Thirty Book by greenbeltfestival

Thirty

It’s impossible to capture Greenbelt in a book. The words never quite make it. The photos come closer, but, really… you had to be there. The Greenbelt Arts Festival means so much to so many but most of the time it’s as difficult to explain afterwards as a sweet dream on a Monday morning. You had to be there. In the following pages you’ll find a spread for each of Greenbelt’s 29 years, creating a cumulative sense of how this festival has found its feet, fallen over, veered in the wrong direction, reversed back on itself, recovered its poise, learnt new steps, tripped up again and generally tried to dance to a different beat.

In the midst of the nostalgia, we are grateful. Thanks to all the people who invested their time and their imagination. Thanks to people who said their prayers for Greenbelt when it looked like a basket case. Thanks to Festival Angels, without whom… Thanks to the friends we have made, friendships which stretch to the margins of a broken world and dare us to dream of another way of being. Thanks that our festival sometimes becomes a sign of hope, another way of celebrating the presence of God in ordinary life. Thanks for the story so far…

Turning Thirty

Greenbelt From pig farm to race track

1974 – 2003

Mike Yaconelli remembers one Sunday morning Greenbelt communion service: “I was moved to tears just looking over the crowd and seeing black, white, old, young, punker, straight, children, elderly, worshipping God in total unity. For ninety minutes, the real world of hatred, prejudice, pettiness, and selfishness were forgotten. We were the invisible Church made visible for an instant, and it was truly overwhelming. For a few fleeting moments I got a glimpse of what heaven will be like and I shall never forget it.”

Among farmers, actors, musicians, theologians and used car dealers, Greenbelt was born on the unsettled non-conformist edges of the church. And those who had always had a hunch it might be more interesting on the fringe than at the centre soon found a home in the festival. The Sun billed it The Nice People’s Pop Festival, but perhaps it was more subversive than it appeared. In the 70s Greenbelt’s holistic take – Bible in one hand and newspaper in the other – had a transforming impact on those attending. It was about a 24/7 faith, it was theology with ‘no-splits’, and it meant, as philosopher and Baptist cleric John Peck put it, that Greenbelt should help people see “every area of life as moulded by the Gospel.” If the initial draw of the festival lay in its unashamed celebration of the arts, particularly rock music, the appeal broadened as a growing internationalism emerged from the concerns of festival organisers. Perhaps it was the global perspective of young Anglicans like Garth Hewitt and Graham Cray, or, in the 1980s, June Osborne and Viv Faull, that broadened the aesthetic focus of the non-conformist pioneers, but soon the festival gained a reputation for introducing people to the UK church who came from places where the struggle for justice was more pressing than, say, ‘the baptism of the Holy Spirit’. Among the significant new voices were Nicaraguan minister Gustavo Parajon, South African antiapartheid activist Caesar Molebatsi and Elias Chacour, a Palestinian Melkite priest from Galilee.

As the evangelical musical subculture dried up, the heart and mind of Greenbelt broadened and strengthened. Soon, artists were invited not just because they were believers or had a distant churchgoing relative, but because their vision overlapped with a biblical one of global justice (Bob Geldof) or engaging with the political powers (Midnight Oil) or was simply fuelled by a divine sense of wonder (Waterboys).

Sometimes other ‘gatekeepers’ were worried at the direction: youth leaders, for example, weren’t sure about a too-alternative view of youth work and young people. The laid-back, chilledout, opt-in approach of Greenbelt – epitomised in the Rolling Magazine – contrasted with the focussed and regimented bible-teaching of other events. For some, it seemed, Greenbelt was just not serious enough.

There were tensions between those who wanted Greenbelt to remain more evangelical and those who wanted it to become more ecumenical, between those who wanted it to be more religious and those who wanted it to be more political, and between those who wanted more music and those who wanted more theatre and Visual Arts.

Festival numbers declined in the 90s. And a series of disastrously wet August Bank Holidays didn’t help. Only the loyalty of a small core of committed believers who’d grown up with the festival kept an increasingly unlikely show on the road. As Greenbelt continued to make the transition from its evangelical origins to a more broadbased partnership with a range of mainstream church organisations, it was these Angels, more than a thousand of them now, who kept the festival alive. With the vital safety net of their monthly contributions, Greenbelt was able to invest in itself again and numbers have nearly quadrupled in four years.

But, even with these tensions, a sense of wonder and worship permeated the festival – from Sunday morning communion to alternative worship, from Quaker silence to Catholic Mass. And this feeling of a creative Christian community at worship reassured those who might have been sceptical, for example, about progressive elements in the arts programme. Not that everyone was fooled! As the 80s became the 90s many were alarmed that the festival was sometimes hosting people from other Christian traditions (and none) or that it appeared to be hostage to an increasingly leftist and liberal agenda. When mistakes were made – as they often were – critics would pounce. Greenbelt had ‘left its moorings’ was the gossip and the Festival Board is mainly run by gay white witches. (Well, that’s what I heard anyway…)

As the festival has cemented its partnership with development agency Christian Aid, Greenbelters have been able to translate debate about political engagement and international injustice into vigorous campaigning. Other organisations have also entered into collaboration – from CMS and SPCK, to USPG, YMCA, ICC, fish.co.uk and The Church Times. Enhancing the festival’s identity, they have also helped Greenbelters re-imagine the church as an infectious global conspiracy, working for God’s peace, healing and friendship in previously unimagined ways. And that was just the first thirty....

Main photo: Sun-soaked mainstage crowds at Odell Thirty Introduction

Greenbelt From pig farm to race track

1974 – 2003

Main photo: Sun-soaked mainstage crowds at Odell Thirty Introduction

GB01 Prospect Farm

1974

Greenbelt was an idea born out of a meeting brokered by Steve Shaw between James Holloway, singer with Christian band All Things New and music student at the University of Essex, and American Jim Palaasori, a Jesus Festival man and producer of the hippy musical Lonesome Stone. The multimedia show had been touring the UK since its arrival at London’s Rainbow Theatre in the summer of 1973. After seeing it for himself, James talked to Jim about his dream of a celebration of Christian music in the UK. Inspired, James persuaded his brother to offer the use of his farm. Famously, Jim said: “Heh, you got yourself a field; you got yourself a festival.” And the rest, as they say, is history. The first ever Greenbelt took place at Prospect Farm over the August Bank Holiday weekend in 1974. The poster said it would feature the “top Christian Artistes in the land” as well as “teach-ins”. All police leave in the whole of Suffolk was cancelled and local residents feared the worst: there were even stories of locals barricading themselves into their houses. In the end, there were about 2,000 at that first Greenbelt, 120 volunteer staff, latrines enough for an anticipated 10,000, and 600 police. The Christian Record hailed it as a “triumph.” And, by the end of the weekend, impressed local residents were asking if Greenbelt could return to Prospect Farm next year.

At GB01 John Peck spoke on the ‘Westernisation of Christianity’ and Jack Filby outlinined the ‘Biblical Basis for Rock Music’. Eric Delve preached and Thief in the Night featured in the late night movie programme. You could sit at mainstage and listen to live music and poetry performances – from the likes of Parchment, Garth Hewitt, Steve Turner, All Things New, Narnia, Liberation Suite and Stewart Henderson – from noon until midnight (with a scheduled break at ‘teatime’!). The first festival was sponsored by millionaire Kenneth Frampton, through his Deo Gloria Trust. A day ticket cost £1.50 and a weekend pass was a fiver. In all, it cost about £10,000 to stage, which today wouldn’t cover Greenbelt’s Children’s Festival. Jim Palaasori’s Lonesome Stone gave a farewell performance on the last night before heading back to the States.

So what’s with the name? From the start, those dreaming up the festival were convinced it shouldn’t sound too ‘religious’. Sonrise, Sonset and Crossroads weren’t on the shortlist! At one early planning meeting, Carol Constable-Brown said: “If it’s going to be in the country, why not call it Greenbelt.” So that was that. Did you know? The films at the first Greenbelt were projected onto a screen attached to the side of Lonesome Stone’s doubledecker bus. Heavy! The toilets were, er, basic, but the solar heated showers worked well in the afternoon. And yes, someone did drop a purse and some car keys into the pit at that first festival. And yes, someone did rescue, wash and return them. Pooh!

Administered from a caravan on the farm itself by 21-year old Linda Farrow and with venues called things like ‘The Snoopy Tent’, it might seem like a delightfully naïve affair to us now. But for the organisers – Peter Holmes, Jonathan Cooke, Linda and James – the event was testament to the effects of creative and committed ‘naïvety’. After all, we still get to enjoy their dreaming thirty years later.

01 Main photo: Greenbelt’s first publicity 01: Prospect Farm – Greenbelt’s first mainstage 02: Hirsute festival founder, James Holloway 03: Lonesome Stone with double decker tour bus

Thirty One

GB01 Prospect Farm

1974

01 Main photo: Greenbelt’s first publicity 01: Prospect Farm – Greenbelt’s first mainstage 02: Hirsute festival founder, James Holloway 03: Lonesome Stone with double decker tour bus

Thirty One

GB02 Odell Castle

1975

Although not returning to Prospect Farm in its second year, Greenbelt was now well and truly on the map. Thanks to word of mouth and more publicity, “several 1,000” attended the second Greenbelt and they got to see the first festival appearances by the 70s ‘crossover’ success After the Fire, and Steve Fairnie’s first band, Fish Co.

Staged by permission of Lord and Lady Luke, the residents of Odell were understandably rather wary of the second Greenbelt. But, as villagers at Charsfield had been won over the year before, so too were the inhabitants of sleepy Odell. Just as well – Greenbelt would be back every year until 1981. Each night after mainstage there was a film show or a folk club. The films included: Satan on the Loose, On A Friday Afternoon, and The Return. Sounds scary! Morning ‘teach-ins’ and workshops, meanwhile, included a look at architecture and a forum on ‘Wholly Living in the World’, as well as seminars on ‘Mysticism, Meditation and Transcendental Meditation’ with Patrick Sookhdeo and ‘Christian Commitment to Culture’ with Jean Darnell.

The venues were described as the ‘small tent’ and the ‘large tent’ and the programme stated that: “attendance at all sessions, seminars and evening events is entirely optional.” Phew! And, after the marathon daily rock sessions at the first Greenbelt, mainstage only ran from 6 to 11pm each evening. Greenbelt’s own mime troupe performed The Wake and there was a Sunday sunrise service at 5.30am for the faithful, as well as a first classical music seminar and performance. And Dave Rees, of the popular Mighty Flyers band, read his poetry alongside Steve Scott. The only minor disaster that year saw After the Fire blowing the mainstage generator. As their last chord died away, so did the lights – a perfect fade. Jonathan Cooke plunged in to fix the ailing generator dressed in his best disco gear ready for his after-hours DJ-ing.

Site initiative When the safe for the site office arrived it was tipped off the back of the lorry that brought it, landing on one corner and sinking down into the earth. The decision was made immediately: “We’ll put the finance tent up here then!” Local relations Late on Thursday night after the festival set-up was complete, the site crew and volunteers were enjoying a well-earned after-midnight walk in the estate forest, when they realised something vital had been forgotten. None of the free tickets for the villagers had been given out! And there seemed no time like the present. In hindsight, delivering the tickets at 1am wasn’t perhaps the best idea. Instead of generating local goodwill, they woke up the whole village as dog after dog barked its warning into the still, small hours. Technical advances The films were projected onto a screen on mainstage at GB02 but there were still interruptions while reels were replaced. And, as the films were shown after mainstage – and the bands would inevitably overrun – by the end of the film the arena was nearly deserted, bar a handful of sleeping bodies.

Main photo: Camping in the round, sevs-stylee 01: A floral Jean Darnell and Norman Miller debating a Greenbelt post 02: The mystical Patrick Sookhdeo holds listeners entranced 03: Lord Luke tells it like it is from the Good News

Thirty Two

GB02 Odell Castle

1975

Thirty Two

GB03 Odell Castle

1976

The poster for the third Greenbelt read: “Christmas, Easter, Whitsun and Greenbelt – you could call it another celebration.” A bold claim, but one that reflected its growing confidence. Greenbelt, it seemed, was here to stay. (Whatever happened to Whitsun?) Back at Odell Castle, the third Greenbelt featured its first US artists: Chuck Girard, Randy Matthews and female singer-songwriter Honeytree. From these shores, Reynard continued the staple homegrown folky thread. 01

Other musical acts included return visits from After the Fire (performing with Ishmael), Fish Co. and Garth Hewitt, while a certain Bryn Haworth, fresh from touring with Free and Fairport Convention, wowed the audience with his electrifying slideguitar. 1976 also saw first appearances by a young music college graduate called Graham Kendrick and the debutante Adrian Snell. A closer look at the 1976 festival programme reveals that there was a drama seminar on the Sunday afternoon with Paul Burbridge and Murray Watts. They went on, of course, to form Riding Lights Theatre Company who became firm festival favourites.

There was also evidence of a growing children’s and crèche area in the festival ‘village’. And Kenneth Frampton’s Deo Gloria Trust was still the sole sponsor of the event – as it was throughout Greenbelt’s first decade. John Peck, a key theological mind within early Greenbelt, brought a daily message from the book on ‘Openhearted Living’, while Graham Cray spoke on ‘Contemporary Music’. Radio One did the first of what would become many outside broadcasts direct from Greenbelt that year. Ominously, after one of the driest and hottest summers on record, there were increasingly heavy showers over the weekend. By the end of the festival, the site had been turned into what became Greenbelt’s first ever quagmire! First, but not the last! Strangest of all perhaps, the programme featured an A3 sepia foldout illustration – in the style of the later ‘Where’s Wally’ puzzles, which was every bit as creative as anything at the festival. Greenbelt would never be content with the mediocre. From publicity to performers, all involved were striving to offer their artistic best. ‘A festival to the glory of God’, as Greenbelt would later describe itself.

