2001
2001 saw the popular Dum Dums play their last ever gig. Greenbelt’s official festival partner Christian Aid was joined and six other associate partners: ICC, YMCA, USPG, fish.co.uk, SPCK, and CMS – organisations convinced that Greenbelters are an influential audience. And there were now 1,000 festival Angels.
‘Alternative’ worship divided into ‘New Forms 1’ and ‘New Forms 2’ for GB ’01 – one for services and the other to house installations and interactive worship stations. The usual suspects were joined by Bath’s Sanctuary, Bristol’s Resonance, Leeds’ Revive and the communities of St Eggido and L’Arche.
The late night ‘Last Orders’ show became ‘So Graham Kendrick’ and featured an appearance by comedian John Archer. ‘Let the Truth Sting’ was a new late night show with Steve Stockman, described as “Newsnight meets Later with Jools.” Meanwhile, The Mix, Humanic and the kids area all enjoyed appearances from Blue Peter’s Simon Thomas, while the festival also hosted the first outing for the soon-to-be-cult show The Ned Flanders Tribute, thanks to Ship of Fools.
The film programme included an afternoon with animator Nick Park and a screening of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Performing Arts featured a dramatisation of the life of St Paul called Strange Kind of Hero. And the Visual Arts included a Christian Aid exhibition called Positive Negatives by women living with HIV in the Congo, After the Hurricane, with images from Nicaragua and Honduras after Hurricane Mitch, and three Doppleganger paintings from Rupert Loydell. The classical programme featured a composer’s forum, a Greenbelt festival orchestra and a children’s musical, The Painters by James Manson.
Martyn Joseph hosted a daily songwriter’s circle and other music came from Norway’s Salvation Street, Bebo Norman, Peter Wilson, Susan Enan, Andy Thornton, Earthsuit, Baka Beyond and Eddi Reader. Speakers included Nicaraguan Gilberto Aguirre, author Cole Moreton, and three Bishops – James Jones of Liverpool, Peter Selby of Worcester and Riah Abu el-Assal of Jerusalem. The bearded and/or bald American count was maintained with Philip Yancey, Mike Yaconelli and Tony Campolo all on fine form. And one of Greenbelt’s founding fathers, John Peck, now in his seventies and looking ever more like a biblical prophet, returned to share his ample wisdom.
Numbers were up. Again. The sun shone. Again. And Greenbelt was looking like the comeback kid.
Rumours of glory
Cheltenham was starting to feel like home and new audiences, many not born when the festival was founded, were wondering at the distant sound of those ‘rumours of glory’. Something about lazing in your tent and putting the world to rights. Something about “distinctively Christian ways of living one’s ‘secular life,” as the sage John Peck put it. And lying in the sun listening to great music. And catching up with long lost friends. And wondering whether we couldn’t’ try this back home…
Love is in the air
In 2001 one Greenbelt-mad couple, Pete and Debbie Brazier, had their marriage blessed on the arena stage. Amy Lambert remembers the short service, the bubbles and Martyn Joseph singing for them, as one of her most beautiful Greenbelt moments. Aaah, bless.
We received countless stories of festival romances, proposals and even honeymoons – all proving that love is definitely is in the air at Greenbelt. One couple met at Greenbelt in 2001, got married soon after, and then celebrated the birth of their first child on the first day of next year’s festival! Way to go.
Page last updated 18 Apr 2012
