Yet still we go on and, for those of us with faith, still we continue to try to orient ourselves towards the God of love we trust has given us life and, as a result, to the people and planet in our care.

Cornel West talks about the idea of the ‘long Saturday’ – reflecting a blues sensibility borne of confronting death and despair without the transformation of Easter Sunday’s resurrection being fully available.

And it is in this ‘long Saturday’ that we must build resilience and practise hope; resisting escapist forms of spirituality and devotion.

Because worship mustn’t deafen us to the cries of people and planet. God might feel absent, but we must go on. This is how faith is made flesh. It is not an abstraction. It needs to show up. At bedsides, on protest marches, in classrooms, in hand-holding, in singing, in solidarity. 

It’s how God might be made present again. And how the resurrection life of Easter Sunday might be brought forward into our present from its future horizon.

Here, then, is a whistle-stop tour of what to expect to find as part of our worship and spirituality programming at the festival this summer …

The bigger ‘names’*

*Not that our worship programming is about that, of course.

Carrie Grant and the Space Community – with Lament
We’re delighted to welcome Carrie Grant back to Greenbelt. Now an ordained minister, Carrie (together with her husband David) has been on a wild and wonderful Christian faith journey which has seen her deconstruct almost everything only to find herself pastoring a wildly inclusive church community in her own home. Lament is a practice she has developed together with the Space community as a response to the overwhelming times we find ourselves living in – in which we will be invited to experience silence as protest. Drawing on what post-genocide Congolese theologian Emmanuel Katangole describes lament as being: a place where we can “dwell in the ruins” and ask “what happened here?” 

Andy Squyres – writer, songwriter, poet, priest
Born and raised in California but at home in Charlotte North Carolina since 1999, Andy Squyres is exactly what his website tagline describes him as being: a writer, a songwriter, a poet and a priest. Coming to Greenbelt for the first time, Andy will play two sets – one in the Canopy and then one in the Shelter, where he’ll mine all of his vocations to share his raw, honest and yet beautifully tender devotional songs as an act of artistry and of worship.

Martin Shaw – Liturgies of the Wild
Making a welcome return to Greenbelt, Martin Shaw joins us to share from his latest book, Liturgies of the Wild. In it, Martin explores how myth and story are what grow us into real human beings, as he champions the need for a renewed appreciation of myth in our troubling times. Following his conversion to Christ (‘the True Myth’) at the age of 50 by way of a thirty-year journey and a 101-night vigil in a Dartmoor forest, Martin invites us to rediscover the ancient stories that shape the human soul — and to encounter Christ, who he regards as the ultimate, transforming story providing a road to wholeness, maturity and connection.

Francesco – a play to celebrate the 800th-year anniversary of St Francis’ death, in The Forum
In partnership with our Franciscan friends who make camp each year with us at the festival, we are delighted to stage two performances of Francesco at Greenbelt – a song cycle about the extraordinary life of St Francis of Assisi. Written and composed by Italian musician Daniel Xappi and directed by lifelong Greenbelter Justin Butcher, the show also features the RSC & National Theatre actress and singer Caroline Faber (also known for her television roles in Merlin, Joan, Prime Target, Malory Towers, Call the Midwife, Grantchester and Berlin Station). Francis’ story offers a timely invitation to humility and care for creation in these troubling times.

Wilderthorn and Sekrit
Brothers Dan and Jon Bilbrough have become firm Greenbelt favourites at Boughton House, bringing their deep musicality to bear in making generous spaces that invite us into wonder and worship. Once again, Dan, as Sekrit will lead an early morning sound bath session and then Jon, accompanied by Dan, will invite us into his otherworldly improvised devotion as Wilderthorn for an IMMERSE evening session.

The Feminist Theology Network
Founded in 2023 by feminist theologian Karen O’Donnell, the Feminist Theology Network is an international group of folks interested in feminist and womanist theologies. Its members include priests, scholars, activists, teachers, and a whole lot more, of all genders. They meet together to listen to, to read together and to explore new theologies. We are excited to welcome them to Greenbelt to lead a shared session in The Shelter.

Charlotte Church – singing circle
While she’s with us on our festival Sunday, Charlotte will lead a singing circle in the Shelter venue, building on the practices she leads as part of her Dreaming retreats in Wales through which she aims to help people find the ‘song of their soul’.

Worship for all

We like to think we offer a real breadth and depth of worship experiences at Greenbelt. We do that because we know that one size definitely doesn’t fit all when it comes to our communal experience of encountering the Divine. Here’s a summary of the various opportunities for worship at this year’s festival:

Taize
A regular feature at the Shelter each year, the Taizé service provides an oasis of stillness and contrast using simple congregational chants accompanied by classical instruments interspersed with readings, prayers and silence. 

Catholic Mass – with the students from Pilgrim Cross
Expect lots of music and maybe even dancing as Pilgrim Cross brings Christians together in worship and community, recognising that there is so much more that unites us than divides us.

Quaker Meeting for Worship – with the Quakers in Britain
Quakers believe that in each of us there is something wonderful: they call it ‘that of God in us.’ In worship, they invite us to meet God in stillness, in ourselves, and in each other. 

The Goth/Alternative Eucharist
An immersive, sensory feast that is inclusive of all-comers as voices from the alternative margins and deconstructed faith meet mainstream church tradition. 

The OUT@Greenbelt LGBTQi Eucharist
A very special service of Holy Communion for LGBTQIA+ people and our friends, where you don’t need to hide from yourself, each other or God. Everyone is welcome. 

The Big Sing with the Iona Community
An annual vocal extravaganza for all who believe they can sing/can’t sing/won’t sing. Featuring fresh material from the world church (and new stuff from the Wild Goose Resource Group). 

The main festival communion service
Gather together with thousands in the Glade Arena to break bread and share wine as we share in a simple, corporate act of Christian remembrance at the heart of the festival weekend.

The Quiet Communion – led by Miranda Threlfall-Holmes
Or, if that all feels too much, choose a quieter gathering designed for those who struggle with sensory overload and large crowds for our ‘Quiet Communion’ in the Shelter.

As well as all this, there will be more – including our partners at Embrace the Middle East hosting a service incorporating elements of the three Abrahamic faiths as an act of unity and solidarity. And the Northumbria Community will lead prayer in the Celtic tradition and host a night-time drumming prayer circle. Plus more to be announced.

Try this at home

Some of our Shelter programming this year will be labelled as ‘Try This At Home’ (TTAH). When you see that label it means that those sessions will have a bit more of a focus on not just providing a meaningful experience in the moment, but also helping you think about how you might facilitate something similar when you get back from the festival. Whether you are interested in monastic chanting, planning to set up a forest church, or are looking for great ideas for a creative all age activity, look out for the TTAH label. Facilitators at the TTAH sessions will also be able to point you towards resources that you can access to further develop your ideas.