Festival weather 1976 was the year of the great drought and at the start of the weekend the site resembled the great American ‘Dust Bowl’. Rob Quinn, who was to build the site for two decades, and his site crew went to extraordinary lengths (including bribing local truck drivers over pints at the local) to keep water ferried across the site from makeshift reservoirs. But, by the end of the weekend, these same truck drivers needed their vehicles towed out of the mud. Festival fatness The legendary Fat Band (made up largely of a group of blues jammers responsible for putting the festival on) may not have been the most seminal act at Greenbelt in the 70s. But they were certainly one of the most fun – both on- and off-stage. In 1976 they challenged all-comers to a Tug of War contest. 17 teams entered to battle it out – in the searing heat at first and then in the mud. And, of course, the Fat Band won. They weren’t called fat for nothing.

Main photo: A youthful Graham Kendrick backed by ‘the elders’ 01: Earnest Greenbelters squeezing out every last drop of prayer 02: Ishmael and After the Fire with incongruous, Japanese-style screening 03: Greenbelt’s brave sponsors – the Deo Gloria Trust

Thirty Three

GB03 Odell Castle

1976

Thirty Three

GB04 Odell Castle

1977

Enjoying much steadier weather than the previous year, 1977’s festival programme stated that: “Greenbelt is a life-affirming festival based in contemporary culture but committed to the development of a truly Christian mind and lifestyle.” The first Greenbelt mission statement of sorts, it’s not a million miles away from Greenbelt’s today. Now there was a greater sense than ever that the festival was really trying to acknowledge, think about, and engage with, contemporary culture. 01

The fourth Greenbelt saw the Christian record company executives descend en masse, keen to snap up fresh young talent and to sign some bands. And there were more tented venues than ever in which these Execs could view the stars of the future. As well as all the usual suspects, 1977 saw performances from the All Saints Star Band, the Alwyn Wall Band, Masterpiece, Nutshell and the American Kenny Marks. A weekend ticket for Greenbelt 1977 would have set you back £6 if you purchased it before the end of July and £6.50 after. Greenbelt joined with the nation in having its own Silver Jubilee celebrations and the programme asked that identification badges be worn “at all times,” again betraying the appealing naïvety of those heady days.

The Sunday morning offering was split between the Arts Centre Group and In Contact, an organisation promoting evangelism in the East End of London. It was also announced that a Greenbelt magazine was hopefully soon to be published – perhaps as frequently as three times a year. Festival-goers were treated to Greenbelt’s first pukka photography exhibition – a collection of images of England by Sylvester Jacobs. John Pantry stepped out from behind the mixing desk – having worked with the likes of The Beatles and The New Seekers – and into the spotlight. And Graham Cray explored the shift in contemporary music in the last 12 months from old- to new-wave. John Peck discussed the thin line between ‘art’ and ‘pornography’, Scotsman Bill Mason brought new wave punk screeching onto the mainstage, and a band called Wellies (later to become The Biggles Band) sang a song about Gorillas. In one year, then, three enduring ingredients were added to the Greenbelt mix, never to lose their flavour: the controversial, the cutting-edge and the downright silly.

Careful about camping Steve Spicer arrived at Greenbelt late at night with his friend Charles Kemp. They put Charles’s tent up in the dark and settled back to sleep in readiness for the festival next day. As they dozed off, they felt drips falling on them and, as it wasn’t raining, they were a little confused. But they were tired and so drifted off to sleep anyway. When they woke next morning they were both covered in bits of mildew that had fallen onto them from the tent canvas above. Charles had put the tent away the previous year without drying and airing it. Surely the most cultured of Greenbelters that year. Get it? Careful about volunteering Roger Hanson brought some mates to Greenbelt in a minibus in 1977 and he mentioned to the organisers that he was prepared to use the bus for the good of the festival over the weekend. He soon found himself ferrying people to and from the railway station in Bedford in return for his petrol costs. So the festival’s minibus service was born and Roger would be a Greenbelt driver for the next 11 years!

Main photo: Soft focus early evening shot of halo-ed mainstagers 01: Nutshell, Greenbelt’s early Abba tribute band 02: Graham Cray, on-message with festival top and martial arts headband 03: Debutante John Pantry asks if he ‘can go now?’

Thirty Four

GB04 Odell Castle

1977

Thirty Four

GB05 Odell Castle

1978

Boasting a better stage, a better PA and better lights, the fifth festival brought the Jessy Dixon Singers from Texas to the Greenbelt mainstage. The seminar programme was coming of age, too, and Greenbelt was beginning to think of itself as an ‘arts’ festival, and not just a music weekend.

Speakers included John Gladwin and Margaret Winfield, who gave a talk entitled ‘The Injustice of Poverty’. Graham Kendrick conducted a workshop on worship-leading and Martin Evans (later to be Greenbelt’s General Manager) offered a Christian response to drugs and alcohol – “Just say no” and “Mine’s a half!” (in that order). 1978 also saw the first performance from York’s Riding Lights Theatre Company. And, acknowledging the tension between its expanding programme and its desire to see as much participation as possible, the programme once again revealed Greenbelt’s early tendency toward ‘Nanny State’ tactics. It read: “Do try to get some sleep sometime… zombies make a poor audience.” Adrian Snell brought a concept piece to the mainstage, Rodney Corder offered a Gaelic touch, and Giantkiller ensured

that all-out rock wasn’t forgotten. The rest of the music programme featured the now-familiar sights and sounds of Fish Co., Bryn Haworth, Parchment and Garth Hewitt. Not forgetting, of course, that in those days mainstage played host not just to music but also to performance poetry from the likes of Steve Turner.

The Jessy Dixon Singers Martin Evans remembers: “Good, oldfashioned gospel music at its best. But when they finished, high in the Spirit, one of the sisters came off stage and, being the first person she came across, she hugged me and I disappeared into several layers of chiffon. And boy, were they generously built ladies!”

Other seminar highlights included Malcom Doney boogieing on down about disco music, Patrick Sookhdeo on ‘The right kind of meditation’ and, to prove that all play and no work makes Jack a dull boy, Jim Punton spoke prophetically about coping without work. In fact, 1978 was undoubtedly the ‘year of the seminar’ – with Greenbelt’s own committee members playing their part in this shifting emphasis.

Roger Hanson remembers: “It was late at night when the Jessy Dixon Singers came off stage and into the minibus. They carried right on singing and swaying and they were so hot and steaming it was all I could do to keep the windows clear and stop the bus veering off the road on the way back to the hotel.”

That said, the fact that mainstage coped well with a high profile artist like Jessy Dixon proved that Greenbelt was ready to handle big names. And the 1978 Greenbelt audience were only too pleased to peddle rumours about just who those future big names might be! So the festival ended with a real ‘Cliff’hanger. Would the Peter Pan of Pop come to Greenbelt in ’79? Is the Pope a Catholic?

Rock ‘n’ roll Back in those days, Greenbelt was a festival largely unfettered by rigorous environmental health regulations. And, in 1978, presumably still high in the Spirit after Jessy Dixon’s festival debut and with a mainstage big enough to cope, several musicians from different bands decided they would jam all night – quite literally. At some points there were as many as 20 assorted lead guitarists on stage at one time. It all sounds worryingly Spinal Tap. But it was probably the precursor to the ‘Blues Jam’ that has begun each Greenbelt since.

Main photo: The growing mainstage, with helpful year reminder 01: Jessy Dixon in his Saturday Night Fever togs 02: Riding Lights – don’t worry, they’re only acting 03: Steve Turner takes the register on the first night

Thirty Five

GB05 Odell Castle

1978

Thirty Five

GB06 Odell Castle

1979

By 1979, the sixth festival programme was describing Greenbelt as “a festival to the glory of God.” Cliff did come and, what’s more, his single It’s So Funny (which wasn’t funny at all, really) was at Number One in the charts over that August bank holiday weekend. Nice! Nearly 20,000 people were at GB06 and there were just two policemen – a stark contrast to Prospect Farm only six years earlier. Greenbelt was able to celebrate the CBS-signing of one of its favourite acts, After the Fire, and to sing along with their first single release, One Rule for You. The Fat Band were as big as ever and the laconic Californian singer-songwriter Randy Stonehill won over mainstage with his off-beat banter and songs. There was a set from Lamb while Bryn Haworth and band closed the festival on the Monday. But, as well as Cliff, there was another rock and roll colossus to contend with in 1979. Larry Norman, the ‘father’ of contemporary Christian music, paid his first visit to the festival and mainstage was mesmerised with his strange yet wonderful performance. A mixture of stream-of-consciousness mumbling (“I know what goes on in your tents…”) and characteristically direct gospel songs, Larry’s set was

one of the highlights of the weekend. Greenbelt 06 also had a documentary film made about it – later shown on BBC1 – and live album recorded at it. The pendulum had swung: this was ‘the year of mainstage’. That said, away in the festival village, John Gladwin was speaking on ‘Mrs Thatcher’s Britain’ – a theme to which Greenbelt would return. Kevin Shergold interviewed all-round entertainer and host of the BBC’s much-loved Record Breakers Roy Castle in a packed ‘Tent A’. The soft but persistent voice of Margaret Winfield was again directing Greenbelt’s attention towards global injustice with ‘The Third World is Real and it is Hurt’, and Chris Aston focussed listeners on ‘The Church and the Inner City’. Martin Hallett, meanwhile, was tackling ‘The Christian and Homosexuality’. Funny how time stands still. Mainstage was thrilling huge crowds by the end of the 70s. Greenbelt was also uncovering issues which had long been brushed under the carpet. Seeds were being sown – seeds that would germinate and emerge as the festival’s key themes in years ahead, animating Greenbelt throughout the 80s, to infinity and beyond.

Telling it like it is Radio One’s Peter Powell broadcast a live roadshow from mainstage on the Monday evening with a reported audience of six million people listening in. For some reason they wanted The Fat Band to play during the show. Intrigued, Peter Powell asked: “Who are these people? I’d like to interview them.” Being the obliging bunch they were, The Fatties agreed and, at the end of the interview, Peter Powell turned to Gibbo (Richard Gibbons, Fat Band member, long-time Greenbelt Exec member and Suffolk pig farmer) and asked him what he had done before he joined the Fat Band. Gibbo replied with typically understated festival realism: ‘I am a pig farmer!’ And Peter Powell, along with six million others, was left wondering what on earth Greenbelt was all about. Keeping Sunday special In those days – before the relaxation of the Sunday Trading laws – the Greenbelt minibus wasn’t just used to ferry celebs to and from the train station. The drivers were relied on to get know about all the small grocers, corner shops and farm shops around Odell that opened on a Sunday. The backstage catering set-up, known as the Juicy Spud, would send the drivers on foraging trips for burgers, sausages and potatoes to keep them going and to make Sunday that little bit more special.

01 Main photo: Newly signed Andy Piercy and After the Fire rock mainstage 01: Helpful Greenbelt designer signage for men with shoulder pads 02: It doesn’t get much more exciting than this 03: Garth Hewitt, with fetching hat and tracksuit

Thirty Six

GB06 Odell Castle

1979

Thirty Six

GB07 Odell Castle

1980

The first Greenbelt of the 1980s brought Adrian Snell’s The Passion, the return of Jessy Dixon and Larry Norman, and a first visit from mime artist Geoffrey Stevenson. An everexpanding site meant that there were now as many as seven things going on at once. (Such lack of choice in those olden days!)

In his editorial, programme editor Malcom Doney claimed that: “Greenbelt is not designed just to entertain you and keep you safely cocooned from the world.” As if to prove his point, there were four payphones on-site for the first time, so beginning what would become an 80s festival ritual as 16-year olds at Greenbelt queued anxiously to phone home for their ‘O’ level results. As the programme put it: “We’ve got to happen to the world, not let the world happen to us.” (That’s how we used to think. Perhaps we still should. Class discuss.) Greenbelt clearly felt the challenge for Christianity to be a “force in culture”. As the cold war loomed in the nation’s psyche, War and Peace Part III was a Visual Arts exhibition tracing Christian attitudes to war. And as Greenbelters were getting increasingly switched on to global justice issues, Traidcraft advertised their fairly traded products in the programme. There was also a

seminar led by Andrew Kirk and Kwami Bediako entitled ‘Lessons from the Third World Church’. Mainstage witnessed performances by the sardonically named Scottish new wave outfit Just the Job (championed by Radio One’s Annie Nightingale) and the transformation of Steve Fairnie and Bev Sage into Famous Names, the successor to their 70s incarnations as Fish Co. and Writz. Their set included Steve making unsettling, Goebells-like entreaties while Bev conducted mock PT lessons in the background. The festival also played host the big hair and guitar solos of Jerusalem. ‘White Metal’, a prerequisite of 80s Greenbelt, had arrived. (Don’t tell the vicar.) ‘The Fringe’ was born in 1980, while the film programme included a discussion led by David Porter after Woody Allen’s marvellously neurotic film Annie Hall. The Arts Centre Group’s Nigel Goodwin spoke and Simon Jenkins, later to found shipoffools.com, read on mainstage – between bands, presumably. In a new decade Greenbelt was convinced that ‘entertainment’ was not separate from ‘teaching’. This was a holistic arts festival and every aspect of its programme reflected its Kingdom vision. There were to be no dualisms in the life of Greenbelt: mainstage belonged together with the seminar programme.

Bring your own Paul Ganney was fortunate enough to be in a band that got to play at the first ever Greenbelt Festival Fringe in 1980. The problem was, though, that no-one had told them that, although there would be a stage and an audience, there would be no PA for them to play through. Paul ended up singing through his guitar amp. But everyone was happy. The sun shone, and the band got to play their part in a piece of Greenbelt history. Oh, and The Fringe infrastructure did improve during the rest of the 80s. Toilet tricks A certain die-hard Greenbelter (who shall remain nameless due to the litigious nature of the times we’re living in), invented the ultimate toilet trick in 1980. Carefully attaching a feather to the end of a coat hanger, he set off for his daily constitutional. Once inside the wooden cubicle, he fed the coat hanger down through his opening and angled it laterally until it tickled the rear of the person attending to their business in the next door bog. Never has Greenbelt heard a scream quite like it. And stories from the days of the communal pit and the prefab loos would be a defining strain in Greenbelt folklore for many, many years.

