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Fairfax County Park Authority is splitting its 2025 summer camp registration into two opening days to prevent a repeat of last year’s system crash.

The county has divided camp locations into “Green” and “Blue” zones. Registration for programs in the eastern Green zone will open Tuesday, Feb. 4, at 9 a.m. Programs in the western Blue zone will follow Thursday, Feb. 6, at 9 a.m.

Spring class registration will begin Tuesday, Feb. 11, at 9 a.m.

The staggered schedule follows a 2024 technology failure in which a third-party vendor’s online platform crashed under the volume of first-day registrations.

“We’ve worked with our vendor to correct the error that led to last year’s challenges,” Park Authority officials said in a statement.

The Park Authority’s 38-page spring and summer camp guide is available online and is expected to reach county households around Friday, Jan. 31. The guide explains the revised process, while an online video offers additional help with registration.

Families who miss out on their preferred program will have another option when waitlists for all summer camps open Thursday, May 1, at 10 a.m.

Heavy demand for summer programs has caused registration problems elsewhere in Northern Virginia. In 2023, technical issues forced a temporary shutdown of launch-day registration for Camp Fairfax, the summer program serving Fairfax County’s School Age Child Care centers. Arlington County’s Department of Parks and Recreation has also experienced multiple registration system failures in recent years.