Harmonising the Soul – Gregorian Chant with Fr Lee Taylor
Welcoming and genuinely accessible, Fr Lee Taylor introduces us to the depth and ‘otherness’ of the Gregorian chant tradition. Discover the spaciousness, simplicity and other-wordliness of the tradition 

The Goth/Alternative all-age daytime service
A challenging, authentic open-source expression of prayer, exploration, worship and questioning that meets people where they are – all ages and stages – and is not afraid to keep company with the hard questions and struggles of life.

So you want to start a Forest Church?
The leaders of our outdoor Grove services over the weekend come together to share wisdom and learning from their various experiences of establishing and maintaining a wide variety of Forest Church-style gatherings in their different necks of the woods.

Elsewhere and outdoors

Contemplative Fire
Guided outdoor morning reflection each day.

The Franciscans
Offering daily offices and hospitality across the weekend in the campsite.

The Grove
Forest church-style outdoor circle gatherings for all ages – daytime and night-time.

The post The Long Saturday appeared first on Greenbelt.

At Greenbelt HQ we are in the thick of programming our final year at Boughton, and when we said we’re making it a goodbye to remember, we meant it.

We’re bringing together heaps of much-loved Greenbelt performers for a Boughton finale you will not want to miss. Here, we hope, are a few of your favourite things…

MUSIC FROM GOSPEL TO GECKO TO GRANT

Lee Bains
Surely one of the artists that has defined our time at Boughton most, Lee Bains makes a welcome return to Greenbelt, complete with his debut poetry collection, Work Lunch – as well as his firebrand songs (which Rolling Stone calls “Southern gospel punk”) that rail against injustice and Trump’s authoritarian America. Lee is releasing a live solo album this year (collaborating with artists including Lonnie Holley, Moor Mother, Pussy Riot, and Algiers) and has made his art in support of striking coal miners, immigrants’ rights groups, abortion funds, and anti-racism organisations. He’s a modern-day Woodie Guthrie – from Alabama.

Crys Matthews
Crys has joined us twice online – once in the pandemic and once for one of Martyn Joseph’s Rising show No Fly Zone show last year. We love her songwriting so much and have wanted to enjoy it in person for so long – and this year is the year! Teaming up with our friends at Graceland Festival in Holland and Amsterdam Pride, we’ve managed to put together a series of dates that makes a visit to this side of the pond make sense. 

Flamy Grant
After taking the festival by absolute storm in 2024, whether tearing up mainstage, at Communion, in conversation in the Hope & Anchor, or doing stand-up, Flamy returns to Greenbelt this summer to sing out our time at Boughton.

Martyn Joseph
Greenbelt simply wouldn’t be Greenbelt without Martyn. Performing and present at the festival in some shape or form since the early 80s, he’s part of the festival furniture (in a way that’s both comforting and necessary). With his brand new album, Troubled Horses, released and extensively toured in the winter, Martyn has been taking his first break from touring in decades, and so Greenbelt will see his only live show in the UK for some months, alongside his much-loved Rising singer-songwriter showcase.

Gecko
Introduced to the festival some years ago by our very own Harry Baker and Chris Read, Gecko has become a firm favourite in his own right – bringing his witty and insightful songs to the festival a few times now and making a return for our farewell to Boughton. This time he comes with a full band (for some more familiar faces) to play the Canopy venue, ahead of our closing Glade stage headliner and our OK Chorale festival finale. Perfect.

Hope & Social
Back in person for the first time since before COVID, the band in blue make a welcome return. They last graced us with an online festival closer live from a shed in Leeds in 2020 – the year when no-one could meet in fields. Their lead singer Si suffered from serious illness post-pandemic, so we’re thrilled he’s better and we can welcome them back. They epitomise so much of what Greenbelt holds dear – community, participation, celebration, artistry and joy.

Siskin Green
Folk, faith and feminism – what’s not to like? Each time Siskin Green perform at the festival it’s always a gig to remember. We had to have this wonderful Scottish trio back this summer to help us say goodbye to Boughton, and put a spring in our step as we journey into what’s next.

Harry Bird
Greenbelt wouldn’t be Greenbelt without the smile and twinkling eyes of Harry Bird. Just releasing his sixth album, Absurditties (yes, you read that right), Harry comes to us with a full band this year – including Scottish-Australian bluegrass maestros Pepita Emmerichs and Theodore Barnard (Rain of Animals / Good Guy Hank) and powerhouse Scottish songwriters Gavin McGinty (GAVIN / Sinderins) and Chris Bradley (Aberfeldy). Feel-good music has never felt this good.

David Benjamin Blower
David Benjamin Blower has been making and touring apocalyptic folk music for 20 years. During that time he has become something of a cult figure for those in the know at Greenbelt. Blower is also a theologian, podcaster and radical poet from Birmingham, exploring messianism, anarchy, and joyous life in a time of ruins. This year he will be performing his genre-bending, politically charged new release: We Are All Here.

IDEAS FROM VANDALS AND VISIONARIES

Ann Pettifor
Ann is a Greenbelt regular, and surely one of the most prophetic (and ignored) economic voices out there right now. Famously, Ann predicted the global financial crash of 2008 in her Greenbelt talk the year before, ‘The Coming First World Debt Crisis’. Ann writes the most incendiary and urgent Substack. Her new book is called The Global Casino and it embodies the culmination of decades of economic work and thinking – a clarion call for a more just, equitable and less indebted way of living and organising the world’s business affairs.

Cole Moreton
Writer and broadcaster Cole Moreton will be back with us, bringing his inimitable warmth and knack for hosting brilliant conversations with anyone and everyone. Transforming the interview into an art form, at the same time as being a passionate devotee and member of the Greenbelt community himself, Cole holds space where we can listen to, and discover, one another anew.

Vandal Factory Podcast
Rebel Rouser stalwarts Vandal Factory return to record another live episode of their podcast with special guests from the festival bill. Comprising writer/performer, Henry Raby and director, Natalie Quatermass, the dynamic duo have fallen in love with Greenbelt as much as we’ve fallen in love with them, and their podcast – all about arts and activism – finds a perfect place to record at the festival.

POETRY & SPOKEN WORD

Harry Baker
Harry returns to the festival he loves (and that loves him back) with a show packed full of material from his new Sunday Times best-seller, Tender – in which focuses his poetic attention on the joys, wonder, euphoria, panic and vulnerability of first-time parenthood. In other words: expect even more tenderness than ever from Harry. All dished up with a healthy dollop of wordplay wit and wizardry.

Paul Cookson
Ever-green and ever-present Greenbelt veteran since 1977, Paul Cookson is back with a performance to celebrate the publication of two new poetry collections, and he’ll also be hosting two ‘Family Twist’ shows. A National Reading Hero, Retford’s Official Town Crier, Poet Laureate for Slade, the owner of eleven ukuleles, and the writer and of a brand new daily poem since March 2020. And when Brian Bilston no less says that Paul is “funny, irreverent and brilliant,” we’d have to agree.

