GREENBELT
Green shoots Greenbelt 2022 will feature a few site changes. Greenbelt’s Derek Hill, managing director, and Jess Jones, event manager, reveal all
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his year, Greenbelt finds itself in a similar boat to many other promoters and organisers because when the festival opens it gates in August, it will have been three years since the organising team last said hello to a full capacity crowd. Like other festival organisers, Greenbelt went digital in 2020 and in 2021, it organised Prospect Farm, a small “paired back” event/ camping experience. These projects kept Greenbelt ticking over. The festival would not be here if it wasn’t for the generosity and good will of its loyal audience that rolled over tickets and donated money to ensure the festival survived. “We’ve been fortunate,” explained Derek Hill, managing director of Greenbelt, who recognises the different landscape in which Greenbelt now operates. “There’s definitely a different feel. Most of the tickets that we sold for Greenbelt 2020 were rolled over and lots of people donated money. Their generosity saw us through.”
LEARNING THE ROPES
Ticket sales for the four-day festival are “well ahead” of where the festival team
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would normally be, which is great because Greenbelt is “not driven by music”. The 12,000-capacity festival celebrates arts, faith and justice and relies on hundreds of volunteers. In fact, Jess Jones, Greenbelt’s new events manager, used to volunteer at the festival. “I’ve worked in events for 10 years, working on student events and Freshers Balls, but this is my first time working in a festival environment,” she said. Jones joined Greenbelt in January. She is fast learning the ropes and has picked up the baton from Mary Corfield, Greenbelt’s previous event director, who left the organisation in 2021. Jones and Hill are working hard alongside Judgeday, the event management and festival production specialist, to implement several production and site changes that will greet festivalgoers when they attend from August 26-29.
SITE CHANGES
Beckie Parsons, lead production manager, Chris Hayter, technical production manager, Charlotte Constance-Gooding, production co-
ordinator, and Matt Stone, health and safety officer, are currently planning the festival site and securing suppliers. The 2022 event will see a few changes. For example, Greenbelt is reducing the number of big tops it uses on site and is instead looking to use a 16-metre stage with a domed roof. The open-air stage will change the site layout, giving Greenbelt a different look and feel and there will be more room for festivalgoers, making the site more “comfortable”. Jones said: “The change to an openair stage will be a big one. The big top was great, but on a few occasions, it was rammed. In the daytime, it could be quieter, but we don’t want people to feel that they can’t go in and check out what’s happening. With the open-air stage, we’ll be able to control the sound better and there’ll be less sound bleed.” And it’s not the only stage change. A new stage in the woods, The Rebel Rouser stage, will also feature. It is aimed at 18-25-year-olds and will encourage festivalgoers to explore different areas of the Boughton Estate. Plus, there will be a new alcohol-free bar called The Hope