Main photo: Fairnie and Sage as Famous Names – boy, they were odd 01: Bizarre Christian anti-seance dance from the pastel praise ladies 02: John Peck, leading theological mind in early Greenbelt with prophetic beard 03: Larry Norman – ‘only visiting this festival’ – for the second time

Thirty Seven

GB07 Odell Castle

1980

Thirty Seven

GB08 Odell Castle

1981

1981 was the year that a young Irish band called U2 rang up and asked if they could play. They’d released their first album Boy and were over in the UK doing the festivals and they wanted to play Greenbelt.

The mainstage management’s initial response was: “No, we’ve never heard of you – and we can’t squeeze you in anyway.” But, in the end, good old Greenbelt accommodation prevailed and the youthful foursome from Dublin blasted their way through an early evening, 20-minute set. The headline that night was Garth Hewitt. So Garth has been supported by U2 then? True. The eighth Greenbelt also saw another Radio One live roadshow broadcast this time with Uncle Simon Bates, while David Watson spoke at the Sunday morning service. The Greenbelt magazine Strait was launched in 1981, too, with issue one costing 35p. The offering that year went to the work of The Arts Centre Group, aid agencies in El Salvador, the Evangelical Race Relations Group, Les Isaac (an evangelist working in London’s black community), and a young youth worker in Soweto called Caesar Molebatsi.

Jersusalem were back on the mainstage, where they were joined by blues guitarist Norman Barrett, Scotland’s Sheila Walsh (soon with her own ‘rock-gospel’ TV show), Mark Williamson, 100% Proof, Paul Field, Cliff and Graham Kendrick. Fairnie and Sage were comperes and they also performed their strange art-house show Casual Tease. There was a young DJ called Pete Williams spinning discs on the mainstage and, elsewhere, you could receive a welcome in the hillside from Cwmbran’s 50-member Welsh male voice choir. The speakers that year included Roger Sainsbury talking about ‘The Church and Urban Plight’, Stephen Timms and America’s activist Ron Sider, author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. The Arts Centre Group ran a programme for those seeking to get involved in the arts and Jim Punton talked unemployment again. But the festival’s growing success meant change. The sheer volume of people by the beginning of the 80s was creating too much pressure on the Odell site. 1981 would be the festival’s last year at its much-loved castle home. Greenbelt needed a site better gearedup for large-scale outdoor events.

The magic of that moment Roger Hanson remembers: “A young Irish quartet arrived by train at Bedford station with only a set or two of drumsticks. I picked them up just like any other act. They seemed very ordinary guys and they played on borrowed instruments.” Graham Cray blagged U2 the gig. He pestered mainstage manager Geoff Boswell about this young Irish band who’d “prayed about playing at Greenbelt” and who “God had told to come and play!” During their set, Graham was seen dancing in the sound/lighting aisle. He recognised the magic of that moment. Sick as a parrot Rumours were rife all weekend that U2 would play. Music fans couldn’t believe their luck. Finally, on Sunday, it was announced from mainstage that U2 would play a short set that night – after ‘So and So’ and before ‘So and So’. One fan did his sums and worked out that the current band would be on for 30 minutes and then there’d be a 15-minute changeover, so he had time to go back to his tent and grab some tea. But U2 used the previous band’s equipment, meaning there was no changeover time, and they barely played for 20 minutes. Our hapless fan returned to the arena just as Bono shouted: “Thank you, goodnight!”

Main photo: Bono’s hurried scrawl of a stage plan for the little known Irish band’s last minute set 01: Bono launching into River Dance 02: After the Fire poring over the first issue of Strait 03: Randy Stonehill dazzling under the bright lights of mainstage

Thirty Eight

GB08 Odell Castle

1981

Thirty Eight

GB09 Knebworth Park

1982

Greenbelt moved for only the second time in its life, this time to a location already hosting large-attendance outdoor gigs like the Capital Radio Jazz festival. With room for a bigger and better mainstage, Knebworth Park allowed room for Greenbelters to breathe.

And the festival would need that extra space, too, as Chicago’s Resurrection Band (Rez Band) rocked mainstage and Radio One broadcast another live roadshow in front of the crowds. There was also a welcome return from Jim Palosaari of Lonesome Stone with his new act Servant – complete with their amazing stage show and special effects. Noel Paul Stookey (of iconic folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary) also performed, as did Rolling Stone favourite Andy Pratt. Greenbelt 1982 also witnessed the Big Top debut of Scottish band Talking Drums. Making waves north of the border, Talking Drums would become firm festival favourites in the early 80s and then provide a future Festival Chair. There was soul-funk from Paradise and gospel from Maxine and the Majestics and renowned keyboard player Jeff Hammer was also there. But Charlene, of I’ve never been to me fame, had to withdraw at the last minute due to ill health. The ninth Greenbelt saw a lot of firsts – firsts that were to become part of our staple festival diet in years to come.

The Oddball Special was the first of Greenbelt’s late night magazine review shows and there was something in the programme for teenagers called The Rolling Mag! The film programme was entitled ‘Politics at the Movies’, a slogan competition was launched for Greenbelt 1983, the tenth festival, and a video called The Greenbelt Demos was shot. 1982 saw Graham Cray handing over his chair position to John Gooding and among the speakers were Roger Forster and Canadian aesthetician Calvin Seerveld. Speaking in depth on a ‘Theology of the Arts’, Calvin later wrote Rainbows for the Fallen World: Aesthetic Life and Artistic Task for the Greenbelt Files, published in 1988. And among the notable speakers that year was Jim Wallis of the Washington Sojourners Community. He loved his first visit to Greenbelt but, at an after-festival party, he suggested that Greenbelt seemed to him almost like two events in one: “a ‘Jesus festival’ and a ‘social justice festival’.” Jim’s perspective was poignant. But Greenbelt already knew that a Jesus festival had to be a social justice festival. There was no distinction. Meanwhile, in The Roxy seminar venue, Patrick Sookhdeo was speaking about ‘The Challenge of Islam to the Christian Faith.’ Any way you read it, 1982 was a prophetic year.

Silliness Stewart Henderson recalls hosting the first Oddball Special with Pete ‘Willie’ Williams: “It was Vic and Bob before Vic and Bob. It was postmodern before postmodernism became the sign of our times. James Holloway and his troupe did some Pinter. A pianist called Mac Frampton played Flight of the Bumblebee in a Vegas-style (in ruffled shirt and velvet suit), finishing with: “Let’s hear it for Johan Sebastian Bach.” A young Milton Jones did a song with his band Norman. And then Louis Alfredo, a Spanish performance artist, climbed in and out of a black plastic bag for minutes on end. It was wonderfully Greenbelt.” Freedom Helen Walters remembers her first Greenbelt at Knebworth in 1982. “I was 15 and it was an amazing feeling to be so free. Our youth leaders were confident enough in the safety of the environment to let us do just what we wanted – even if that was getting up onto the mainstage at 6am to watch the sunrise. I hope my children can enjoy that freedom when they are 15, too.”

Main photo: Jim Palosaari’s Servant play mainstage to great effect 01: Rez Band prove that two heads are better than one 02: Maxine and the Majestics ‘do it for themselves’ 03: The soulful Paradise with flat cap (whippet not pictured)

Thirty Nine

GB09 Knebworth Park

1982

Thirty Nine

GB10 Knebworth Park

1983

Back at Knebworth for a second year, 1983 marked Greenbelt’s tenth anniversary. Much had changed since Prospect Farm in 1974, but it was clear that the same Kingdom-dreaming heart of Greenbelt was still beating strong.

by year – included a BBC v Greenbelt netball match and a battle of the bands competition called Rockatunity. Radio One’s Peter Powell was also there, sporting an improbably small pair of special interviewing shorts.

The mainstage line-up was really strong in ’83. Cliff headlined and Jessy Dixon, Randy Stonehill, Jerusalem, 100% Proof, Garth Hewitt and Sheila Walsh were all back. And Mark Williamson returned, too, this time with his whole band, while the black soul and gospel of Mighty Clouds of Joy and the gentle country of George Hamilton IV meant there was a feast of music for all tastes at Greenbelt that year. GB10 also saw the debut of a young Welsh singersongwriter called Martyn Joseph.

Pip Wilson’s Rolling Mag was back by very popular demand and there were cold baked beans aplenty. Theologian John Stott and a South African youth worker called Caesar Molebatsi (who had been on the receiving end of Greenbelt’s offering in years past) featured among the speakers and there was a fuller classical music programme than ever. The Sunday service offering was distributed, among others, to Afghan refugees, urban mission in UK inner cities and a Mozambiquan handicraft project called Zgezandlazethu.

The 1980s were also undoubtedly the decade of Christian theatre. Riding Light’s professionalism and success seemed to have inspired a whole generation of Christian actors to follow in their wake. So, in 1983, Greenbelt saw shows by Footprints Theatre Company, Ambush Theatre Company, Cornerstone Theatre Company, Back to Back, Patchwork Theatre, as well, of course, as Riding Lights themselves. The ‘Reality and Film’ programme, meanwhile, featured screenings of Chariots of Fire, The Seventh Seal and An Ark for our Time, and The Fringe – which was now growing year

Greenbelt was ten, then. The numbers attending had increased 1,000% in those few years, from 2,000 to 20,000. And police numbers had decreased 15,000% in the same period, from 600 at Prospect Farm to just four at Knebworth. (Now, if this could be applied nationwide…) But, importantly, Greenbelt hadn’t just grow numerically, it had also grown artistically and theologically. Its early vision and inspired naïvety had flowered into a festival that, for many, now fuelled their year-round faith journeys.

Perhaps that’s why 1983 was the first year a young Martyn Joseph performed at Greenbelt. Now, 20 years later, he reflects on what the festival has meant to him and why he keeps coming back. “I’m told I played there first in ’83. Now that’s a while ago. And, while Greenbelt is open to change and stretching itself, it hasn’t quite done the U-turn that I have since I first yelled on one of those stages. The festival and its ethos helped me make that move, through patience and acceptance, but also challenge. It brought me into contact with visionary people and their words which, when the ones I was yelling dried up and looked silly, took over and led me down a path less-travelled, a path that I think goes somewhere. I keep coming back because I have different words to yell now and because I get to hang with like-minded, spiritual refugee-types who think the path might just go somewhere too. Most years they still let me sing there: songs full of questions. Often, when I’m somewhere else, I tell folk about Greenbelt because I’m proud of it, of what it tries to do, and what it does do. I’d be more than happy to show it off to anyone.”

01 Main photo: Cliff waits in the Green Room at Radio Greenbelt 01: 100% Proof – 100% rock 02: Crowds at The Fringe bandstand 03: Peter Powell cosies up to a Greenbelter (shorts not shown)

Thirty Ten

GB10 Knebworth Park

1983

01 Main photo: Cliff waits in the Green Room at Radio Greenbelt 01: 100% Proof – 100% rock 02: Crowds at The Fringe bandstand 03: Peter Powell cosies up to a Greenbelter (shorts not shown)

Thirty Ten

GB11 Castle Ashby

1984

Greenbelt made its third move in its eleventh year and it also became a ‘trust with charitable status’, too. In light of this, 1984’s programme made special thanks to Kenneth Frampton of Deo Gloria Trust for his years of brave sponsorship. It also announced that the festival’s new location at Castle Ashby in Northamptonshire was to be a “new and more permanent site”. Described as “ex Bible College boffins”, the mainstage DJs that year included Dave Roberts and one Martin Wroe. And the mainstage comperes, for the second year running, were Stewart Henderson and Iva Twydell (drummer with After the Fire). Ron Sider was back stirring Christian social activism and there was also a group from the Iona Community for the first time. Paul Boateng spoke of “interesting times” and Simon Hughes MP joined Os Guinness, June Osborne, and Io Smith among the speakers. Music-wise, the Big Top venue was really beginning to come into its own. This year it saw two young soulful Scottish singer-songwriters called Ricky Ross and Steve Butler make their mark. It also heard the infectious

gospel sounds of LCGC as well as witnessing the mastery of the Canadian Bruce Cockburn for the first time and admitting he wasn’t sure about playing his “first Christian festival”. Meanwhile, on the mainstage, Martyn Joseph, Adrian Snell, and Garth Hewitt were joined by US rockers Petra and ex Earth Wind and Fire member Philip Bailey. 1984’s white metal offering came from Sweden in the shape of gong-pounding Leviticus. There was new romanticism from Sal Solo’s Classix Noveaux, and Steve Taylor, a US satirist-cum-frontman made his first attention-grabbing appearance, disproving the theory that all Americans are born with an irony bypass. And The Fringe – as well as now having an outdoor rock stage to add to its bandstand – even had its own daily Village News! Main festival camping was arranged either side of a mile-long long avenue leading away from the castle. And Greenbelters had to develop ingenious methods of finding their way back to the right sleeping bag each night in what was, by the mid-80s, a vast sea of thousands of tents. The tradition of ‘things on poles’ (especially things that flashed and signalled) was born.

In the presence of genius Martin Evans remembers: “Bruce Cockburn played to a packed Big Top and, in complete silence and awe, we listened to him play beautiful acoustic guitar and sing modern, Christian songs for our generation. It was unbelievable.” Driving Phil Bailey Global superstars Phil Bailey and band – essentially all members of legendary Earth Wind and Fire – were ferried to and from the airport in the one-size-fitsall Greenbelt minibus. But they took the festival’s humble transportation in their stride, affably explaining to the driver: “I’m earth, he’s wind and he’s fire.” Near-death experience The closest thing to an accidental death happened that year, too, as the site crew managed to drop a ladder beam right on someone’s head from a not insubstantial height. Miraculously, the ‘victim’ lived to tell the tale and, in fact, still comes to Greenbelt to this day. Look out for someone walking round looking up at the sky all the time. And, when you hear someone shout “Fore” or “Timber” at Greenbelt, take them seriously.