Testament
Bringing us a new piece of work from his playwriting oeuvre, festival regular Testament will perform his one-person show Saints on a Bridge. It tells a story both personal and political, about his relationship with church growing up and his experience of racism and lingering colonialism. Acclaimed writer of award-winning shows like Orpheus in the Record Shop and Woke, Testament is also a world-renowned beat-boxer and live-looper, and he brings all this to bear in his latest opus.

Pádraig Ó Tuama
Pádraig is a longtime Greenbelter, poet, teacher, writer and broadcaster whose podcast (and book) Poetry Unbound has become a global phenomenon. After joining us remotely last year, we are thrilled that he’ll be with us in the fields this time for another ‘pilgrimage of the heart’.

CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

Fischy Music
It wasn’t the same without Fischy Music last year so we’re delighted they’re back this summer with a hopeful, fin-filled singalong in Ta Dah, as well as leading a family ceilidh. Supporting thousands of children in schools and churches with their mental health and helping to nurture their faith over many, many years, we are so fortunate to call Fischy Music festival friends.

Folk On
The peoples’ choice are back! Festival favourites Folk On write and play folk songs of unity and belonging, of solving conflicts and unyielding happiness – with the occasional tune about hopeless love lives, dead horses and Morris dancers.

Plus, all your favourite happenings and hang-outs are back 

greenbeltrun
Inspired by the global phenomenon parkrun, greenbeltrun sees hundreds of festivalgoers sweat their way through the village and campsite early on Saturday morning.

Beer and Hymns
You know the drill. All together now for hops and hope. Prayer and pints. Alcohol and absolution.

OK Chorale (with more very special guests than ever this year)
See the festival out for another year with a house band fronted up by the sublime talents of the inimitable Chris Read.

Greenbelt Communion
The seminal centre of the weekend. Gather with thousands in the Glade Arena to share in the life and love of Jesus Christ.

The Rising
Troubadour Martyn Joseph gathers some of the most wonderful singer-songwriters at the festival each day to share their songs and stories.

Woken Spurred
The Maestro Harry Baker gathers some of the best and brightest spoken word artists on the planet to join him for, basically, the perfect poetry show.

The Glitterball
It’s back and it’s on Saturday night. Dress up, go wild, bring the glitter for DJ Gwyn’s wonderful queer journey of dancefloor discovery.

Caravan of Love
Where the kettle is always on and the tunes are pumping. Each year the Caravan of Love hosts poetry pop-ups, impromptu discos, charity workshops and much, much more…

Rebel Rouser curated by Art Mouse Promotions
Our favourite lo-fi garage punk legends are back to curate the Rebel Rouser stage – our DIY punk-inspired venue in the woods. 

Why would you want to be anywhere else from Thursday 27th August? Trust us when we tell you we are lining up an epic shindig…

Get your tickets here.

The post We’re playing favourites appeared first on Greenbelt.

MUSIC

BCUC
Describing their music as a weapon of political and spiritual liberation, Soweto’s agents of consciousness return to Greenbelt with material from their acclaimed new album The Road is Never Easy – identified by one reviewer as “gospel sermon colliding with a punk concert”. You can see why we simply had to get them back to the festival.

CAPYAC
Making their Greenbelt debut, Los Angeles based CAPYAC merge 70s funk, soul, UK garage, and synthwave, in a heady mix sometimes referred to as “surrealist musical wave”. Specialising in finding beauty in life’s contradictions, they’ll be joined on stage by stand-up improv artist Reggie Watts for what promises to be something totally unique.

JUNIOR BROTHER
Nominated for the RTE Choice Music Prize ‘Album of the Year for 2025’, Junior Brother’s debut record, The End, has garnered plaudits from all corners for its rejuvenation – perhaps even the reinvention – of traditional Irish music. The Quietus describes his sound as “Traditional Irish instrumentation … pushed into strange and eerie new climes,” while MOJO says simply that it is “A giddy marvel.” We can’t wait!

ROSE BETTS
Rose Betts has been described by the F Word Magazine as where “heart, humour and honesty collide.” Drawing deeply on her Irish roots and her English upbringing, her songs and sound are strangely familiar and comforting – while also ethereal and others-worldly. Her music is at once instant and infectious at the same time as deep and mysterious.

SHLOMO & THE GOB ORCHESTRA
We’re thrilled to welcome Shlomo back to Greenbelt with their latest – and possibly most ambitious – project ever: the GOB orchestra! Billed as the world’s first trans+ and non-binary beatboxing orchestra, it’s a project lovingly created with and for young marginalised people. 

ST CATHERINE’S CHILD
A rising star of the Indie Folk/Americana scene, Ilana Zsigmond (AKA St. Catherine’s Child) was born in England to musical parents, but spent the majority of her childhood in New Haven, Connecticut, bouncing back and forth between continents as her parents toured. Named for the patron saint of eloquent women, St. Catherine’s Child provides the perfect vehicle for her vocal strength and poetic songwriting.

IDEAS & COMEDY

CATHY NEWMAN
Multi-award-winning broadcaster and writer, Cathy Newmand was Channel 4 News’ first female anchor and spent 20 years with the programme before moving to Sky News this April. Cathy comes to Greenbelt to be in conversation with Andrew Graystone about the changing relationship between politics, news and truth; the role of journalism in changing times; misogyny in and out of the industry; and whether she has a vendetta against the church. (Perhaps her biggest ‘scoop’ was an eight-year investigation unmasking the most prolific abuser in the Church of England, barrister John Smyth, that led to the then Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby being forced out of office.) 

MINA SMALLMAN
Mina Smallman has lived through the unimaginable. On Saturday 6 June 2020, her daughters, Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, were killed in a park by a male stranger as they celebrated Bibaa’s birthday. And MIna has been fighting for justice ever since – for her daughters, and for the rest of us, by challenging the toxic culture in the Metropolitan Police and calling out the wider institutional misogyny, racism and classism in Britain.

REGGIE WATTS
An internationally renowned musician, comedian, writer and actor, Reggie Watts most recently starred as the bandleader on CBS’s The Late Late Show with James Corden. Using his formidable voice, looping pedals, and his vast imagination, Watts blends and blurs the lines between music and comedy, wowing audiences with performances that are always 100% improvised. His first Netflix special Spatial released to massive critical acclaim, with the New York Times calling it “a giddy rush of escapist nonsense” and dubbing Watts “the most influential absurdist in comedy today.” 

ROBIN INCE
Robin makes a welcome return to Greenbelt after almost 20 years with his powerful and personal book on his ADHD diagnosis, Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal. Using his own diagnosis, he explores the fascinating world of neurodivergence, asking what ‘normal’ really is – and whether it even exists – in his own quirky and witty style.

