2002
Spawning venue names like ‘Snog’, ‘Smacker’, and ‘Peck’, Greenbelt’s theme in 2002 was one of its best, breathing life into every corner of the programme. BBC’s Songs of Praise broadcast from the festival with Aled ‘Walking in the Air’ Jones. Shrines around the site helped people to pause and reflect on the global HIV/AIDS crisis, while Christian Aid led a late night vigil focusing on the pandemic.
Paul Powell hosted a new lunchtime current affairs show ‘The Paper Round’, while, in the ‘Steam Room’, Greenbelters debated ‘Islam – phobia or justified fear?’ There was a new open-air grandstanding seminar venue introduced to accommodate the bigger names like Rowan Williams, now Archbishop of Canterbury elect.
The kids groups Juice and Little Beakers were ‘mucking about’ in the stables, there was a children’s art prize (judged by Nick Park), and more all-age family events than ever, including: Ed’s Fun Factory, the Hallanshankers ceilidh, showings of Shrek and Harry Potter, and a Family Twist at 5pm.
The Visual Arts programme featured a Steve Fairnie retrospective, an exhibition by his daughter Famie, and stuff from the Greenbelt Arts Prize show Made Flesh by students at the local Uni. There was also the Water Tower installation, a screening of Mark Wallinger’s Angel and Don McCullin’s Cold Heaven photography exhibition. And Greenbelters made The Multitude out of thousands of clay figures.
Martyn Joseph convened ‘The Rising’, sharing songwriting tips and banter with the likes of Julie Lee, Ricky Ross and Martin Smith of Delirious?. Polly Gibbons, a festival babe as daughter of Fat Band bass man and pig farmer Richard and Pru of Pru’s Café, performed with her jazz band. Simon Mayo chose his favourite tunes for Greenbelt’s own Desert Island Discs. And, back by popular demand, Ned Flanders played two sell-out shows. Other festival faces included TV presenter Eils Hewitt, South African activist Eddie Daniels, and Kevin Max of DC Talk. And Teatre Biuro Podrozy returned with Manuscript, a weird and wonderful fable involving a bizarre two-headed horse.
The ‘Reel Truths’ film programme screened Natural Born Killers and One Day in September, the legendary storyteller David Kosoff spellbound hundreds, while Nick Thorpe recounted tales from his bestselling Eight Men and a Duck. Musical highlights came from Delirious?, folk duo Show of Hands, Cathy Burton and the Jazz Jamaica All Stars. A vast range of Christian spirituality perforated the worship programme, and the Performance Café was resurrected in one of Greenbelt’s favourite haunts, Nuts Café.
Kissed back to life
With numbers back up to 12,000, Greenbelt in 2002 was buzzing again. But it’s the artistic and spiritual adventure that draws people into its orbit. Look at the bill and ask at what other event, Christian or not, would Tom Robinson – composer of the gay anthem Glad To Be Gay – find himself on the bill with the next Archbishop of Canterbury, alongside the Jazz Jamaica All Stars and South African street kids’ activist Mandi Ngantweni.
The still, small voice
To those tempted to regret the changes Greenbelt has made in order to survive (thinking they have compromised the festival’s vision and nature), this from one of its longest serving managers, Martin Evans: “I remember listening to John Bell in 2002, long before the wretched war with Iraq this year (2003), as he berated the USA for its greed and its in imperialism. No loss of courage or edge here, then.”
Page last updated 18 Apr 2012
