We've reported previously on Site Vibing Making Days in Leeds and London. Now we're getting down to to the business end of the summer, and a crack team of Site Vibers are currently in the process of making some very beautiful and exciting things in a garden in New Malden, Surrey.

Eight volunteers have travelled from around the country to make things to make the site look pretty. Some of them are staying nearby, and many thanks to YMCA Surbiton for their kind hospitality.

The volunteers include art and theatre design students, given a chance to share their skills with the whole festival community, and the team is masterminded by Saga Arpino. They're using her studio and garden space (and a shipping container of raw materials!) to make large installations for use on stage in the talks venues – decorative hexagons, "Tree of Life" logos, and – of course – our Sideways-Looking bird.

As well as the installations, some new venue signs for Underground, Messy Space, and a new venue – Abide. These will be cut out of huge pieces of plywood and covered in various appropriate materials… just you wait! They're going to look amazing. And if all that wasn't enough, they're making some more ornamental birds to hang in the trees at the Racecourse.

See below for some pictures of the activity, and we're hoping to check back in with them later in the week to see how they're getting along.

If you're interested in finding out more about the Site Vibing team, and their activities throughout the year, check the Volunteer Team List… and don't forget that wherever you are in the country, you can take part in making bunting for the festival!

The Site Vibing Making Days are your chance to get involved in making things for Greenbelt's site – to transform it from a racecourse to a glorious Festival!

As previously advertised on this blog, the first one took place in Leeds at the end of March, and there are some beautiful photos by Flickr user Ollievision (whose real name is, I think, Paula) of the hard work and exciting creativity that happened…

As you can see, a range of skills are required – not a degree in fine art, but the ability to make papier mache balloons! And with the London Making Day approaching in May, there's still time to get involved.

A hardy few popped in over the two days in Leeds, but we want lots more people for the days in London, which are happening on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd May. You don't have to come to both days – just pop in and get involved as and when you can. It's an easy way to give something back to your Festival, spending some time on one or other of the days meeting new people and doing some craft for the good of everyone on the Greenbelt site.

For more information, check out the Site Vibing Throughout The Year page. If you're interested in Site Vibing at the Festival, then click here for the Vibing team page.

In the hub at the festival this year over 400 people came & did a self portrait, and we were busy all weekend scanning each one.

We have created some screensavers you can view & download here

All the drawings appear somewhere in each of these three sizes – 1680 x 1050, 1600 x 1200 and 1024 x 768 – just choose the dimensions that best suit your screen size. Layouts differ across the three sizes [ie a set that you can find in 1680x1050 probably won't also appear in 1600x1200 format] although not always……. so take a look & see if you can find yourself !

One of Greenbelt's photographers, Jonathon Watkins, walked around site yesterday, took some pictures of the set-up and has posted them all on Greenbelt's Flickr photostream. And don't forget, if you're taking your camera this weekend and will be uploading the results to Flickr, tag your photos 'greenbelt09'.

I came across this image on Twitter, uploaded by one of our designers, Chantal Freeman. It's a photo of all the signs that have been handmade by our team, and they look fantastic. Maybe next year I'll ask Chantal to make one that says 'My Tent: this way'…

The big top is up, as is g-store, g-music and the first of many tents in the children's area. 10 days to go…