There is so much more still to share about this year’s Greenbelt Festival bill – more music, more ideas, more comedy, plus indoor and outdoor theatre, worship and spirituality, workshops, children’s, family and youth programming – and those unpigeonholeable Greenbelt ‘institutions’ (like the OK Chorale and Beer and Hymns). We also have a returning crop of festival favourite artists booked in for our final year at Boughton House to help us celebrate the ending of this festival chapter in style. 

Watch this space.

To read about the first names we announced for this year’s lineup, click here.

📷
Shlomo and the GOB Orchestra: Rah Petherbridge Art & Photography
BCUC: Tim Bugbee Tinnitus Photography
Rose Betts: Catie Laffoon
Junior Brother: Ellius Grace
Reggie Watts: Haley Scott
Robin Ince: Trent Burton + The Cosmic Shambles Network

The post Meet the second slice of names for this year’s lineup appeared first on Greenbelt.

It is with great sadness that we mark the death of one of our own. Chris Parker died in his sleep in the early hours of Tuesday 28 January. His death came as a complete shock. (His phone shows he was messaging folk about camping arrangements for this summer at half past midnight that night!)

Chris had been a Greenbelt volunteer for 35 years – serving as part of the Children’s Team, and eventually becoming its team leader. During that time, he played an integral role in helping the festival transition away from its old in loco parentis model of childcare and towards the more integrated approach we enjoy today – where the children’s and family venues and activities see intergenerational participation as part of the wider festival programme. This shift in culture and methodology – for parents, carers and volunteers alike – required great heart and tact and Chris was blessed with both. In spades.

If the word ‘dedicated’ can be attributed to any Greenbelt volunteer, then it surely ran through Chris like a stick of rock. Nothing daunted him or dented his enthusiasm for the task in hand. Not even a triple heart bypass back in our Cheltenham days. Or his leg amputation last year.

He was humble and gracious, bringing his daughter Alice up through the team to the point where he handed over the team leadership to her with no fuss; just pure pride and support for Alice in performing her role. And that brings us to team recruitment more widely. For Chris, Greenbelt volunteering was a family affair. 

His wife, Jane, his children AJ and Alice, his sister and his brother-in-law – all were on the Children’s Team. His other son Ben volunteered on the site crew at Cheltenham. If you were in the Parker family, you were involved in Greenbelt. Such was Chris’ infectious enthusiasm. Over the years, Chris played a huge role in building what has become a large and loyal team – almost a community within the wider festival community.

We remember Chris as always being supremely calm – whether managing the queue for a Fischy Music concert in Ta Dah!, coping with wet weather and mud, or looking for a lost child. Nothing seemed to faze him. He was always there, ready to do anything. 

Chris was passionate about Greenbelt and, in later years, he was the Event Organiser for the Methodist youth gathering, 3Generate. Meanwhile, back in his own church and community he was always immersed in his youthwork and busy running all sorts of events – and summer camps, too. 

All this talk of dedication and work might make you think that Chris was extremely earnest, but he was, in fact, huge fun – and that’s a big part of why so many wanted to volunteer alongside him. His servant heart was matched by the twinkle in his eye..

All who knew him will miss him hugely. As Greenbelt we – and generations of children who’ve come up through the festival – owe him a huge debt of gratitude. Our prayers are with his family – Jane, Alice, AJ and Ben – at this time. We can only imagine what a loss he must be for them.

As the Greenbelt years roll by (52 and counting!) and with such a loyal volunteer community, it is sadly inevitable that we will have to say our goodbyes to some. Others have left us too early already. In paying tribute to Chris here, we remember all who have died and say thank you to God for all they gave and meant to Greenbelt.

The post The very heart of Greenbelt appeared first on Greenbelt.

With just a few days left before our earlybird ticket deadline of midnight on January 6th, we wanted to start giving you an idea of what’s in store this year, as we say goodbye to Boughton and hello to the next chapter of our festival.

We’re sharing a clutch of names now – for music, ideas and visual arts – and then below these you can see why we’re so excited about each of these early additions to this year’s festival.

Music from twins, tribes and trailblazers

Arrested Development
Iconic hip hop trailblazers who wear their social conscience and faith firmly on their sleeves. Fronted by artist and campaigning troubadour Speech, the band have been on our wishlist for so many years. We’re so excited that we made it work for them to close our last festival at Boughton House with their incredible festival show.

Fulu Miziki
Hailing from the capital of the DRC, KInshasa, Fulu Miziki describe themselves as a chaotic, eco-friendly, afro-futuristic punk ensemble – and having been caught up in their irresistible live performance at Deershed Festival last summer, we’d have to agree! We can’t think of a more fitting band to help us Let It All Go.

Grace Petrie
A firm festival favourite during our time at Boughton House, Grace Petrie simply had to return to help us celebrate the end of this particular chapter of Greenbelt’s journey. One of the UK’s foremost protest singer-songwriters of the modern era, Grace comes to us with a full band show and her passionate musical call for a fairer, more just society.

Daraa Tribes
Daraa Tribes come to us from Morocco with their fusion of ancestral tribal music and Saharan Blues, in a trance-like echo and reminder of our very first year at Boughton House, when the majestic Tinariwen graced our mainstage.

Dustbowl Revival
With their superlative live show reputation preceding them, we’re thrilled that Dustbowl Revival will make their Greenbelt debut this year. The musical styles they conjure are giddyingly diverse, but always with a laser-sharp focus on politically-charged storytelling. If you enjoyed Fanny Lumsden last summer, be sure to get down to the front!

Penguin Cafe
We knew our last year at Boughton needed some really special moments. And Penguin Cafe are very special indeed. Penguin Cafe continue the grand tradition of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra (50 years on from their first release on Brian Eno’s record label), maintaining the same commitment to their avant-chamber pop / jazz / folk / global music.

The Proclaimers
Twins Charlie and Craig first performed at Greenbelt way back in 1988, when the Radio 1 Roadshow came live from the festival. You’ll forgive us for wanting to milk a bit of festival nostalgia by having the brothers back – for the first time since 2012 – complete with their wonderful band and live show, to bring us a singalong set packed full of absolute tunes.

Withered Hand
We’re delighted that next summer will see a Greenbelt debut from Edinburgh-based cult-indie songwriter Withered Hand (Dan Willson). First emerging as part of Scotland’s Fence Collective in 2009, he comes to Greenbelt (after years of folks telling us we should invite him), armed with songs that mine a deep vein of spiritual curiosity, woven through with mesmeric melodies.

XRay Vez
Last, but by no means least, on the music front, we’re pleased to announce XRay Vez as an early booking for the Rebel Rouser stage. Epitomising ArtMouse Productions’ nose for grassroots talent with something to say, XRay Vez is the stage name for London-based Veronique Hawksworth, known for her humorous pop songs with a DIY punk twist.