01 Main photo: Variety of programme goes to Greenbelter’s head 01: Paul Boateng speaks about “interesting times” 02: LCGC feel the Spirit in the Big Top 03: Brightly coloured Greenbelters make a moving target

Thirty Eleven

GB11 Castle Ashby

1984

Thirty Eleven

GB12 Castle Ashby

1985

The programme for the twelfth Greenbelt cost just £2.25 (or £2.50 if you bought it with Strait). In the ‘International Year of Youth’, part of the Greenbelt offering was allocated to the ‘Greenbelt Scholarship’, a new Christianity and culture training programme developed with the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC).

There were lots of Performing Arts again – in The Roundhouse Big Top venue. There, Greenbelters would see a host of theatre, as well as contemporary dance and Geoffrey Stevenson’s mime of Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Paul Boateng was back, this year helping to launch Pip Wilson’s seminal youth-working book, Gutter Feelings – dubbed “the Cross and Switchblade of Britain” in the sleeve notes. And Pip undoubtedly helped keep Greenbelt real and earthed in its attitude to young people throughout the 80s and 90s. The Great Hall in Castle Ashby played host to the classical programme, and the Fine Arts exhibition was also housed in the gallery up at the Castle. The film programme focussed on rich westerners in the third world and included The Killing Fields, The Year of Living Dangerously and Under Fire. Worship came from Taize, Iona, John Michael Talbot, or rock band Avalon.

Out on The Fringe you could catch Greenbelt legend Griff Pilchard, fresh from his ’84 mainstage slot, take in a Fashion show, or watch up-andcoming bands in the Fringe ‘n’ Scissors venue. The children’s programme was multi-coloured in 1985, with the under 2s called Green Gurglers, the 2-3s Blue Balloons, the 4-5s Purple Pickles, the 6-7s Yellow Perils, and the 8-10s called Red Hot Pokers. Ouch! Mainstage saw a young Pete Williams (now U2’s lighting designer) graduate from DJ to join old-hand Stewart Henderson as his fellow compere. And, in the days when comperes really mattered – when a crowd of 20,000 needed entertaining all night – Stewart and Pete became firm favourites. Musical highlights included Mark Heard, Phil Keaggy, gospel punk from Undercover and Fairnie and Sage’s latest bizarre incarnation The Technos. Let’s Hear it for the Boy Denise Williams headlined and there were Big Top turns from two very different acts (who would both become Greenbelt favourites): the hoe-down skiffle of The Famous Potatoes and the folk-reggae of Nigerian-born Ben Okafor.

A helping hand The ‘Greenbelt Scholarship’ saw the festival sponsoring young creative talent, enabling artists and thinkers to develop their skills to better engage with their culture. Over the years, many would benefit from such help. Justin Butcher was given a grant and later brought many plays, including his Passion Plays, back to the festival as well as co-ordinating its Performing Arts. More recently, Justin’s satirical show The Madness of George Dubya has been winning rave reviews and delighting London audiences in the West End. And Jenny Scott, a former Greenbelt performer and staff member, has just published a book about doing dance with the learning disabled. Now living in Melbourne, Jenny says that the book wouldn’t have happened without the help of a grant from the Greenbelt communion fund to undertake studies in this area. Do it right Another thing Greenbelt got right that year was The Hothouse debate about homosexuality which saw heterosexual and homosexual Christians berating each other in love for their variously blinkered views on sexuality. In that highly charged atmosphere, few doubted that Christ was in the midst.

Main photo: One in, one out. Greenbelt’s legendary communal bog and pit system 01: Kenny Everitt look-alike Greenbelt DJ 02: Martyn Joseph’s early 80s hat-trick 03: Ben Okafor makes his first festival appearance

Thirty Twelve

GB12 Castle Ashby

1985

Thirty Twelve

GB13 Castle Ashby

1986

After blowing away festival-goers for twelve years, 1986 was the year Greenbelt itself got blown away. The rains came down and the floods came up – and then Hurricane Charlie wreaked havoc, making headlines and seeing some taking refuge in local halls while others ended up in hospital with hypothermia.

Apart from that, it was business as usual. Seminar titles included ‘Porn Again’ and ‘Signs and Wimbers’, while T-Bone Burnett was billed as speaking on ‘The kindness of your Art’, as well as playing the Big Top (but he never showed). The Very Stinking Late Show was born and a group of Polish Christian artists showed their work for the first time outside their home country. There was a big and a small theatre venue to accommodate the sheer volume of Performing Arts. And the Big Top saw the BBC Gospel Choir of the Year competition, Fat ‘n’ Frantic’s festival debut, the Waterboys’ Mike Scott and the wonderful Roy Castle. For those wanting a good cry, meanwhile, The Elephant Man and Places of the Heart were screened. And Simon Mayo did his first Radio One roadshow live from the festival, although he’d been coming to Greenbelt for some years.

The speakers included a straighttalking Australian biker evangelist called John Smith, CND’s Bruce Kent and Maggie’s right-hand man John Selwyn Gummer. On The Fringe you could have seen sets by rocking vicar Geoff Mann and young Northern Irish band Split Level. The theme for the communion service was ‘liberation’ and the offering went to help build wells in Kenya, towards a Christian skipper for Cockney Spirit – a boat built by unemployed young people in the East End of London, and, following the success of its Scholarship, the ‘Greenbelt Artists Musician Trust’. The worship was even more diverse, ranging from a church of Ireland folk group, to the Iona Community, the New Testament Assembly of Youth and the Tongues of Fire Music Ministry. Ah, the 80s! Mainstage saw the return of Bryn Haworth and the enigmatic debut of the deeply odd Mercy Seat, formed by Gordon Gano of the Violent Femmes. But, by Monday night, Hurricane Charlie was really setting in. Andy Turner (now Trustee and late night host) remembers David Grant’s show that night. “It was the big, final act and involved a stadiumbusting laser act. But it poured down, the lasers conked out, and the field emptied as everybody left – mid-show. It was dreadfully embarrassing.”

Tales from the riverbank On that fateful Monday night, two lads decided it was too wet outside their tent to change their cooking gas bottle – so they did it inside, while smoking. As they screamed for help, the tent burned down around them. But because everything was so soaked neither they nor the surrounding tents were burned in the blaze. And two of Greenbelt’s management stumbled across one rather large young lady suffering from “hyperfiona” being massaged back to life by six strapping stewards. As they approached, she fixed them with a glare that turned them on their heels, leaving the stewards to continue their essential task. Without compere But for many, hurricanes aside, the mainstage of the mid 80s will be remembered for the compering double act – Pete ‘Willie’ Williams and Stewart Henderson. Willie describes how, in the early years (they compered together for eight), they would get together beforehand and plan in detail. But this degenerated until it became a point of honour that they would do no preparation at all. ”It was just two lunatics, two live mics and an audience that was up for it. It was an experiment in human dynamics. It was like meeting up with thousands of friends each year – all at once.”

Main photo: The mud that came before the hurricane 01: The energetic madness of debutantes Fat ‘n’ Frantic 02: The Fringe ID emerges 03: Released on good behaviour, comperes Henderson and Williams

Thirty Thirteen

GB13 Castle Ashby

1986

Thirty Thirteen

GB14 Castle Ashby

1987

Plans were announced in 1987’s programme to make a permanent office home for Greenbelt at St Luke’s in north London. The festival programme described ‘The Greenhouse’ (as it was to be called) as “the most ambitious project we’ve ever embarked upon.”

Billed a “communist dupe” by American Evangelical aid agencies, Greenbelt ’87 saw the first visit of Nicaraguan Minister Gustavo Parajon. His presence was the catalyst for one of the most special festival nights ever as the Big Top hosted the Cabaret Nicaragua with performances by Big Sur, Soul Doctor and headlined by Bruce Cockburn – and an audience that included U2’s Bono, disguised as a steward. The Alarm headlined Friday night mainstage, and there were festival debuts from cult American singersongwriter Peter Case, Liverpudlian band River City People, and US rock outfits the Altar Boys and Bloodgood. Tony Campolo was there for the first time. “I understand that it’s totally different from Spring Harvest!” he said in his pre-festival interview. He preached his “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming” message to such a large Sunday service crowd that the PA relays couldn’t quite cope getting his words to the peripheries – leaving people at the back not really knowing which day of Tony’s weekend they were in at any time!

The service was broadcast live on Radio Four and the offering went – in part – to Gustavo’s Nicaraguan relief agency CEPAD, Third Way magazine, the Sojourners Community and key South African Christian leaders. Radio Greenbelt celebrated its fifth birthday and John Smith launched his autobiography On the Side of Angels. You could watch The Colour Purple, Witness and The Blue Brothers over the weekend and the Fine Arts programme ‘came out’ – moving into the tented village from its Castle gallery home of previous years. Greenbelt staged its first full-blown fashion show, called ‘The Sea’, and the kids programme was renamed the ‘Fun Factory’. Oxford Circus were the latest addition to the still-burgeoning ranks of Christian theatre companies, and a performance of Handel’s Messiah, sent shivers down the spines of those inside and outside the Big Top.

Nicaragua Breakfast woodsmoke on the breeze – On the cliff the U.S. Embassy Frowns out over Managua like Dracula’s tower. The kid who guards Fonseca’s tomb Cradles a beat-up submachine gun – At age fifteen he’s a veteran of four years of war Proud to pay his dues He knows who turns the screws Baby face and old man’s eyes Blue lagoon and flowering trees – Bullet-packed masaya streets Full of the ghosts of the heroes of Monimbo Women of the town laundry Work and gossip and laugh at me – They don’t believe I’ll ever send them the pictures I took. For every scar on a wall There’s a hole in someone’s heart Where a loved one’s memory lives

So, as well as enjoying all its usual suspects, the fourteenth Greenbelt signalled some things which were to prove pivotal in the festival’s life over coming years: The Greenhouse, the dream of a year-round festival base, was aired; and a Nicaraguan Baptist Minister came and shared his work with us. At home and overseas, Greenbelt’s vision, and the people behind it, were being stretched and tested as never before.

In the flash of this moment You’re the best of what we are – Don’t let them stop you now Nicaragua

Main photo: A typical group of campers, probably singing Majesty 01: Campolo and Parajon at the hair loss seminar 02: Yes, Bono really was there, disguised as a steward 03: John Smith relaxes – thank God he’s on our side

Thirty Fourteen

GB14 Castle Ashby

1987

In the flash of this moment You’re the best of what we are – Don’t let them stop you now Nicaragua

Thirty Fourteen

GB15 Castle Ashby

1988

1988’s programme cost £3.25 and, after a year in which £95,000 had been raised, it was announced that Greenbelt was “well on the way to the Greenhouse total.” Festival favourite, the satirical Steve Taylor shot a video called 88 on Super 8 and a benefit live album of last year’s Cabaret Nicaragua was released. 101 Things to do in a Boring Sermon was also published. (Some Greenbelters are reportedly still working their way faithfully through each suggestion in turn.) 01

The chant of “you beautiful human person” continued to rise up from the Rolling Mag each day, reflecting both Pip’s and Greenbelt’s commitment to, and valuing of, the thousands of young people coming to the festival. The main venues all had facelifts, with stunning entrances and backdrops across the whole site. The Hothouse continued to play host to the ‘heated debate’ strand of the programme. And the morning worship choices included a sing-along with Ten Sing, described in the programme as “a Scandinavian youth phenomenon!” Mainstage felt the Gaelic touch of Scottish soul-stirrers Runrig, while the Proclaimers were featured in Simon Mayo’s Radio One roadshow that year. Cliff was back and the American CCM darling Amy Grant made her one and only festival appearance. Other music

highlights included sets by Precious Wilson, Charlie Peacock, Whitecross and Charizma. The Fine Art exhibition included paintings from long-time festival friend Rupert Loydell, while the classical programme featured the premier of a piece commissioned for Greenbelt and a performance of Haydn’s Creation. 1988 also saw a one-off special AIDS show – “unsuitable for those under 16” – highlighting the plight of those living with HIV AIDS in a revue-style show. Jerry Mofokena, a writer and actor in Soweto, and the Christian Ecology Group were among the many beneficiaries of the Greenbelt offering. A Palestinian Melkite priest, Elias Chacour was worried about getting back into Galillee through Israeli border controls with what he’d been given at the festival. In the end, he returned from his first Greenbelt with £4,000 cash from the offering stuffed into his socks! Mike Yaconelli, editor of satirical Californian magazine The Wittenburg Door, made his first trip to the festival and was knocked out.

Deep impact Judy Reith remembers: “We were camping behind the Big Top and woke to NOS soundchecking each morning at 7am. Word got out that NOS were doing amazing things so I went along with a few others. One of the most profound images on their giant projector screen was of a fish flipping over and over in too little water. In tiny, typewriter-face letters at the bottom it said e a t c o d. ‘What does “eat cod” mean?’ I asked. ‘It says “eat God”,’ came the reply.” And Simon Hall remembers: “I bumped into a Uni friend one morning, wandering around in a dazed ecstasy. ‘I’ve just seen the future of the church,’ he said. It turned out he’d just seen NOS, the weird-and-wonderful-looking people who’d handed me a flyer the day before. I went to see the ‘future of the church’ for myself and it was... well, amazing, like a second conversion! I was a Goth at the time, and felt that my faith and my life would always be in perpetual conflict. After that day, I never felt that way again.”

But Greenbelt 1988 would perhaps be remembered most for the first visit of an alternative worship group from Sheffield called ‘NOS’ or The Nine O’ Clock Service. The stories speak for themselves.

Main photo: A pained Proclaimer gets a shock from Simon Mayo’s booby-trap mic 01: Runrig with an unfeasibly big acoustic guitar 02: Elaine Storkey looking delightfully pastoral 03: Amy Grant, complete with late 80s check jacket

Thirty Fifteen

GB15 Castle Ashby

1988

But Greenbelt 1988 would perhaps be remembered most for the first visit of an alternative worship group from Sheffield called ‘NOS’ or The Nine O’ Clock Service. The stories speak for themselves.

