hydration stations, security, medical teams, and hundreds of volunteers. At the Barretos mega-camporees, people speak of genuine 'temporary cities' assembled in just a few days at Parque do Peao.
That scale explains why Brazil hosts the biggest events: the country has SAD's largest base of clubs, infrastructure from major event venues, and a very strong Pathfinder culture. For readers who have never attended one, fair warning: a Camporee is, at the same time, exhausting and unforgettable.