Ideas from Belle, Bill, Barbados… and beyond

Belle Tindall-Riley
After being enthralled by Lamorna Ash at Greenbelt last year, we are pleased to welcome Belle to the festival this summer, in connection with her new book The Sacred Ache.  A staff writer at the Centre for Cultural Witness, in the book Belle examines the avenues a new generation is exploring to scratch their spiritual itch and suggests how the Christian Gospel might still be the thing they’re looking for.

Bill McKibben (remote)
After first welcoming Bill McKibben to Greenbelt in the early years of our Boughton season, we’ve wanted to bring him back. But both he and we preferred not to do transatlantic flights again. So we’re delighted that Bill is one of the first big-name speakers who will be joining us remotely on our No Fly Zone stage this summer. After founding 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, Bill now works with his charity Third Act, organising people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice.

Charlotte Church
We’ve been asking her for years, so we’re so thrilled that this multi-million record selling artist will spend a day with us this summer – leading a singing circle, in conversation about her life, work and passions, and surprising us with a special pop-up performance too. Charlotte has been increasingly taken up with activism in recent years, at the same time as resourcing education and wellness projects in her native Wales.

Helen Lewis
7.1.2026 – With regret and apology from us, Helen Lewis will no longer be speaking at this year’s festival. Read more here.

Jordan Stephens
After having to pull out last summer (when he landed a leading role in a play), Jordan promised he’d come to Greenbelt as soon as he could. And it turns out that’s this summer! Not only a successful musician and performer with the resurgent Rizzle Kicks, Jordan is a thinker, writer and speaker on issues around mental health and masculinity – and it’s in that guise that he comes to Greenbelt to share his heartfelt wisdom and insight.

Nick Lowles
Nick has spent a lifetime fighting racism, fascism and extremism – first with the antifascist magazine Searchlight and then with HOPE not hate, the organisation he founded back in 2004. He comes to us to speak about his 2025 book How To Defeat The Far Right, at a critical time for the country.

Omar Barghouti
Continuing our commitment to inspiring and growing solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for justice, we are honoured that Palestinian human rights defender and a co-founder of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement will be joining us. Regularly cited and published in respected news media around the world, Omar literally wrote the book on what BDS could mean for the Palestinian struggle.

Sonita Alleyne
Resonating with our threads of programming around black lives matter, decolonisation and reparations, Sonita is the first woman to lead Jesus College, Cambridge since its foundation in 1496, having been born in Barbados and brought up in East London. She works tirelessly with a number of charities focussed on children in education, and was at the centre of a dispute to remove a memorial to Tobias Rustat – known to have been deeply embedded in the Transatlantic Slave Trade – from her college chapel.

Visual arts with real emotional power

Malak Mattar
Since Gazan artist Malak Mattar was last with us in 2022, she’s completed her MA in Fine Art at Central St Martin’s, becoming the first Palestinian artist to have a solo final show there. Her artwork has formed the backdrop to Brian Eno’s Together for Palestine fundraising gig at Wembley Arena in September last year, and she’s been named in Dazed’s Top 100 cultural figures of 2025. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do with this incredibly talented artist – seeing her work and hearing her story.

Migration by Musson+Retallick
After coming to Greenbelt in their youth, Neil Musson and Jono Retallick went on to train separately as fine artists, later teaming up to create internationally-renowned, large-scale site-specific artwork. Jono returned to the festival last summer and was blown away, so we’re utterly delighted to have persuaded the duo to bring their simply titled but incredibly powerful piece, ‘Migration’ to the grounds of Boughton House, to confront us with the hidden stories of the millions of migrants making perilous journeys across our globe.

We hope this early light dusting of names has got you excited about this year’s festival, with many, many more to come… 

We can’t wait to Let It All Go with you at Boughton in August. Make sure you start 2026 off the right way with our earlybird deadline, and bag your tickets by midnight on 6th January.

The post Meet the first names for this year’s lineup appeared first on Greenbelt.

“And for me”, he said, “that means more than just books that go to Oxfam.”

It really resonated with us, because what is a festival if not somewhere that demands you let go of things? That you give something away?

Leaving home for Greenbelt each year always involves a level of surrender. A letting go… of deadlines, expectations, reasonable amounts of sleep, home comforts and more. 

Being at a gorgeous green field site like Boughton has always been an opportunity to travel lighter. 

In fact it was our festival theme the very first year there. An invitation to loosen our grip a little, and step into something (and somewhere) bigger than ourselves.

So often the best experiences – the ones that shake us awake – arrive precisely in those moments when we stop trying to control everything. When we, instead, risk abandon. When we live, just for a moment, out of control.

It’s the idea that to follow the path, you have to leave something behind. This rhythm runs through scripture and life: emptying, releasing, relinquishing. 

Jesus’ teachings are full of notions of letting go and starting over, of leaving everything behind in order to grow. ‘Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies it shall bear no fruit.’ 

Sometimes you have to let it all go to be able to find the next thing. Because only when our hands are empty can they receive anything new. 

In a culture that’s addicted to control, choosing to let go and live ‘out of control’ can become a counter-cultural act. A spiritual act. A hopeful act.

Festivals teach us this. They draw us away from our everyday cares, into a shared present where we can feel fully, fiercely alive. 

A festival is one of the few places in our modern lives where it’s acceptable – maybe even expected – that we let it all go. 

Whether it’s on the dancefloor or in the outfits we wear, or just the release of being with likeminded souls for a few days in a liminal space like Greenbelt. 

Sometimes though, the hardest thing to give away is ourselves. To let go of the certainty, the spotlight, the security of staying where we’ve always been.

With us saying farewell to Boughton after a decade or so, we wanted a theme that spoke to all these ideas. We know there’s sadness for some at leaving its beautiful open spaces, as well as excitement for others about what’s next. 

There will be time for all these emotions, but we also really want to focus on the present and enjoy every single moment of next year’s festival. To let it all go and enjoy every minute of our festival.

So whether it’s the burdens we arrived with, or the roles we cling to for the other 361 days of the year, this year’s festival theme is a chance to embrace abandon and acceptance. 

Let It All Go is our invitation for all of us to do this together, next summer.

We really hope you’ll join us in living completely in the moment one last time at Boughton, before we turn our eyes and our empty hands to whatever – and wherever – is next.

The post Let it all go appeared first on Greenbelt.

Alice Wroe is XR Lead for Atlantic Institute where she serves a global fellowship of leaders committed to accelerating the eradication of global inequities. https://www.atlanticfellows.org/

At the beginning of the summer a message was sent from a friend that broke my heart a little. An email that should have been careful, crashed into my inbox blunt and flat. I realised later it was written using ChatGPT.

I felt uneasy, partly because artificial intelligence has some horrifying associations. I’m following the parents suing an AI company over the deaths of their children, I’m suspicious of the veracity of the “people” on my social feeds, and like many others, working in the justice space, I’m questioning whether this tech will be harnessed for good or just deepen the divides in society.

