THIS year’s Greenbelt Festival will include a “No Fly Zone”: an area that both speakers can join by online video call, and anyone unable to attend in person can log in to, to get “the Greenbelt experience”.
Greenbelt’s Creative Director, Paul Northup, said: “We’re thrilled to be able to platform writers and speakers from around the world at Greenbelt this year without needing to fly them all to the fields — helping our perspective to remain global, at the same time as not costing the earth.
“We’re also proud to be able to offer a taste of the festival online to all those unable to be with us in person. We hope that the programme we’ve put together enables those online to feel genuinely part of the community and its concerns over the weekend.”
Each day, the poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama will host a live show from the No Fly Zone in the style of his podcast Poetry Unbound (Features, 28 March). Martyn Joseph will have a songwriter circle show with international guests and live performers.
The slam-poetry champion Harry Baker will have a daily slot, and the novelists Marilynne Robinson and Tim Winton, and the philosopher and environmental activist Dougald Hine, from Sweden, will also be appearing.
Another speaker will be Daoud Nassar, the director of the Tent of Nations, a Christian family farm among the Bethlehem hills in the West Bank surrounded by five Israeli settlements. In spite of the hostility that they experience, Mr Nassar said that he wanted to impart a message of hope and that he was looking forward to making the most of the No Fly Zone.
“This technology is a blessing,” he said. “It’s making it easier, saving resources, and gives us the opportunity to reach out to people and ask them to pray for us.”
Mr Nassar continued: “Our situation has been getting much worse in the last 15 months. A new wall Israel is building will cut us off from our community in Bethlehem. Due to restrictions from the Israeli authorities we don’t have access to running water or electricity on the farm.”
Visitors from around the world volunteer on the farm, and learn about the region. Despite the hostile environment, Mr Nassar said: “We refuse to hate, we act based on our Christian faith. We refuse to be enemies, no one can force us to take that path. But we also will not be passive or run away. We choose a different approach to resistance, one that turns out negatives into positives.
“We want to empower people with our story of hope. Like Paul, writing his letters from prison. Sometimes it is in the suffering and uncertain situation that we are able to empower people.”
Greenbelt takes place at Boughton House, in Northamptonshire, 21-24 August. Online access to the No Fly Zone venue costs £35 for the duration of the festival. greenbelt.org.uk