Thirty Fifteen

GB16 Castle Ashby

Including a free A-to-Z illustrated guide to Greenbelt and a ‘flexidisc’, 1989’s programme informed festival-goers that work on The Greenhouse was now complete, but not yet paid for. It also carried a report on all the events that had been staged at The Greenhouse – where the Greenbelt staff were now based – throughout the preceding year.

Art and Soul

1989

Linda Cooke and her ‘Style Council’ worked their magic once again on the tent entrances and site vibing and the next two titles in the Greenbelt files series – Dance on Injustice, a radical songbook collective from Garth Hewitt, and Wisdom and the Marketplace by John Peck – and Stewart Henderson’s poetry collection, Giant’s Scrapbook, were all launched. The Big Top saw its first year of ‘themed’ music programming, with the ‘metal afternoon’ including One Bad Pig and Seventh Angel, and the outlandish and raucous Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus. But the balance was shifting, with 1989 marking the arrival of a new acoustic music venue called The River, featuring Gary Hall and the Stormkeepers, Maggi Dawn, Sublime, The Woebegones, Rodney Cordner and Jean Pierre Rudolph, and the return of Peter Case. And out on the mainstage Bruce Cockburn returned, complete with a band.

Meanwhile, The Very Stinking Late Show was described in the programme as “mental and manic” (PC lawsuits followed). And Pete Williams – back from a year touring with Frank Sinatra among others – worked with Pip to create ‘Trouser Television’.

Sweet, soothing honey When Sweet Honey in the Rock took to the mainstage they told the audience to “sit down and be quiet.” They then proceeded to blow us all away with their vocal harmonies. Sweet honeys indeed.

Speakers included a first festival visit from Australian Dave Andrews, while among the mainstage highlights were Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Labi Siffre, Steve Taylor’s new band, Chagall Guevara, and a big arena debut from 80s favourites Fat ‘n’ Frantic. Out on The Fringe, meanwhile, a youthful Eden Burning made their Greenbelt debut.

Bare-faced cheek Phil, one of the Rolling Mag team in the late 80s remembers getting 17 people into one wooden toilet cubicle. And, as the last person emerged from the loo, the plywood floor gave way sending him slipping into the pit up to his waist. Phil also remembers getting another of the team to change his trousers behind a blanket on the stage as part of the Rolling Mag unaware that a hole had been cut in said blanket to reveal his bum. So who said The Moonies were never at Greenbelt?

The classical programme saw the Southern Symphony orchestra and the English Chorale team up to perform Smetana’s Ultava and Dvorak’s Te Deum, while in the Fine Arts programme there was a focus on sculpture. And so the decade drew to a close. The yuppy excesses of Thatcher’s Britain were showing signs of waning. Countless big hair cuts, myriad theatre companies, one hurricane, several bearded Americans, and many marginalised voices later, Greenbelt was ten years older, ten years wiser and ten years deeper in debt (to God that is, not the bank).

Late night antics S.M. Dyer remembers a crazy and slightly irreverent band called (he thinks) Dreaming of Insomnia. They played for years late at night – and quite illegally – on the Fringe bandstand, until the stewards would eventually throw them off each night (or should that be morning).

Main photo: The infectious Ladysmith Black Mambazo do the Agga Doo 01: The Clark Sisters – yet more chiffon 02: Pip Wilson subject to adoration in the Rolling Mag 03: Canadian Bruce Cockburn plays mainstage

Thirty Sixteen

GB16 Castle Ashby

Art and Soul

1989

Thirty Sixteen

GB17 Castle Ashby

1990’s festival programme said that this would be the “seventh and last” Greenbelt at Castle Ashby. It also carried references to the Berlin Wall having come down and Nelson Mandela having been released. The 1990s had, then, dawned very hopefully – especially for the thousands who remembered singing along with Free Nelson Mandela at mainstage throughout the 80s.

Rumours of Glory

1990

There were more people working as volunteers on site in 1990 than had attended the first Greenbelt back in 1974! The main tent venues had names like Garibaldi, Custard Cream and Jammie Dodger. And the Style Council team had transformed the site again, this year with Gaudi-like monuments. The Greenhouse, the festival’s yearround London base, had been in action throughout the preceding year and fundraising still continued. A Survivor’s Guide to the Church (vol 1) was published, along with Taboo Topic, a collection of poems on death and dying. The benefit record Down by the River was released, and Simon Mayo broadcast a two-hour radio documentary from Greenbelt ’90 on the Monday evening. The festival’s Palestinian and Central American focus continued, there was

stand-up comedy from Milton Jones, and the offering was allocated to beneficiaries as diverse as the Honduras rain forest and a non-alcoholic youth bar in Barnstable. The Jazz programme was entitled ‘Saxual Healing’, American Philip Yancey spoke for the first time, and the Fashion Show – put together by Angie Last and Joy Wilson and hosted by Bev Sage and Steve Fairnie – continued its popularity with recycling its theme. There was still a residue of 80’s white metal, including Detritus, Seventh Seal and Whitecross, while in The River you could see Larry Norman (“I still know what you’re doing in you tents…”), Sam Hill, Billy Penn’s Brother and The Plymouth Brethren. A strong mainstage line-up saw Iona, Nu Cololurs, Deacon Blue, DC Talk, Machanic Manyeruke and Lies Damned Lies all make their first festival appearances. Mike Peters of The Alarm returned to do an ‘intimate’ show in the Big Top. And the theatre programme featured Heathcote Williams’ Sacred Elephants, performed by Virginia McKenna. There was much more besides at Greenbelt 1990, and far from beginning to labour under premature pre-millennial angst, the festival felt buoyant, confident even.

Lynch mobs The problem with Mike Peters playing in the Big Top was that it only held 3,000. But thousands more were absolutely determined to see him. The festival management were faced with a ‘ticketing problem’. It was announced that tickets would be made available at 8am on the morning of the performance. But by midnight on the evening before, the queue already stretched back to Castle Ashby House. Starting at the front, each person in the queue was given a ticket until the first 2,000 were doled out, leaving the remaining 1,000 to allocate next day. Festival manager Martin Evans got to bed at 4am only to be woken at 4.30 am by night security saying there was already a new queue shouting: “Lynch Martin Evans. Lynch Martin Evans.” In the end, an extra 1,000 tickets were photocopied early the next day and that night 4,000 people sang along in ecstasy and somehow the tent stayed up. But don’t tell the site safety officer. Fairnie’s art Waiting for Mike Peters that night, the tightly packed audience were high on expectation and were getting very restless. Eventually, Steve Fairnie was sent to calm them with silly stories and they became quiet under his spell. Close magic.

Main photo: The Style Council go Gaudi 01: Mike Peters incites a near-riot 02: Machanic Manyeruke struts his stuff in an after-hours show 03: Deacon Blue’s Ricky Ross sings his heart out

Thirty Seventeen

GB17 Castle Ashby

Rumours of Glory

1990

Main photo: The Style Council go Gaudi 01: Mike Peters incites a near-riot 02: Machanic Manyeruke struts his stuff in an after-hours show 03: Deacon Blue’s Ricky Ross sings his heart out

Thirty Seventeen

GB18 Castle Ashby Wrestling with Angels

1991

What they said at Greenbelt’s 18th

Back at Castle Ashby after all, 1991’s festival felt more down to earth somehow. Greenbelt was 18 years old and, after the buoyant expectancy of last year, there was a renewed sense of struggle this. The programme contained a clutch of seminars wrestling with, and attempting to redefine, Greenbelt’s stance and theology. And the festival shop was selling umbrellas.

“I think of Greenbelt as the beginning of the Christian year, any year actually – it’s like the alternative Christmas.” Simon Mayo “Greenbelt is a way of life.” Garth Hewitt “Greenbelt is a taste of heaven on earth.” Pip Wilson

Mike Yaconelli described a ‘jerk-free Christianity’ and the South African activist Caesar Molebatsi also spoke. The Palestinian Christian Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal dialogued with Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom. The offering went to a Polish housing project, a school in Nazareth, Kurdish refugees and the Asian Christian Alliance. There was worship from Glasgow’s Late Late Service and, as an example of Greenbelt’s mind-blowing diversity, there was an Ocarina workshop on The Fringe while Jill Saward, a victim of a rape in her own church vicarage, shared her story. The Fine Art programme included The Body Show, with work from Steve Scott and Steve Fairnie, and work by Rene Castro, an exiled Chilean political artist. The rolling mag was re-named ‘Stinking Heck’ and there was contemporary dance from New Yorker Marcia McFee.

Model animator Nick Park also showed up, fresh from winning an Oscar for his Creature Comforts. The new afternoon music venue ‘Underground’ saw Greenbelt debuts from Scottish roots rockers The Electrics, and the proudly Lancastrian K. The River venue, meanwhile, enjoyed an appearance by Nashville’s Julie Miller. Mainstage saw performances by The Violet Burning, Chagall Guevara, The Throes, Tribe of Dan, stadium-rock from US band The Galactic Cowboys, rap from P.I.D. and Cavemen, and gospel from the Sounds of Blackness. Greenbelt also went curiously retro that year with Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel and Steeleye Span and Maddy Prior. The festival’s strength had always lain in its openness to struggle, in its desire to wrestle, through the arts, toward a greater sense of God’s love for his creation. As young British band This Picture, newly signed to RCA’s Dedicated label, said in an interview prior to the festival and their mainstage appearance: “There’s no other Christian event where we would be appreciated. There’s a willingness to explore here.” And Rene Castro’s speaker-stack screeds of wrestling with angels left an indelible impression.

Witch hunt 1991 was the year of the ‘Greenbelt Witch’ headlines. The mild-mannered pagan (or White Witch) took part in a Hothouse debate that year, while a group of concerned individuals surrounded the tent, singing Majesty to repel the satanic threat. And in the feedback session one woman leapt to her feet to condemn Greenbelt for the satanic effigies all around the site. Martin Evans asked what she could possibly mean? She spoke about birds strung up by their necks in the woods. Martin pointed out that it had just been the grouse-shooting season and, while some might think this satanic, the best game is hung to mature. Oh dear. The sting Many people also remember 1991 as ‘the year of the wasp’. There were a lot of the critters, apparently. Jill Saward was stung on the inside of her mouth just a few hours before speaking. Jaded First Aiders told her to suck on an ice cube. To an already nervous Jill this seemed woefully inadequate. All she remembers about her talk that day – one of the most raw and poignant Greenbelt has ever heard – is that she kept apologising for her muffled speech.

Main photo: Queuing – it’s what Greenbelters are good at 01: Rene Castro’s Wresting with Angels screed 02: The tousled Steve Taylor with Chagall Guevara 03: The slightly mad Julie Miller in The River

Thirty Eighteen

GB18 Castle Ashby Wrestling with Angels

1991

What they said at Greenbelt’s 18th

Thirty Eighteen

GB19 Castle Ashby Journeys of the heart

1992

Definitely the festival’s last at Castle Ashby, 1992 saw Greenbelt announce plans for a permanent plot at Church Stowe, with ‘Plotters’ invited to purchase a quarter of an acre each as a means of support. 1992 also marked the 10-year anniversary of Radio Greenbelt and saw the release of 101 Things Jesus Never Said and the festival video Four Days in Summer. There had been a Greenbelt pilgrimage to Iona in the preceding year and environmental issues were to the fore with the ‘Whose Earth?’ slogan all over the recycling containers on site. A tree blew down, forcing gigs by Bob Geldof and Desree off the mainstage and into the Big Top and Friday night saw a mainstage mass by NOS (Nine O’Clock Service) – “recapturing our elemental desires in worship,” as they described it – complete with baby oil and bikinis, as many saw it. The offering was scattered to Nicaragua, Poland, Romania, Guatemala and the East End of London. And film buffs had more choice than ever with screenings of Delicatessen, Thelma and Louise, Back to the Future, Cyrano de Bergerac, the Last Temptation of Christ, Fievel Goes West and The Fisher King. Walters Wink and Wangerin spoke for the first time and they were joined by Henri Nowen and the campaigner David Alton MP. The Performing Arts

programme included Autogeddon by Heathcote Williams and Geoffrey Stevenson’s performance of Dostoyeski’s The Idiot. Sticky Music’s showcase featured Lies Damned Lies, D B McGlyn and Calvin’s Dream and there was jazz from Jason Robello and Ronny Jordan, as well as classical performances of Bach and Barber on mainstage. Cincinatti’s ethereal Over the Rhine made their festival debut and Eden Burning continued to climb the venue ladder, this year graduating to the Big Top. Other acts included Canada’s Mr Bennett and the Potboilers, Scotland’s Aunty Rose, Cambridge’s Sister Sister and former Alarm members, Mike Peters and Dave Sharp. Greenbelt was now embracing new technology, with a dedicated tech venue called ‘The Lab’ and a computerised information screen making programme announcements. But, in moving forward, the festival wasn’t forgetting that for most of the world’s beautiful human people daily living required hard physical labour – poignantly demonstrated by the ‘pallotte’ dwelling constructed during the weekend at the CMS tent. And the journey was set to continue, with the festival moving to its very own site in the coming year. Greenbelt was plotting its future.

Less is more Martin Evans recalls one of those ‘festival moments’: “NOS brought us an enormous, expansive, high-tech performance on the mainstage – one of the most innovative in the history of Greenbelt – and yet somehow it left me cold. And then the following morning I sat with Garth Hewitt listening to Walter Wangerin telling the story of his first curacy and his relationship with a smelly, cantankerous old man. The tears were rolling down our faces as this wonderful storyteller and his simple story of failure touched us to the very ground of our being.” First time and best time David Elsey’s story is typical of many. He came to Greenbelt for the first time in 1992, after only exploring the Christian faith for five months. “The speakers that year seemed to be pitching their talks straight at me. It was life changing. I’ve been to every Greenbelt since, but ’92 was the one I’ll remember most.” Best laid plans Putting NOS on the mainstage was a bold move by the festival. Not only was it the first time (apart from Sunday services) there had been worship on the mainstage, but it was also a way of countering the critics who were accusing Greenbelt of losing its worshipping heart. And then NOS created more controversy and outrage than almost anything before – or since. Oh well!