But I conceded, the email I received was harmless in intent, just a cleaner version of what my friend would have penned. I was embarrassed that a seemingly administrative decision felt like a personal betrayal – was I being too sensitive? I’m not alone in finding myself in frequent thought about AI, everyone keeps circling back. Is this thing on…? Am I using it right?

Over the summer I interviewed various authors at festivals about their books, which covered a range of topics, and yet we returned in every conversation to AI and trust. We talked less about the aforementioned global horrors, but took a quieter, more local tone, exploring AI and friendship.

I spoke to Andrew Smith about his book Devil in the Stack on the social connections he found amongst the coding community, and Tiffany Watt Smith, about her fleeting friendship recounted in Bad Friends, with an algorithm she didn’t quite know how to break it off with, should she log on to say goodbye?

But it was at Greenbelt, with its thematic emphasis on hope, that I started making meaning of my muddlings. At the Rebel Rouser stage, nestled into the woods, I spoke with Hannah Silva, who along with her toddler and an algorithm wrote a book on queer parenting and love. This book is a quiet gift to a society scared of AI, showing that more artful, softer ways of relating to this tech are possible. The lines written by the algorithm subvert our obsession with AI for efficiency. Rather than speed us up to get more done, these sections slow the reader down, prompting rumination on the surrounding text.

Greenbelters asked clever questions about the impact on climate and community, stretching my thinking around friendship and AI to a place of confidence. In an increasingly polarised social landscape, it feels vital to prioritize precision of interaction over pace. In our current conception of AI, we are obsessed with the former. This works well for rotas and project plans but not for people. Given the high energy and water consumption required, it seems somewhat of a violence to both the planet and the relationship to use AI for a few lines of correspondence.

What my summer of conversations made clear, particularly in discussing My Child the Algorithm, is that we don’t have to disregard Artificial Intelligence altogether, but alter the way we relate to it. There is a cost both environmentally and socially to using this technology, but there are times, when it’s live giving; when it elevates our thinking so radically that we can process pressing issues or dream kinder futures. If it liberates our thought processes rather than does our thinking, we might end up in a more hopeful spot. 

During the discussion, Jeanette Winterson’s genius linguistic shift was brought up; call it Alternative Intelligence rather than Artificial. This reframe feels liberatory. Alternative Intelligence acknowledges its ability to move us into a different register of reflection. If we work with AI, instead of having it work for us, there is space for it to become a useful thought partner in a time of social and planetary fragility.

The post Alternative Intelligence appeared first on Greenbelt.

As is always the case in booking a late summer festival, not everything lasts the course. Inevitably, there are drop-outs along the way. Chief among these this year is the news that Jordan Stephens won’t be able to join us in the fields after all. He’s gutted. We’re gutted. But he has a very good excuse. Which neither of us can tell you about right now. And we’ll try again for next year.

We’re also sad that Gonora Sounds won’t be able to make it to Greenbelt because of visa issues in travelling from their native Zimbabwe – but we’re thrilled that N’famady Kouyaté are stepping in to play in their place (pictured above).

Late arrivals

Still, for the very few losses we’ve suffered, we’ve got more than enough last-minute goodness added to the bill to more than make up for it.

Like Spencer Jones joining our late night comedy bill, and Gabi Garbutt (pictured above) and Testament – both collaborating with Cole Moreton as artists in residence in the Table venue on an evening show called The Unwind. 

Like Lady Unchained and Ben Lindsay returning to Greenbelt to be part of a high profile criminal justice panel chaired by criminologist, legal scholar (and Greenbelter) Shona Minson – alongside the CEO of the Howard League, Andrea Coomber KC, and founder of ArtNotEvidence, Napster’s Elli Brazzill.

Also, as part of our focus on criminal justice issues, we’re really excited to be able to screen the amazing new documentary film, Holloway, which follows the experience of six amazing women who were incarcerated in Holloway Prison before it closed, including Lady Unchained.

We also have panels on AI, Palestine activism, modern-day dating, and what’s really going on with the so-called Quiet Revival.

Elsewhere, we have retired judge Victoria McCloud (pictured above) with us to talk about the case she’s bringing (as a trans woman) against the Supreme Court for their ruling on gender earlier this year. And Tim Lenton joins us in the Hot House to preview the thinking in his brand new book, Positive Tipping Points.

Meanwhile, Harry Baker’s Worldwide Woken Spurred shows in the No Fly Zone are completed with amazing Scottish poet Len Pennie, who writes in both Scots and English about survivors of domestic abuse and the de-stigmatisation of mental illness. 

And Pádraig Ó Tuama’s two guests to complete his daily Poetry Unbound show (alongside Haleh Liza Gafori) are the award-winning American poets Lorna Goodison and Marie Howe.

Late musical arrivals completing the Canopy bill are the contemporary-yet-traditional Project Smok (pictured above), while the final acts in the Rebel Rouser are confirmed as Jock, stebee, and wormboys.

We’re also working with the friends and family of the late, great Mike Peters to bring together an amazing show for the No Fly Zone that we’re calling The Gospel According to Mike Peters.

And just a reminder that we have a packed workshop programme in the Village Hall, crafting children and families in Make & Create, and for adults in the Studio, and great all-age shows all day long in Ta Dah! 

Worship & Spirituality

We’ve also just emailed out about our deep and wide worship and spirituality programme in our Dispatches newsletter and you can dig into that online in more detail here.

There’s so much in store and so much more at Greenbelt this year.

The post Taking it to the wire: late lineup news for Greenbelt 2025 appeared first on Greenbelt.

(Pictured at the top of the blog is nature composer, DJ and beatboxer Jason Singh.)

Where to begin?

POETRY AND SPOKEN WORD

Let’s start with Harry Baker’s spoken word guests for 2025. Joining Harry for his in-person Woken Spurred show will be Georgie Jones, Maria Ferguson, and, returning to the festival, 
Zia Ahmed. While, adding to his online Worldwide Woken Spurred guests in the No Fly Zone, is American poet Lyndsay Rush. (And any poet who has the social media handle ‘Mary Oliver’s Drunk Cousin’ is sure to be a hit at Greenbelt.)

Meanwhile, firm festival favourite Paul Cookson will be back in the fields to host his inimitable all-age show ‘The Family Twist’ over the weekend. Poet in Residence at the National Football Museum and ‘Slade’s Poet Laureate’, Paul also had a poem featured in a recent Guardian article on saying goodbye to Goodison Park, Everton’s football stadium.

