| IT WAS DRY. It was warm. It was sunny. The national astonishment and relief at a pleasant Bank-Holiday weekend is doubled when you have committed yourself to spending four days in the open air.
The 34th Greenbelt festival, once again at the Cheltenham racecourse site, attracted about 18,000 people who basked or baked their way through a packed programme. Spared worries about the weather, the visitors found that their worst task was making choices about what to do. At times, there were more than 20 talks, concerts, workshops, or seminars to choose from, not to mention the plethora of exhibitions.
The theme was Heaven in Ordinary, and this was interpreted in various ways over the weekend. The best image I caught was from John O’Donohue, a former RC priest from Connemara, now a dishevelled poet-philosopher, who enthused about Meister Eckhart. He dismissed the idea of a spiritual journey. Since there was nowhere outside God, one couldn’t journey towards him. “We’re already up to our necks in God.”
When you’re away from home and living off the land (i.e. organic catering stalls), ordinary things can be heavenly. Festival-goers were asked to contribute images or symbols of heaven for an exhibition of four-inch white cardboard boxes. Tea bags and chocolate predominated. The greatest concentration of chocolate, though, was at the launch of Caris magazine (News).
The Sunday-morning eucharist ran to time for once, and was inspiring for those who could hear. The collection for Trust Greenbelt was modest, £46,800, but this will increase through Gift Aid to nearly £60,000.
There were the ordinary gripes, particularly this year about the queues to get on to the campsite, and for some of the most popular speakers and events. The racecourse site, a combination of marquees and executive bars in the grandstand, has plenty of small and large venues, but few medium ones.
But the weekend was characterised by extraordinary performances. A list of these would include John Tavener, Soweto Kinch, John O’Donohue, Mark Yaconelli, Bassline Circus, Delirious?, and Peterson Toscano.
A longer, and fairer, list can be found here. |
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