Main photo: ‘Whose Earth?’ ‘Mine,’ says pouncing Greenbelter 01: Hello, hello, what’s all this then? 02: His Royal Bobness, complete with flowerprint suit 03: Greenbelt security crew – safe as houses

Thirty Nineteen

GB19 Castle Ashby Journeys of the heart

1992

Thirty Nineteen

GB20 Deene Park

As the new festival chair, Martin Wroe’s letter in 1993’s programme talked about “the winter of discontent” as those arriving that year found themselves at Deene Park, not Church Stowe. Thanks to well-organised, dogged local opposition (led by the local vicar no less), the licence application for the site in Church Stowe had been refused. The sense of disappointment was tangible.

Field of Dreams

1993

Although it’s not good to speak ill of the Church Stowe group, it is important to acknowledge the harassment that the festival’s Board and staff faced on Greenbelt’s behalf. Martin Evans remembers feeling like he was literally ‘running the gauntlet’ at Daventry District Council as he walked from his car to the offices flanked by red, swollen faces screaming at him and fists pummelling his sides and arms. But the plotting continued. There had been a ‘Plotters Convention’ in the April. And the Deene Park owners, the Brudenells, and the residents, despite their understandable nervousness after Church Stowe’s press, were very welcoming. A new publication called re:Generate was launched to network alternative worship groups across the country. The family programme was named ‘Atlantis: City of Dreams’ and included some all-age early evening events for the first time. The Heathcote Williams strain continued with performances of

Falling for a Dolphin and Whale Nation, while Stewart Henderson and Nigel Forde brought the house down with ‘Twice nightly but just this once’. Pete Ward urged people to “quit consuming and start relating” and CMS focussed attention on Nepal. The futurologist Tom Sine was there for the first time and other speakers included Doug Baker from the Corrymeela community in Northern Ireland, the theologian Jeremy Begbie, James Jones, Tom Wright and Gerard Hughes, author of The God of Surprises. The classical programme saw Greenbelters create their own performance of Handel’s Messiah from scratch and the offering placed an emphasis on projects to do with homelessness. The Fringe enjoyed scintillating street theatre from the Danger Brothers and instituted ‘Gis-a-gig’, giving bands a chance to blag a festival gig for themselves. A young man from Bangor called Iain Archer and a young female singer-songwriter from the southern States called Victoria Williams both won festival hearts. And, on the mainstage, debutantes included the Christian rapper T-Bone, California’s The Prayer Chain, old rockers Magnum, jazz funk outfit the James Taylor Quartet, and a mix of soul, jazz, funk and black gospel from Incognito, Herbie Armsrtrong and D-Influence.

Loss But Greenbelt didn’t just lose its Church Stowe site in 1993; it also lost one of its favourite festival sons, Steve Fairnie at the age of 42. At every festival from the beginning, and performing in Fish Co., Writz, Famous Names and the Technos, as well as compering and exhibiting, Fairnie was also a well-respected painter and sculptor with a Masters from the Royal College of Art. “He was part of Greenbelt’s collective culture,” said Pete Williams at his funeral. Fairnie embodied Greenbelt’s artistry. Mistaken identity As site manager, Rob Quinn remembers someone racing across the fields towards him in a beaten up old Beetle during the festival build. “Lost your way, mate?” Rob joked, continuing to ask: “Who are you?” “I’m Brudenell,” came the plummy retort. “And who are you?” Ooops!

Main photo: A whiter-than-white John Bell addresses the Greenbelt masses 01: Surely seminars aren’t meant to be a laughing matter? 02: The Rolling Mag, full of beautiful, human, young people 03: Greenbelt says ‘goodbye’ to Fairnie (pictured here in ’92 with Dave Tomlinson)

Thirty Twenty

GB20 Deene Park

Field of Dreams

1993

Thirty Twenty

GB21 Deene Park

Back at Deene for a second year, Amnesty International was highlighting children’s rights, CMS had a cardboard cathedral built by 100 children from all over the world, and Christian Aid was showcasing world music at this 21st Greenbelt. And Performing Arts coordinator Justin Butcher brought his self-penned Passion Play to the festival to mark, as he put it, “our coming of age.” Mr Brudenell granted Greenbelt a 10-year lease on the estate and the “Deene Decade” was duly declared!

Roots, Rhythm and Redemption

1994

1994 also saw the birth of ‘The Velvet Smoking Jacket’, a languorous late night show with comedian Paul Powell and journalist Cole Moreton. While worship featured a Roman Catholic Mass, the Late Late Service, Joy from Oxford, Wild Goose from Iona, the Society of St Francis and, a thousand choruses later, the return of Graham Kendrick. And the Fine Art programme included the Gates of Experience exhibition, featuring the sculptures of Stephen Broadbent. The Fringe hosted ‘a progressive rock / gospel / opera / musical spectacular’, starring Marc Catley, the Flaming Methodists and a cast of 10s. Urban Species brought us their infectious jazz rap; Sam Fox (one of the more

bizarre Greenbelt bookings) brought us a couple of headliners, before moving on to an Alpha Course (allegedly). Midnight Oil brought their campaigning environmentalism from down under, while Martyn Joseph brought his new friend Tom Robinson for a showstopping set in the Big Top. American social activist Jim Wallis was back and New Zealand’s Mike Riddell paid his first visit. TV-presenter and journalist Jeremy Vine was around, while Anne MacGuire of the MacGuire Seven, wrongly arrested for the Guildford pub bombings in 1974, also spoke. The Sunday service giving was directed through Amnesty and the Jubilee Campaign to work with child prostitutes in the Phillipines and Guatemala and to the Open Door Aids relief project in Brighton, among others. Greenbelt had found a new home in Deene. And, as the festival title suggested, it was beginning to put down new roots. In the powerful rendition of its own Passion Play, Greenbelt was reminding itself of the source of its redemption, the beating heart of its unfolding story.

Bog standard Here’s one toilet tale we couldn’t resist telling. It concerns one of those Greenbelters (and we know there were many) who would manage to keep their bodily functions to Number Ones only while at the festival, saving their Number Twos for their return home. But by Monday night our hapless hero realised that he couldn’t hold out any longer. Armed with six sheets of toilet paper (all he could scrounge from his friends), he made a dash for it. Taking a deep breath, he entered the dark cubicle, turned straight round, pulled down his trousers and got down to business. What he didn’t realise was that by the end of the festival in those days you daren’t sit, you had to hover. Instead of feeling the plastic loo seat, his bum hit the mound of what other Greenbelters had left behind. Pooh – ‘scuse the language – splurged up his front and back. Gagging, he tottered to the tap with his pathetic six sheets where he was given a J-cloth by a compassionate camper and did as best he could. Crawling into his sleeping bag, he prayed for morning, home and a hot shower. Strangely, his urge to pooh had disappeared. Along with all his friends.

Main photo: The CMS cardboard cathedral 01: Pete Garrett and Midnight Oil stir it up on mainstage 02: Stephen Broadbent’s sculpture. ‘Can you tell what it is yet?’ 03: Justin Butcher’s Passion Play in the courtyard at Deene

Thirty Twenty One

GB21 Deene Park

Roots, Rhythm and Redemption

1994

Thirty Twenty One

GB22 Deene Park Can these dry bones dance?

1995

In 1995, the festival launched a partnership with Christian Aid, aiming “to get Greenbelters fighting for a fairer world.” Frank Chikane visited from South Africa and Gustavo Parajon was back, from Nicaragua. There was a bigger investment in the family area and all-age events, and, most significantly, the birth of the Greenbelt Festival Angels. This new supporters’ scheme, launched under the tag ‘Be an Angel’, would turn out to keep the festival flying until the present day. The classical programme featured cellist Harry Napier and a group of percussionists called Ensemble Bash. Theatre featured The Seven Demons of Magdala, The Visitation and The Birth of the Jongleur, written by Justin Butcher for Greenbelt. And the festival hosted its first opera, The Perfect Wife. Greenbelt’s giving went, among others, to Mustard Seed communities in the West Indies, The Matthew Trust (mental health reform in the UK), Toy Box in Guatemala City, and Isaiah 58, a project working with street kids in South Africa and led by Tom Hewitt, son of Garth. The film programme focussed on Quentin Tarrantino and you could also catch Forrest Gump and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. The enigmatic and eclectic Moby made his Greenbelt debut playing a mixture of house and guitar punk to a gobsmacked mainstage – and later

collecting a set of John Bell tapes from the GB shop. Acid jazz band Corduroy funked up the Amos Dance Tent, along with Credit to the Nation. Northern Ireland’s Disraeli Gears were there, too, along with crusty didgery-doo-playing Doo the Moog. Other bands included Pray For Rain from the States and the Newsboys and the Quick and the Dead from way down under. Dave Tomlinson launched The Post Evangelical which set the festival chattering, and women speakers contributed in increasing numbers – including Lavinia Byrne, Jo Ind and Joy Carroll, the ‘original’ Vicar of Dibley, to name a few. Radio Five Live’s Rhian Roberts hosted ‘The Great Debate’, and the argument got heated each day in the Hothouse and went late into the night at Holy Joes’ ‘Insomniacs Anonymous’. 1995 might well be remembered as the first year Moby played. In fact, the really big deal was the birth of Greenbelt’s Angels. For lots of reasons, festival numbers were in decline in the mid 90s, and while there were thousands gathering each year to get their dry bones dancing again, for the festival organisers it was getting increasingly difficult to balance the books. Miraculously, the growing ranks of Angels, supporting the festival with a regular monthly gift, meant Greenbelt could learn that small(er) could also be beautiful. And not necessarily bankrupt.

Only at Greenbelt Malcom Doney remembers: “I saw two Franciscan monks hurrying towards me in full habit around the edge of the Big Top. One broke into a run and called back to the other, ‘Come on, Reservoir Dogs is about to start!’” Gotcha Norm, chief Greenbelt Fire Officer for years now, was called to a ‘shout’ where a lad had frozen in fear after stepping out on his rope from the top of the abseiling tower. When Norm and his crew got there, the lad was petrified and literally foaming at the mouth. With hundreds watching and his fellow fire officers egging him on, Norm scaled the tower and began to try and coax the poor lad back onto the platform at the top with a degree of tact and gentleness he’s not usually noted for. After what seemed like minutes (but was probably only seconds), the lad’s face melted into a big grin and then a belly laugh and all the fire officers on the ground shouted: “Gotcha”. Well, you’d expect the fire crews to keep themselves on their toes, wouldn’t you?

01 Main photo: Straw poll? Greenbelt still bears its cross 01: Elfin Moby thrashes his way through his mainstage debut 02: Debate from on high in the Hothouse 03: Revelers outside the Amos Dance tent (with obligatory whistle)

Thirty Twenty Two

GB22 Deene Park Can these dry bones dance?

1995

Thirty Twenty Two

GB23 Deene Park

With new venues like Level 5, Adventures in Narnia and The Steam Room, those attending Greenbelt in 1996 also enjoyed some site improvements funded by the Greenbelt Angels. Christian Aid introduced the idea that ‘Debt Kills’, getting us to send postcards to the then Treasurer Ken Clarke. And George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, led the Sunday service.

Windows on wild heaven

1996

The festival hosted the European premier of Storykeepers, a series of half-hour animations about Jesus, while the worship menu was wider than ever, from Indian dance worship with Bharatha Natyam to ‘pop’ worship with Matt Redman. The Visual Arts programme highlighted the work of Christian artists from non-western cultural traditions – from Peru, Namibia, Uganda and Kenya. Dance music came from London’s Abundant and DJ Disciple, and live stuff from Kiwi Steve Apirana, Bennet, a returning Moby – with 808 State, Americans Steve Curtis Chapman, the Vigilantes of Love, jazz from Courtney Pine, rising stars Sixpence None the Richer, a young Irish singer-songwriter called Juliet Turner, Nu Colours and Eden Burning’s last ever gig. Los Compadres brought flamenco and Angela Knowles offered up late night storytelling. The War of the Roses, meanwhile, was a play written by Greenbelt original James Holloway and

based on Henry VI parts I, II and II and Richard III. The Wild Flickering Vision programme celebrated 100 years of film and included one of Krystof Kieslowski’s Decalogue series, A Short Film about Killing and John Boorman’s Beyond Rangoon. Greenbelt’s offering went to CEPAD in Nicaragua, CAFOD in Panama, the Hackney Church refugee network, and the Ipswich Furniture project – among others. ‘I’m too Sexy for My Church’ was one of the Great Debate titles with Rhian Roberts, while Greenbelt’s own ‘Girlie Show’ asked if Jesus would have read Loaded? There was a Cyber Café and, in the 24-hour Action Café, you could redesign a VW Camper. Something interactive and worshipful out on the Fringe was called The Labyrinth, while Roland Howard revealed the sad story behind the NOS headlines. The Bookend was a new literary venue, with poet Michael Simmons-Roberts as writer in residence. Speakers included Craig and Marivic Burrow, founders of the Mango Tree House, a children’s home in Manilla, Dave Batstone, a Professor of Social Ethics at the University of California and Liling Briones, the ex-president of the Freedom and Debt Coalition in the Philippines. Feeling smaller in size, yes, but, through an endlessly innovating programme, getting broader and feeling deeper. Was there a connection?

All change 1996 was the first time in 15 years of Greenbelt without the Rolling Mag. Pip Wilson, the man behind the Mag, said he wanted to enjoy the festival for himself. But, glutton for punishment, he launched ‘The Experience’ – what he described as a new, “intensive, soul-touching show, an unzipping the feelings show” – and in which he interviewed Nick Park, returning to Greenbelt after winning yet more Oscars to introduce A Close Shave. James and the Archbishop James Holloway, wild-eyed festival founder and always worried that Greenbelt was selling out on its radical heritage, tackled Archbishop Carey after his Sunday morning sermon, irked at the suggestion that Greenbelt was “now establishment”. (James admits he was “invariably annoyed!”) George Carey’s successor, Rowan Williams, spoke about Greenbelt in quite different terms at its 30th birthday party at Lambeth Palace – describing it as an increasingly important gathering for those finding it impossible to animate their faith journeys inside conventional church settings.