Zia Ahmed

IDEAS

Pagoda

We’re delighted that sought-after writer and theologian Beth Allison Barr will be joining us from the States to compare notes with our very own Chine McDonald on Chine’s latest book, Unmaking Mary: Shattering the Myth of Perfect Motherhood. Author of Becoming the Pastor’s Wife and The Making of Biblical Womanhood, Beth is sure to make an insightful dialogue partner for Chine. We can’t wait to eavesdrop their conversation. And Greenbelt wouldn’t be Greenbelt without the biblical wisdom and contemporary critique of John Bell and so we’re delighted that John will be joining us once more to speak on the main programme.

Hot House

We’ve been really busy booking the programme for the Hot House, our climate- and migration-focused venue, produced in collaboration with the good folks at the Pickwell Foundation. New speaker names for this (bigger this year) venue include: co-leader of the Green Party, Carla Denyer; cycling activist and writer, Laura Laker; burnout recovery expert, Jo Musker-Sherwood; award-winning writer and activist, Jay Griffiths, with her latest book, How Animals Heal Us (which Brian Eno says has changed his thinking about Nature fundamentally); and Tessa Khan, renowned lawyer, campaigner and founder of Uplift, an organisation that supports a just transition away from oil and gas production in the UK.

Carla Denyer

MUSIC

Music-wise, we have now completed the bill for Greenbelt 2025!

Martyn Joseph’s final remote Friday guest for his No Fly Zone Rising show will be Englishman aboard Tom McRae. The wonderful nature composer Jason Singh will be joining us for a show and a led meditation in the Hot House. The Invisible Folk collaboration will be bringing us their Grace Will Lead Me Home project in on the 300th-year anniversary of the birth of the hymn-writer John Newton. While Flo Parker and Scott Brice were both artists who came in through our online submissions process and they will play in our Canopy venue.

And finally, in a barely believable turn of events, we cancelled the Old Time Sailors sea shanty band we had booked for our opening Thursday night (you can read our statement as to why here). But, in an act of (what we hope will prove to be some kind of) poetic justice, we moved fast to reach out and see if we could bring the Catalan band whose arrangements the Old Time Sailors had been plagiarising to join us instead. And we’re thrilled to say that El Pony Pisador will play an after-hours set of us in the Canopy on Saturday night.

And, for our opening, welcome-back-to-Greenbelt Thursday night, we’re thrilled to have secured Bristol’s finest DJ / Dance / MC / hip-hop act of the moment, The Allergies LIVE. 

El Pony Pisador

Comedy

Finally, in this little May round-up of new names, we’re delighted to add to our comedy bill for 2025 with Oli Frost, who’s carved out a comedy niche for himself making novelty songs, films and websites about the climate crisis. Oli will perform a stand-up set in the Hot House venue.

Still to come 

We’ve still got more to share – speakers, panels, workshops, worship and spirituality. We’re working hard to prepare to be able to include all this good stuff in our online listings (which takes time). But, ahead of having all our ducks in a row, here’s a very basic alphabetical list of events and people who will be part of our worship and spirituality programming…

WORSHIP & SPIRITUALITY

Big Sing with the Wild Goose Resource Group / Breath Meditation with Matt Freer / Catholic Mass with Student Cross / Festival Communion – ‘Hope in our Hands’, including contributions from craftivist in residence Sarah Corbett and Adjoa Andoh / Goth Eucharist  / Grace Notes – jazz worship with Jed Bailey and co./ Grove outdoor circle meetings / John Philip Newell exploring Celtic spirituality / Sound Bath with Sekrit / Jesuits – a contemplative session drawing on the ‘spiritual exercises of Ignatius of Loyola / Prayers for Peace – a joint session hosted by many different groups at Greenbelt / Psychedelics and Spirituality – a panel discussion with Ligare / Mindfulness with Briony Martin / Miranda Threlfall Holmes – creative bible studies on Hope in the Making / Northumbria Community – Morning Prayer and late night drumming / Quaker Meeting for Worship / Quiet Communion – our alt. communion service (this year live-streamed from the No Fly Zone / Taize / Tenebrae service hosted by our partners Embrace the Middle East / The Unitarians – with an inclusive, soulful space of quiet reflection, creative sharing and co-created ritual / Wilderthorn, IMMERSE (on the No Fly Zone).

The post Some things old. Lots of things new. appeared first on Greenbelt.

So here it is – the first set of artists, speakers and performers who will be appearing at Greenbelt Festival this summer!

Because of the changes we’re making to the way we produce our Music and Performing Arts programme this year, we’ve focused early on booking those elements of the festival programme first and foremost. We hope you like what’s in store.

(And, because of this early focus, we’ve got more work yet to do yet on our Ideas bill – and there’s so much more also yet to share on our Worship & Spirituality, Comedy, Workshops, Children’s, Families & Youth programming over the coming weeks. All good things!)

If you’re reading this blog, you know us well enough to understand that: we’re not a festival-by-numbers; we don’t have the budget to buy in a raft of household names; and we’re not defined by a list of artists on a poster. Instead, we work hard to search high and low for just the right sort of artists and thinkers to bring to you at Greenbelt each year. 

As such, curating Greenbelt is an act of love. And, much like any present you might offer to a loved one, there’s always that moment, as you hand it over, when you wonder if it’s quite ‘right’ and whether the recipient will like it.

So, in the spirit and vulnerability of gift-giving, let’s take a tour of some of the highlights in store for this year’s Greenbelt Festival offering: Hope in the Making.

Music

First up, our Glade Stage music headliners for this year are:

Friday – Nadine Shah
We’ve been wanting to bring Nadine Shah to Greenbelt for a long time now, so it’s a thrill to have her closing our opening night. A Mercury-nominated and much respected artist, Nadine released her fifth album, Dirty Underneath, last year. Live, she is brooding, mesmeric and all-consuming – not shying away from causes she believes in, most notably consistently calling for a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Saturday – K.O.G
Building on the party vibe that Dutty Moonshine brought to the Glade last year on our Saturday night we’re bringing back K.O.G to close our Saturday mainstage bill. After a Greenbelt debut a couple of years ago earlier in the evening, we can’t wait to see them tear up the Glade with their irresistible afrobeat sounds and energy – and K.O.G’s deep spiritual consciousness and commitment. We’re sure the field will be rocking from the front to the back.

Annie & The Caldwells by Eric Welles Nystrom, Kate Rusby, Nadine Shah, K.O.G

Sunday – Kate Rusby and Annie & The Caldwells
Sunday brings a double headliner, with the return of much-loved Greenbelt artist Kate Rusby with a sublime brand new album (and performing with a full band) for the first time in years. We can’t wait to hear Kate at the festival again and she will be joined by breakthrough gospel act Annie and the Caldwells, making their first appearance at Greenbelt, after bursting onto the scene over the last year with their authentic and unadulterated disco-tinged gospel joy – taking audiences to church wherever they play.

