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Bringing children to the heart of the Festival

In 2011, we're going to make our festival even better for children, families and the Greenbelt community.

Children should be at the heart of our festival, and we strive to make every aspect of the festival (except for the occasional piece of film or comedy) entertaining, special and possibly transformative for everyone, including younger members of our festival family.

We're going to be significantly increasing the amount of family-friendly programming at the 2011 event, with exciting new venues where families will be able to enjoy great music, film and performing arts together.

The fresh approach – which replaces the existing provision of three, two-and-a-half hour child-only sessions – will see a new dedicated family film venue, craft area and a child-friendly theatre venue alongside existing favourites Messy Space and the all-age Arena. We're confident the new Children's programme will provide more great content for more people...

So Greenbelt 2011 will be a little bit new, a little bit different, but still the same brilliant mix that makes the festival so special for children of all ages.

• 13 December 2010
• Categories: Festival News
• Tags: 2011, children, family, gbchildren
• 16 comments

Comments

• Anne says:

  That sounds like a fabulous idea!

  13 December 2010 12:52

• Jackie says:

  Does this mean there's no 'time off' for the adults? We really valued having a little time to go to adult talks no child would cope with last year, and time to get prayed for.

  Will we spend this year only being able to make craft things and watch kid's films?

  13 December 2010 20:09

• Julia says:

  What a huge shame. My children (2 and 7 at GB10) have loved their time doing "kiddy stuff" and it has enabled us in up to 7 1/2 fabulous hours to have a real treat, a bit of Greenbelt to ourselves where we can enjoy and revel in the talks, music, worship that our children would not comfortably sit through. As a result, the rest of Greenbelt - the greater part by far - that we have spent together has been just wonderful. I am really upset and feel almost bereaved in advance of the treat that GB has offered us for the last few years... PLEASE reconsider!

  13 December 2010 23:22

• Richard says:

  This is perhaps the worst decision that Greenbelt has made since the infamous 1999 split into two festivals that nearly finished Greenbelt off for good.

  Messy Space has been great for my children, and they love the Arena too. But there is huge value for parents in having the time where their children can spend 2 1/2 hours in their own part of the festival. The article says it will be "the same brilliant mix", but it will not for many parents, as part of the brilliant mix will be missing. And perhaps more importantly it will not be as good for children who will miss their special part of the festival very much.

  I can fully understand Julia's comment about feeling bereaved. This is a terrible decision, must be reversed, otherwise I think you will find this Angel will leave the Greenbelt host. I would like to know if any children were asked for their views before this decision was reached too.

  Any opinions from other parents, children, or even from the volunteers who have done such a brilliant job at the children's festival over the years ?

  14 December 2010 22:41

• Tom at Greenbelt says:

  Hello folks - Many thanks for your comments here. We will be releasing further details about the Children's Festival soon, which will hopefully answer your concerns about the new approach. In the meantime, if you have any specific feedback that you would like to pass on, please feel free to email it to info@greenbelt.org.uk

  14 December 2010 22:46

• Richard says:

  Thanks Tom, I see you are working late at the Greenbelt office tonight, I will be interested to see what the further details will be, but would really like to know who was consulted before this decision was made.

  I was going to post a comment on the Greenbelt Facebook page, but comments are disabled - is there any particular reason why views are only being invited by email ?

  14 December 2010 23:02

• Martin says:

  One of the great things about GB is the fact that it keeps changing and perhaps this is just one more change that we'll look back on and wonder why we ever did it the old way. We have one 11yo and one 15yo so GB10 was our first for 14 years when we didn't have to queue for the kiddie festival. Our youngest never really enjoyed it a huge amount but got enough out of it to go to a couple of sessions each year and that was enough to make it worthwhile us all going. I was talking to a family with a 3yo and a 1yo last Sunday at church, telling them how great GB is, even for the kids but I must admit that I'm nervous about trying to persuade them now!
  The point about consulting children is an interesting one, especially considering one of the workshops last year was about the UN charter for Children requiring children to be consulted about decisions that affect them.

  14 December 2010 23:56

• Richard says:

  I have now realised that comments are enabled on Facebook are enabled, after I have clicked on 'Like' Greenbelt, which I have to admit I was feeling a reluctant to do after the announcement of this decision !
  I agree with Martin that Greenbelt cannot stand still and has to keep changing and moving forward, but this is not a good change.

  15 December 2010 17:46

• Jackie says:

  Last year the childrens' own part of the festival let my husband and I steal a couple of daylight hours to be together. In daily life that never happens - it's either work or family time at the weekends. This year if either of us want to go to something, the other one will be stuck alone counting away time sat in a hall full of noisy kids watching veggietales.

  Please rethink. (And if you reinstate the kids' stuff and can come up with a method which doesn't involve huge queues for tickets then so much the better.)

  15 December 2010 19:17

• Rachel Cam says:

  I too am concerned about this decision. It may have only been 3 sessions across the weekend, and we just used 2 sessions, but it made a huge difference, and our little boy loves the children's area - always has done. Really important to us to be able to get to seminars as well and have time off from child care. Last year GB was our only holiday and could well be this year, and we need it to work for all of us! My husband doesn't do church much, so it is important for him to be able to sit through a talk without worrying about what the small person is doing.

  15 December 2010 19:53

• Tom Davies says:

  We've just put up an FAQ for the new approach, which should answer your questions. Take a look here - http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/?p=1647

  A reminder: If you have any other specific feedback, please email it to info@greenbelt.org.uk.

  17 December 2010 13:28

• Susie says:

  To me, this sounds great. Our kids (will be 6 & 8) would love this and we would really enjoy taking them. For us the most special thing about GB is being with good friends and we mostly work childcare out between us anyway to avoid the huge queues in the mornings. My only worry would be replicating the queues again but if that can be worked out by repeating performances etc then to me this is a really great innovative move.

  27 December 2010 12:11

• Emz says:

  Perhaps greenbelt in 2011 could look at the developing spirituality of Britian and away from the problems in other countries. There is now a huge, wonderful pagan community that needs respect and understanding -not derision and judgement. There is also a christian pagan crossover growing. There are some that call themsleves druidic christian or christic wiccans. Its underground as inveritably missunderstood. Lets open up communication and share in the open if we believe jesus is love.

  31 December 2010 22:04

• Jan says:

  I think this is a really positive move. None of our children (now 11, 9 and 5) have been that keen on the children's sessions, and the past couple of times we have been at Greenbelt with them, we have really enjoyed just spending time together as a family, finding plenty of things that we all enjoy. There were adult things that we wanted to go to as well, and we negotiated a balance with our children that seemed to work well. More family orientated activities is an excellent idea in a culture that increasingly devalues families.

  02 January 2011 22:37

• John says:

  Many good points made above. I suppose it will be a case of people deciding whether it is going to work for them. On that basis, we'll be back at GB20 when our youngest is old enough to be on her own. We'll miss GB - it had become a great fixture in our summer - but that was because the Children's Festival enabled us *all* to enjoy a great mix.

  10 January 2011 11:31

• Matt G says:

  Something had to be done, I have avoided the last couple of years because of being a parent I spent too much of my time trekking to the children's arena and queuing to register, queuing to get a ticket for the day's children session, queuing to drop off, rushing to a seminar to find it full because I was late, after just over an hour having attended something I didn't want to go to, I trek back to the children's area and queue again. I welcome this addition and hope it works. I just pray that the rain stops before making the journey down.

  26 August 2011 09:20

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