Main photo: The Deene site – between showers 01: Ken Clarke gets a mouthful from Greenbelters 02: The Vigilantes of Love from REM’s hometown, Athens Georgia 03: Snowy the Steward, part of Greenbelt’s human iconography

Thirty Twenty Three

GB23 Deene Park

Windows on wild heaven

1996

Thirty Twenty Three

GB24 Deene Park Divine Comedy

1997

Martin Wroe handed over the festival chair to Dot Reid, who described seeing images of a muddy Glastonbury earlier in the summer, saying that Scots might be stoical about the weather but she was sure that Greenbelt would be different. Sunny even. And in ’97, along with extra training and resources for youth groups, an Essential Guide to Greenbelt for Churches and Youth Groups was published with the festival guide. Greenbelt now described itself as “working with Christian Aid.” For the first time the festival had its own fairground and Komedia was the name of a new home for the Performing Arts. The Labyrinth graduated from The Fringe to the centre of attention, the Fashion Show was hosted in The Womb, there was an ‘Open Book’ venue from the Bible Society, and Justin Butcher produced The Man Born to be King by Dorothy Sayers. Another late night show made its debut: ‘The Living Room’, hosted by Andy Turner and Cole Moreton. But ’97 was all about Monday’s ‘Overground’ event, with Greenbelt and Christian Aid working together in the festival’s first ‘partners for justice’ day to raise awareness of homelessness and displacement worldwide. It featured one of the finest of festival

bills, including Cornershop, Three Colours Red, Lamb, the Sneaker Pimps, the Bhundu Boys, DJ Rap and Goldie. The day highlighted the landless movement in Brazil, the reconstruction of Bosnia and displaced mining communities in the Philippines. Unfortunately – would you believe it? – it also rained hard and many people began to head home early, leaving mainstage looking muddy and forlorn. Other music included the old and the new of folk in Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy, roots torch singer Christine Collister, the UK’s biggest Christian band Delirious?, and Americans Sarah Masen and Pierce Pettis. The Visual Arts programme featured exhibitions and workshops in sculpture, printmaking, painting, and mixed media, while the film programme featured Breaking the Waves, Trainspotting and Shine. Speakers included direct action protagonist Ceiron O’Reilly and Ann Pettifor of the Jubilee 2000 Coalition. So it rained – lots. And, in a year Greenbelt staked a lot on attracting visitors to its Overground day. Ah well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. No doubt there was a divine comedy at work, but after some festivals it was getting hard to see the funny side.

Divine irony? At the Sunday morning service, Bishop John Sentamu preached an heroically long sermon. As he stood in the dry under the mainstage canopy he couldn’t resist a gag about the “blessing of rain.” Ha, ha, ha! How we laughed, soaked as we were to the skin! What a blessing!

Getting it together Lots of Greenbelters sent us stories about finding their partners at the festival. Here’s one from 1997. Jon Trip knew that if his girlfriend Helen couldn’t get into what Greenbelt is about then she’d never be his wife. It would be like the manager of an abattoir marrying a vegetarian. He’d been going every year since the early 80s and Helen had, in all fairness, been showing willing in recent years – even camping in ’96! And so Jon decided that this would be the year. After Martyn Joseph’s gig (Dolphins always made her cry), Jon led her down to the lake at Deene, sank down on one knee and continued sinking – down and down into the mud – as he proposed. Helen accepted. It rained solidly for the next 24 hours, but our young lovers didn’t even notice. Aaaaah. The blessing of rain again.

01 Main photo: ‘Overground’ – the day rain almost drove Greenbelt underground 01: The Labyrinth arrives in the centre of the tented village 02: Greenbelters wallow in mud glorious mud 03: At least it was dry in the Dance Tent

Thirty Twenty Four

GB24 Deene Park Divine Comedy

1997

Thirty Twenty Four

GB25 Deene Park

1998

In the ’98 festival programme festival chair Dot spoke candidly about the near-death of Greenbelt during the preceding year. After last year’s mudsoaked fields, the Board had been forced to make an open appeal to safeguard the future of the festival, and the response had been “overwhelming”. But still there was a sense of fragility, of not quite being sure.

In fact, the situation was so critical that Greenbelters learnt that this festival would be the “last of its kind.” The festival guide advertised two new events for the following year: an earlier, familyoriented Greenbelt – at Cheltenham Racecourse; and a youth music festival called Freestate, in partnership with Spring Harvest – on the traditional August bank holiday weekend. But the 1998 festival, as it turned out the last built from scratch in the middle of nowhere, was pretty good anyway. Saturday saw a festival-wide focus on the Jubilee 2000 campaign ‘Breaking the Chains of Debt’ to cancel the debts of the worlds poorest countries, a new partnership with the ‘Open Book’ project was launched, and the story-telling tent promised they were: “changing the way we tell it”. There was a scratch Messiah, a daily Passion Play, and even a Greenbelt fun run.

For the first year there was an opening ceremony, and opening worship kickstarted mainstage each day. The fine arts moved out of the gallery and into the rest of the festival, bringing Signs and Wonders into the village. Simon Mayo hosted a ‘That was the festival that was’-type quiz show of first 25 years of Greenbelt. (Yes, the festival was a quarter of a century old!) There was a Swedish Play Tent (you had to be there) and worship with the Soul Survivor band, Psalm Drummers, Maggi Dawn and Andy Cross, London’s Grace and Epicentre, and the Iona and Northumbria communities. Fat ‘n’ Frantic reformed for a one-off 25-year anniversary gig, Jessy Dixon returned and Mike Scott played a magical outdoor gig on Stage Two after Iain Archer under a starry night sky. In the Amos Dance tent you could get down to Jason Barnett, DJ Vadim, Overjoy’d and Cameron Dante. Speakers included Luke Bretherton, Brother Bernard and Robert Beckford. And, to prove your surname didn’t have to begin with ‘b’, Tom Sine was back. But the future that Greenbelters wished the futurologist could speak about most was, of course, their own. All we could do, however, was to trust that the One who had led us this far would lead us on. Frankly, some days it looked unlikely! But hey, that’s Greenbelt. That’s life.

Crisis management 1998 was a weird year. No one really seemed to know quite what was happening – neither festival-goers nor management. True, Greenbelt had moved locations before. It has an essentially nomadic spirit. But it had never moved in such anxious circumstances before – desperately trying to safeguard its future. The 1990s had proved a difficult decade and the romance of a green-field site had to be weighed against the festival’s mounting debts and the enormous costs of putting in the necessary infrastructure each year. The only thing certain was the need for some lateral thinking. Quite quickly. Head over heals OK, so here’s another toilet story: this one involves a portaloo being overturned on the last day. Not a big deal, you might say. It would have been a disaster had there had been someone in it, you might be thinking. Well, there was. The less said the better. Another supporter of a new kind of location, then?

Main photo: Mainstage crowds anticipating The Rapture 01: Christian Aid urge Greenbelters to break the chains of debt 02: That all-important first cup of coffee in the morning 03: A Greenbelt Goth at worship

Thirty Twenty Five

GB25 Deene Park

1998

Thirty Twenty Five

GB26 Cheltenham Racecourse

1999

Just 11 months after the 25th Greenbelt, a small but select group of die-hard Greenbelters journeyed to Cheltenham Racecourse at the end of July 1999. It felt odd. Premature. If Greenbelt didn’t suffer much with premillennial neurosis in the 90s, this year plenty of angst came flooding in.

The programme thanked Christian Aid and the Open Book, the festival’s two main partners and announced that there were now more than 800 Greenbelt Angels. Thank God! Without their wings, and the dogged persistence of the Festival Board and staff it really would have been curtains. But here Greenbelt was again – getting used to its sixth location and venue names like Gold Cup and Foxhunter – with a festival programme that offered a wider range of family activities and facilities than ever. Teenagers there were not. Well, not many. They had been holding out for Freestate instead, which didn’t happen at all when the partners pulled out. A last-minute programme for teenagers called Hu:manic was cobbled together for GB ’99. But, if these were the ‘last days’, the line-up wasn’t suffering. Boo Hewerdine, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Jah Wobble’s Deep Space, Asian Dub

Foundation, and Bruce Cockburn all played. And the Polish Teatr Biuro Podrozy brought their breathtaking anti-war street theatre piece Carmen Funebre – the highlight of the festival. Stephen Timms MP asked ‘Has Labour betrayed its Christian roots?’, Baroness Amos spoke about ‘A global vision for poverty elimination’, and Bishop Leo Frade from Honduras described Hurricane Mitch as a “test of faith.” Paul Cookson brought us his inimitable Late Night Twist and The Flying Chestycoughs attempted a rendition of Swan Lake (for all the family!). The Visual Arts featured an exhibition called Icons of our Age and daily symposia promised to take us “deeper and wider and longer” (what about higher?). Friday focussed on the arms trade, Saturday on Britain after Stephen Lawrence – a fiery discussion including Robert Beckford, John Pandit from ADF, the Bishop of Southwark Tom Butler, and Bev Thomas. Sunday looked at children and education.

End times? Christian Aid launched their ‘It’s about time’ campaign at GB ’99, and the late night comedy revue show was re-named ‘Last Orders’. Unwittingly – or not? – everything was being given an eerily apocalyptic feel! Were these really to be Greenbelt’s ‘last days’? Reasons to be cheerful In hindsight, the fact that Greenbelt didn’t split into two events – Greenbelt and Freestate – was, no matter how awkward at the time, a good thing. And despite people’s reservations about the Cheltenham site, those that came were surprised by how good the Racecourse felt as a festival location. It wasn’t all buildings, there was plenty of green, a lovely view. And even loos you couldn’t fall into. Now all people had to do was to go back to their constituencies and prepare for power. Or at least convince those who’d chosen to stay away to return next year.

Greenbelt ’99 was not that much bigger than Greenbelt ’74. But the fact it happened at all was the most significant thing about it. Despite all manner of circumstances the vision refused to dim.

Main photo: Greenbelt still broke the bread and drank the wine 01: Incredible street theatre from Teatr Biuro Podrozy 02: Primitive personal stereo made from cans and sticky-back plastic 03: Fairground attraction

Thirty Twenty Six

GB26 Cheltenham Racecourse

1999

Greenbelt ’99 was not that much bigger than Greenbelt ’74. But the fact it happened at all was the most significant thing about it. Despite all manner of circumstances the vision refused to dim.

Thirty Twenty Six

GB27 Cheltenham Racecourse

With Jude Levermore as the new chair and venue names like ‘Alta Vista’, ‘Google’ and ‘Yahoo’, Greenbelt embraced a new century and a new hi-tech feel back at Cheltenham Racecourse.

heaven@earth.com

2000

Belle and Sebastian and DJ Spoony of Radio One’s Dream Team played the club. Other music came from Ireland’s Juliet Turner, Lies Damned Lies’ Steve Butler, Fono, Swedish white metal band Narnia (never out of fashion, white metal), the power pop Dum Dums, the acapella and dance of South Africans Black Umfelosi, jazz-tastic Ben Castle, operatic Willard White, and veterans Joan Armatrading and Rick Wakeman. Amos ‘New Forms’ was a dedicated alternative worship venue hosting ‘alternative worship services’ with London’s Vaux, local group Fuzzy, Pete Ward and Oxford-based Joy, York’s Visions and, from Birmingham, Mowglee with their mix of bangra and brit-pop worship music. Nothing to tickle your bits? There were also the Quakers and the Labyrinth. Bach’s Magnificat was performed from scratch with the help of the MAYC youth orchestra, and worldrenowned contemporary composer James MacMillan spoke before a performance of his Tuireadh. Films screened included The Matrix, Dogma and American Beauty. Guest speakers included the Booker Prize-winning

novelist Ben Okri. And Margaret Ellis and Elaine Storkey spoke on ‘Breaking the silence of rape and sexual abuse’ and reminded festival-goers that letters to the Greenbelt office showed that many lives had been transformed by the festival’s willingness to tackle the difficult stuff. Symposia included ‘Destination Anywhere’, a look at the 21st century church, ‘advertising and mass media’ and ‘being a woman’. Late night ‘Last Orders’ featured a guest appearance from Milton Jones. Doreen Lawrence, mother of murdered Stephen, spoke movingly in ‘Sisters of Struggle’, while Saturday’s ‘Dance on Debt’ closed with a vigil in the main arena. Archbishop Rowan Williams made a debut visit and had to compete with the ‘gliding Bishop’, hovering uncannily through the masses, dispensing blessings in his wake. The teenage programme Humanic included inflatables, 5-aside, a rolling mag, worship, and karaoke. Attendance was up and, with hundreds more teenagers on site, the whole festival seemed to have regained its identity as a uniquely all-age and family gathering. Somehow things felt as if they were on the way to being ‘right’ again. Greenbelt had made it into the 21st century and, at its new racecourse location, all bets on its premature demise were now off.

Hi-tech Despite nodding toward a new technological horizon in its venue titles, not all were entirely ‘up to speed’ at Greenbelt 2K. While leading the prayers at the opening ceremony Martin Wroe’s mobile phone went off and, not knowing how to switch it off, he retreated off-mike, continuing the prayers when the ringing had stopped. Only for it to start again as soon as he began to pray. Doh! Weather girl 2000 saw the Greenbelt mainstage blow away – quite literally – in a sudden, early evening thunderstorm. The weather had been unbelievably hot and dry and chair Jude Levermore – in a little red summer dress – had to dash onto the canopy-less mainstage to ask people to “evacuate the area.” Since moving to a site not so dependent on the vagaries of the British summer, the four festivals at Cheltenham have been pretty hot and almost completely dry. Can’t be long though… Eat your words Interviewed during his first visit to Greenbelt, Rowan Williams insisted (more or less) that he didn’t want to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury and that he was in favour of disestablishing the church. His words made the national press then and they were dragged out again when he finally got the job!

