Greenbelt confident despite forecast
THOUSANDS will descend on Cheltenham Racecourse today for the
39th annual Greenbelt Festival, which takes place over the
Bank Holiday weekend.
The theme of this year's festival is "Saving Paradise". It
offers a mix of music, talks, comedy, theatre, and multiple forms
of worship.
The line-up includes the Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce
Cockburn (Features), the British
Indian musician Nitin Sawhney, and the comedian Frank Skinner (
Features, 19 August 2011), who will be appearing in
conversation in the Greenbelt Big Top.
The speakers include high-profile Anglican clerics such as the
former Bishop of Durham,Dr Tom Wright; the Church Times
and Guardian columnist Canon Giles Fraser; and the Vicar
of St Luke's, Holloway, the Revd Dave Tomlinson (pictured)
(Features). Other
speakers include the Revd Tony Campolo, a US Evangelical preacher
and author; Shane Claiborne, an activist and writer; and the poet
Thomas Lynch (
Features, 10 August).
The head of festival, Karen Stafford, said last month that the
festival was less vulnerable to bad weather than other festivals
because the Cheltenham site combines buildings with green fields
and several roadways (
News, 13 July). Furthermore, "great steps" have been taken in
the past two years to improve infrastructure.
The festival programme is available to download as an app from
the Apple App Store. An app for Android phones
is available to download from the Google Play Store.
The Church Times is Greenbelt's official media partner.
See next week's Church Times for comprehensive Greenbelt
coverage.
Soul Survivor. The organisers of Soul
Survivor said this week that more than 25,000 young people had
attended its three events in Stafford and Somerset over the summer.
A statement said that "in the main meetings alone, 1801 gave their
lives to Jesus".
www.greenbelt.org.uk