Well I’m home showered, shaved and feeling a little more human than this morning. The physical change was only temporary, the stickiness washes away easily, the aching legs will settle down and I will recover, in a few days I won’t be quite as tired. The mental impact and dare I say the spiritual impact will be far more lasting.
I have heard a lot about Greenbelt from several friends, all of whom tried to explain what it’s like, but all agreed that they couldn’t explain it fully. For those who haven’t heard about GreenBelt pop over here GreenBelt and check it out, basically they organise an annual festival with a Christian angle with music, talks, art, film, camping, fab food and good times, so although a Christian festival everyone is welcome and I’m sure would enjoy it. But that brief description like my friends explanations falls far, far short of what GreenBelt do and what its like to attend the Festival.
Arriving at 10am on Friday morning we were presented with a sea of cars all waiting to get through the Gates into the camping area, sounds bad but it’s really not, jump out of the car and chat with people around you and the festival begins early, share food, drink, stories and ideas for what we should try to see at the festival., and that really sets the scene, surrounded by friendly people willing to share what they have and enjoy each others company. Then we get directed in by one of the army of volunteers onsite. Once your onsite you head off to the areas you want to go to, early curfew, youth etc. and find a spot to set-up.
The Festival site itself is substantial and at first sight was a little daunting, but the maps provided in the festival plan are very good and once you orientated yourself you knew where you needed to be for each of the events.
The events and activities was the biggest problem of the weekend for me. With so much to do and to see making the decision what to miss out was a hard one. I knew several people I wanted to listen to, bands I wanted to see, acts of worship I wanted to attend and built my weekend around those events.
Here are some of the Highlights of my time at the festival
Maggi Dawn
Musician, Author and theologian among other things, I came across her blog through the GreenBelt website last year and enjoyed her style of writing and the openess she has about the issuses she talks about. I attended a talk on her recent book The Writing on the Wall
, which takes portions of scripture and shows how they influence many different aspects of culture including, art, poetry. Maggi explained how she write the book and the challenges she faced and then took us through the idea of the book using the Annunciation(Gabriel visiting Mary to tell of her becoming the Mother of Christ) she spoke of various pieces of art and how peoples theologies and understandings of the Bible influenced what they created. It was a wonderful talk and those who attended enjoyed it thoroughly, my only regret is I didnt have a copy of the book to take to the books signing nor did I have my wallet, Lesson one, take cash just in case.
Ellen and the Escapades
Not a planned viewing as they were asked to fill in at the last minute for Fionn Regan, but i am glad I managed to see them, fantastic performance, with lovely songs and a good stage presence, their cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Go your own Way was beautifully executed and a pleasure to listen too. A band I will certainly be listening to in the future.
Mark Yaconelli
Mark had several talks over the weekend the one I managed to catch was The three desires: Christianity as a spiritual path. Mark was enjoyable to listen to the personal experiences he added to his talk and the way in which he links them to the theme was creative and easy to listen to. The main theme was linked with the prodigal son and the three main characters in the story and the love we have for ourselves and for others.
Communion on Sunday
What an experience, 20,000 people joining together to worship was amazing, then to take communion together, something I value very much, made for a truly fantastic weekend. The Sermon was very meaningful and Maggi Dawns involvement was beautiful, the entire service was inspiring and felt like God was present.
The Herbaliser
Hard to describe really a fusion of Jazz, Hip-Hop, instrumental and Funk, a strange mix which just worked, they certainly got the crowd jumping with noone standing still at the main stage. Fantastic.
Taize
When I saw the programme I was slightly annoyed that the taize service was at the same time as Beverley Knight so I was torn between staying at the main stage and heading over to the Big Top. In the end the Taize at the Big Top won and I am glad it did, whilst I still would have like to see Beverley Knight performing the Taize service was nothing short of inspirational. We arrrived at 9.30 and people were already queing to get in and by the time the doors open the snake was 6 deep. I met some lovely people in the line and got to discuss many things about faith and worship and GreenBelt. By the time worship started the big top was full to capacity and there was a charged atmosphere. The music was beautiful and the entire service was spiritually recharging, and judging by the discussions heading back to the camp sites afterwards everyone enjoyed it thoroughly.
Volunteers
An army of volunteers covering all aspects of festival life all of whom looked to be enjoying what they do, they really do make the festival what it is without them on countless occasions I would have lost my tent, special mention to Elvis for his Golf cart driving abilities and to a lovely young lady studying to be a teacher also on the carts – Thank you.
Falafel
If you took a stroll down the food court no doubt you would have seen the big orange sign advertising falafels, did you try them, if not shame on you, if you did then weren’t they good, mmmmmmm falafels. I’m not sure but I think it was a family running the stall but they certainly knew how to cook some of the best food I had over the entire weekend, I opted for the meze platter which had far to much on to list, just trust me if you didn’t go there then you missed out big time.
This is Just a snippet of what I experienced at GreenBelt not incluiding all the other speakers, acts of worship, meditations, films, comedy and people I encountered. What i have experienced has given me food for thought, ideas for use in my life and my church and lots of memories.
Like my friends I fail to explain fully what it feels like to be there, it is all of the above and so much more, my suggestion is give it a go, keep an eye on the GreenBelt Website as they do have discounts from time to time and family group bookings may be available. It is a worth while visit and family friendly and if you want it there is something for everyone to do or to experience.
If you do decide to go next year maybe I’ll see you there, i’m off to dry out my tent(condensation) then to book next years tickets.