Main photo: Sunday morning communion in the ‘Parade Ring’ 01: Ben Okri reads his poetry in his high summer scarf 02: The classical programme casts its shadow over the festival 03: An all-age drumming workshop

Thirty Twenty Seven

GB27 Cheltenham Racecourse

With Jude Levermore as the new chair and venue names like ‘Alta Vista’, ‘Google’ and ‘Yahoo’, Greenbelt embraced a new century and a new hi-tech feel back at Cheltenham Racecourse.

heaven@earth.com

2000

Thirty Twenty Seven

GB28 Cheltenham Racecourse Eternal echoes

2001

2001 saw the popular Dum Dums play their last ever gig. Greenbelt’s official festival partner Christian Aid was joined and six other associate partners: ICC, YMCA, USPG, fish.co.uk, SPCK, and CMS – organisations convinced that Greenbelters are an influential audience. And there were now 1,000 festival Angels. ‘Alternative’ worship divided into ‘New Forms 1’ and ‘New Forms 2’ for GB ’01 – one for services and the other to house installations and interactive worship stations. The usual suspects were joined by Bath’s Sanctuary, Bristol’s Resonance, Leeds’ Revive and the communities of St Eggido and L’Arche. The late night ‘Last Orders’ show became ‘So Graham Kendrick’ and featured an appearance by comedian John Archer. ‘Let the Truth Sting’ was a new late night show with Steve Stockman, described as “Newsnight meets Later with Jools.” Meanwhile, The Mix, Humanic and the kids area all enjoyed appearances from Blue Peter’s Simon Thomas, while the festival also hosted the first outing for the soon-tobe-cult show The Ned Flanders Tribute, thanks to Ship of Fools. The film programme included an afternoon with animator Nick Park and a screening of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Performing Arts featured a dramatisation of the life

of St Paul called Strange Kind of Hero. And the Visual Arts included a Christian Aid exhibition called Positive Negatives by women living with HIV in the Congo, After the Hurricane, with images from Nicaragua and Honduras after Hurricane Mitch, and three Doppleganger paintings from Rupert Loydell. The classical programme featured a composer’s forum, a Greenbelt festival orchestra and a children’s musical, The Painters by James Manson. Martyn Joseph hosted a daily songwriter’s circle and other music came from Norway’s Salvation Street, Bebo Norman, Peter Wilson, Susan Enan, Andy Thornton, Earthsuit, Baka Beyond and Eddi Reader. Speakers included Nicaraguan Gilberto Aguirre, author Cole Moreton, and three Bishops – James Jones of Liverpool, Peter Selby of Worcester and Riah Abu el-Assal of Jerusalem. The bearded and/or bald American count was maintained with Philip Yancey, Mike Yaconelli and Tony Campolo all on fine form. And one of Greenbelt’s founding fathers, John Peck, now in his seventies and looking ever more like a biblical prophet, returned to share his ample wisdom.

Rumours of glory Cheltenham was starting to feel like home and new audiences, many not born when the festival was founded, were wondering at the distant sound of those ‘rumours of glory’. Something about lazing in your tent and putting the world to rights. Something about “distinctively Christian ways of living one’s ‘secular life,” as the sage John Peck put it. And lying in the sun listening to great music. And catching up with long lost friends. And wondering whether we couldn’t’ try this back home… Love is in the air In 2001 one Greenbelt-mad couple, Pete and Debbie Brazier, had their marriage blessed on the arena stage. Amy Lambert remembers the short service, the bubbles and Martyn Joseph singing for them, as one of her most beautiful Greenbelt moments. Aaah, bless. We received countless stories of festival romances, proposals and even honeymoons – all proving that love is definitely is in the air at Greenbelt. One couple met at Greenbelt in 2001, got married soon after, and then celebrated the birth of their first child on the first day of next year’s festival! Way to go.

Numbers were up. Again. The sun shone. Again. And Greenbelt was looking like the comeback kid.

01 Main photo: The Greenbelt offering – thousands of pounds of it 01: Eddi Reader delights mainstage 02: Nick Park, with models from Chicken Run and A Close Shave 03: ‘Thank you and goodnight – forever’ from the Dum Dums

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GB28 Cheltenham Racecourse Eternal echoes

2001

Numbers were up. Again. The sun shone. Again. And Greenbelt was looking like the comeback kid.

Thirty Twenty Eight

GB29 Cheltenham Racecourse

Spawning venue names like ‘Snog’, ‘Smacker’, and ‘Peck’, Greenbelt’s theme in 2002 was one of its best, breathing life into every corner of the programme. BBC’s Songs of Praise broadcast from the festival with Aled ‘Walking in the Air’ Jones. Shrines around the site helped people to pause and reflect on the global HIV/AIDS crisis, while Christian Aid led a late night vigil focusing on the pandemic.

Kiss of life

2002

Paul Powell hosted a new lunchtime current affairs show ‘The Paper Round’, while, in the ‘Steam Room’, Greenbelters debated ‘Islam – phobia or justified fear?’ There was a new open-air grandstanding seminar venue introduced to accommodate the bigger names like Rowan Williams, now Archbishop of Canterbury elect. The kids groups Juice and Little Beakers were ‘mucking about’ in the stables, there was a children’s art prize (judged by Nick Park), and more all-age family events than ever, including: Ed’s Fun Factory, the Hallanshankers ceilidh, showings of Shrek and Harry Potter, and a Family Twist at 5pm. The Visual Arts programme featured a Steve Fairnie retrospective, an exhibition by his daughter Famie, and stuff from the Greenbelt Arts Prize show Made Flesh by students at the local Uni. There was also the Water Tower installation, a screening of Mark Wallinger’s Angel and Don McCullin’s

Cold Heaven photography exhibition. And Greenbelters made The Multitude out of thousands of clay figures. Martyn Joseph convened ‘The Rising’, sharing songwriting tips and banter with the likes of Julie Lee, Ricky Ross and Martin Smith of Delirious?. Polly Gibbons, a festival babe as daughter of Fat Band bass man and pig farmer Richard and Pru of Pru’s Café, performed with her jazz band. Simon Mayo chose his favourite tunes for Greenbelt’s own Desert Island Discs. And, back by popular demand, Ned Flanders played two sell-out shows. Other festival faces included TV presenter Eils Hewitt, South African activist Eddie Daniels, and Kevin Max of DC Talk. And Teatre Biuro Podrozy returned with Manuscript, a weird and wonderful fable involving a bizarre twoheaded horse. The ‘Reel Truths’ film programme screened Natural Born Killers and One Day in September, the legendary storyteller David Kosoff spellbound hundreds, while Nick Thorpe recounted tales from his bestselling Eight Men and a Duck. Musical highlights came from Delirious?, folk duo Show of Hands, Cathy Burton and the Jazz Jamaica All Stars. A vast range of Christian spirituality perforated the worship programme, and the Performance Café was resurrected in one of Greenbelt’s favourite haunts, Nuts Café.

Kissed back to life With numbers back up to 12,000, Greenbelt in 2002 was buzzing again. But it’s the artistic and spiritual adventure that draws people into its orbit. Look at the bill and ask at what other event, Christian or not, would Tom Robinson – composer of the gay anthem Glad To Be Gay – find himself on the bill with the next Archbishop of Canterbury, alongside the Jazz Jamaica All Stars and South African street kids’ activist Mandi Ngantweni. The still, small voice To those tempted to regret the changes Greenbelt has made in order to survive (thinking they have compromised the festival’s vision and nature), this from one of its longest serving managers, Martin Evans: “I remember listening to John Bell in 2002, long before the wretched war with Iraq this year (2003), as he berated the USA for its greed and its in imperialism. No loss of courage or edge here, then.”

Main photo: Martin Smith of Delirious? comes over all Live Aid 01: The Water Tower installation 02: Hands up for the growing Children’s Festival 03: Rowan Williams – Archbishop of Canterbury elect – presses the flesh

Thirty Twenty Nine

GB29 Cheltenham Racecourse

Kiss of life

2002

Thirty Twenty Nine

GB30

30+

Festival: anniversary, carnival, commemoration, entertainment, feast, festivities, fete, field day, fiesta, gala, holiday, jubilee, merrymaking, treat, celebration / party, feasting, celebration, time of religious significance recurring at regular intervals, revelry; conviviality, programme of cultural performances, exhibitions, festive jollity, gay, joyous, mirthful.

Youth festival, music festival, political festival, evangelical festival, development festival, broke festival, harvest festival… there’s something in all these myths about Greenbelt that is accurate, but nothing entirely true. But perhaps you are a convert, born again to order every August Bank Holiday Weekend as we, together with five, 10, 15 or 20 thousand people descend with open tents and hearts on a corner of England’s green and pleasant land. For us, however fleetingly, something like a holy city is builded here. We come from ordinary Christian communities and from none, from being joined to worshipping families where the presence of God is regularly obscured, from places where artistic appreciation is confined to hymnody and flower arranging. We have a hunch there is more to it than this, that where two or three are gathered we can become more than the sum of our parts, maybe even a sign of another kingdom. For many of us, Greenbelt has been a kind of epiphany – an earthy sacrament, a

Main photo: But where do we want to go? 01: Communion preparation – for 20,000 people 02: Nun of the above applauds the festival Thirty Something

rocking religion, an unruly faith in an untamed God, Spirit of wonder and compassion, celebrated with noise and passion, argument and laughter. In a materialistic, anti-institutional era, where the church is marginalised and mocked, and religious icons of substance and charisma are hard to find, at its best Greenbelt remains singular in its faith-affirming, politically engaged, life-transforming experience. With many understandings of Christian community dying, one way people anticipate a new way of being church is through alternative meeting places and movements like Greenbelt. As the Canadian singer Bruce Cockburn put it, “The festival and the people involved in it are the closest thing I’ve got to a church. There is a sense of community built around a worshipful intent and a shared understanding of the need to question in the context of faith.” There might seem to be a huge gulf between a Suffolk farm and a racecourse in Cheltenham, between the Jesus People’s Lonesome Stone and a dancing Archbishop celebrating communion, between 1974 and 2003. But the Greenbelt story collapses such differences. ‘We’re all one’, as we used to sing. ‘It’s a long way off,’ writes RS Thomas in his poem The Kingdom. ‘But inside it / There are quite different things going on.’ Greenbelt helps us glimpse some of those different things. Long may it stumble on….

Natalie first came to Greenbelt when she was barely a teenager. Although she had decided to follow Jesus Christ and been baptised in her local Baptist Church, from the age of 14 she felt she didn’t fit in there any more. She grew frustrated with the church establishment. At the same time she was drawn to people who were hurting and was often angry at the way society treated them. During the early 90s Natalie became a Nirvana fan and was deeply upset by Kurt Cobain’s suicide in 1994. That year, at Greenbelt, she listened to Graham Cray speak about it. She was angry, the tears were streaming. Graham took some time with her after his talk, and said it seemed to help her a great deal. Natalie kept coming to Greenbelt. She said the people there were “OK, a little strange sometimes, but OK.” She continued to feel angry at the established church, but, by 2000, she was working backstage at Greenbelt, looking after the artists. She felt safe and comfortable at the festival. Natalie died suddenly in June 2001. But her mum Gaynor is sure that Natalie treasured Greenbelt because she was accepted, cared for and wanted there. At Greenbelt she felt her contribution mattered.

GB30

30+

Main photo: But where do we want to go? 01: Communion preparation – for 20,000 people 02: Nun of the above applauds the festival Thirty Something

Thirty Written by Paul Northup Designed by Wilf Whitty at Ratio Editors Martin Wroe, Beki Bateson Additional research Gill Hewitt, Oliver Carruthers Photography Ian Ambrose Howard Barlow Beki Bateson Chris Childs Geoff Crawford Elaine Duigenan Lizzie Everard Steve Gillett Pip Herbert Graeme Horner J. David Jones Legend Sue Loydell Clive Manning Stefan Metzler Colin E. Mill Howard Morland Tony Neeves Newspix International Denise Obernick Marcus Perkins Daniel Pirani Snowy David Sykes Gary Trotter

Thirty Thank You

Thanks also to AH, RH, MI and LP. You may be reading this and realise who you are. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we don’t know who you are. And there are more of you who took photos and who we haven’t been able to credit – we could only track down so many. If you think a shot is yours let us know and we will credit you in future editions. Anecdotes, gossip, tittle-tattle, fading memories and other memorabilia Jenny Baker, Paul Bennett, Gaynor Bradshaw, Geoff Boswell, Oliver Carruthers John Cheek, Paul Cookson, Malcolm Doney, David Elsey, Martin Evans, Simon Hall, Roger Hanson, Stewart Henderson, Gill Hewitt, Martyn Joseph, Andy Labrow, Amy Lambert, Simon Law, Jude Levermore, Rupert Loydell, Rob Quinn, Steve Spicer, Chris Tozer, Andy Turner, Helen Walters, Willie Williams and Pip Wilson Thanks also to The Church Times, which originally published Martin Wroe’s article on which pages 3 and 63 are based. We know we have missed out some seminal moments, overlooked significant people, failed to recognise the vital role of others and generally not credited particular movers and shakers within the Greenbelt story – without whom the festival would not have developed in the way it has. Our apologies to them. To you. And also our thanks. You know who you are. Without you…

Typography Text set in Linotype Neue Helvetica Thirty logotype is set in a recreation of Letraset Joc Line from the 1974 Letragraphica catalogue Greenbelt, the next thirty Buy tickets Become an angel Donate a one-off gift Get more information At www.greenbelt.org.uk Email info@greenbelt.org.uk Phone 020 7374 2760 Published by Greenbelt Festivals All Hallows on the Wall 83 London Wall London EC2M 5ND A company incorporated in England Limited by guarantee no.1812893 Registered office: The Greenhouse, Hillmarton Road, London N7 9JE Registered charity number: 289372