But our music bill is much, much more than just our headline names. Here are just a few of the other great acts to look out for this year …

French Moroccan desert-blues band Bab L’Bluz will blow your socks off. Beans on Toast is back to disarm you, win your heart and help you believe in a better world. Benin International Musical roll into the festival with a vibey mix of trip-pop grooves, hip-hop and rock drawn from their voodoo-meets-evangelical Beninese musical roots. Festival favourite Beth Rowley makes a welcome return with her band, fresh from a UK tour support for Ward Thomas. And one-woman whirlwind Fanny Lumsden joins us all the way from down under after wowing Glastonbury last summer. 

Frankie Archer is a true one-off – making quirky electrofolk songs that transcend boundaries and genres and connect with all those longing for a fairer world. While family street busking band Gonora Sounds is led by blind singer/songwriter Daniel Gonora, a wizard on the guitar, together with his drumming protege son Isaac on drums. American singer-songwriter Josh Garrels makes his long-overdue Greenbelt debut with his heart-on-sleeve music of faith, love and justice.

After first seeing them play at the PalestineMusic Expo in Ramallah many years ago, we are thrilled that all-female Palestinian supergroup Kallemi will grace the Glade stage this year, their genre-fluid music organically blurring the line between hip-hop, rock, and R&B. After winning the 2023 NPR Tiny Desk contest, Little Moon come to Greenbelt with their bewitching avant-folk sound and story-songs that embrace love, loss and their complicated departure from the Mormon Church.

Sorvina by Lucho Vidales, Semler, Wolfgang Valbrun by Nina Cholet

On our Greenbelt wishlist for many-a-year, we’re thrilled that American artist Semler will be joining us with her band, after first breaking through in the States when they became the first openly queer artist to hit Number 1 in the Christian music charts with their EP Preacher’s Kid. After opening for the mighty Public Service Broadcasting on their UK tour this year, She Drew the Gun make deeply personal and political music that is as incendiary as the name implies, singer Louisa Roach’s vocals bemoaning governmental lack of care while calling us to a more empathetic way of living.

Sorvina is a New York-born now Berlin-based artist whose music was birthed in folk and storytelling and now finds its expression in hip-hop. While west-country act Sound of the Sirens never fail to wow audiences with their onstage harmonies, chemistry, camaraderie, and banter. The most streamed folk act in the UK in 2024, The Longest Johns have toured extensively in recent years, including supporting folk legends Bellowhead, and winning standing ovations wherever they play. The XCERTS must surely be one of the best overlooked bands in the UK over the last 15 years or more, making effortless and anthemic rock music with real heart and soul. While, last but not least, the force of nature that is Wolfgang Valbrun is a timeless blues-soul singer with a voice to die for, born and raised in new York, but now making musical waves in Europe.

These are just selected names. Dig into the fuller lineup on our website. And we’ll do a feature on the Rebel Rouser music soon.

Performing arts

Soothe, Bamboo by Jon Street, The Many Lives of PET #1, Jesus, Jane, Mother & Me by Craig Lomas

Featuring more shows than ever at the festival, our performing arts bill is bursting with goodness – inside and out.

First-timers to Greenbelt, Infusion Physical Theatre combines contemporary dance and circus with soulful touches of humour and poignance to create work that is accessible to non-dance audiences, tackling contemporary issues with a much-needed hopeful message. Their show Soothe is a response to the mental stress so many felt during and emerging from the COVID pandemic.

Returning to Greenbelt this summer, Michael Mears brings The Mistake, his play about the decision to bomb Hiroshima, 80 years on from that catastrophic event. Two actors, one British, one Japanese, enact the gripping stories of a brilliant Hungarian scientist, a daring American pilot and a devoted Japanese daughter, in this gripping, moving and thought-provoking drama.

Meanwhile, in the great outdoors, HENGE is a fantastic outdoor physical theatre show for the whole family with gravity-defying acrobatic tricks, dynamic Parkour and rhythmic beats from Motionhouse. We’ve wanted to bring the ground-breaking No Fit State to Greenbelt for so long, and so we’re excited that this year they will perform BAMBOO for us – a spectacular, high-impact, high-skill outdoor circus production using only bamboo and human bodies.

No strangers to Greenbelt, this year Pif-Paf bring us Right To Play – an outdoor piece inspired by and championing the principles of the Adventure Playground Movement, inviting us to turn giant bamboo poles, a big stack of play mats, and some big bits of rope into an Adventure Playground each day. While, since it first played at the Edinburgh Fringe to rave reviews, we have wated to stage Jesus, Jane, Mother & Me at Greenbelt. A darkly funny and moving drama from acclaimed playwright Philip Stokes about idolisation, growing older and the complex relationship between a son and a mother, this is a play that feels like it could have been especially written for a Greenbelt audience.

We love the playful and provocative work of Stan’s Cafe and this year they bring us a complicated comedy about a plastic bottle – The Many Lives of PET #1. Friends of the festival, Synergy Theatre Project bring us their latest play, Providers – a gripping, raw and real new play about family, money and what we do when we don’t have enough of it, it speaks to the reality of young people today, with a future that feels out of reach. And finally, the wonderful Worklight Theatre brings us their critically-acclaimed play, It’s The Economy, Stupid, a play revealing the human stories that lie beyond the economic story. Armed with bags, boxes and an old board game, the actors reveal how the economy wins elections, and why the force that dominates our lives is so bloody complicated!

Ideas

Adjoa Andoh, Brian Eno by Cecily Eno, Dara McAnulty, Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin

This strand of the festival bill is still emerging, but already it’s looking rich and rewarding.

Best known for playing Lady Danbury in Bridgerton and in its prequel Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton story, Adjoa Andoh is also a person of deep faith and a keen advocate of the difference genuine fair trade can make. As the first Black female Bishop in the Church of England, Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin returns to Greenbelt to be in conversation about her fascinating autobiography, The Girl From Montego Bay.

After a year away from the festival he’s grown to love, the wise seer Brian Eno is back with us to dig deeper into his increasing fascination with the connections between art and religion. While, considering his tender years, Dara McAnulty is quite the award-winning literary star – his work exploring his deep relationship with nature alongside campaigning around the everyday challenges and joys of his being autistic. 

When we saw the title of Jayne Manfredi’s book last year – Waking the Women: Faith, Menopause and the Meaning of Midlife – we knew we had to invite her to speak at Greenbelt. Meanwhile, convinced that what we are doing on our farms and elsewhere on our planet profoundly affects the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe (and, therefore, affects the health of our bodies and minds), we can’t wait to hear from Jenny Goodman, too

At last, it’s time for us to welcome Jeremy Corbyn to Greenbelt. An MP for 42 years, his expansive and lifelong campaigning for peace, justice and human rights has taken him across the world, advocating in senior roles for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Palestinian Solidarity Committee, Stop the War, the UN Human Rights Council in New York, nuclear non-proliferation, trade unions, employment rights, Indigenous rights and many social movements. 

John Philip Newell is an internationally renowned Celtic teacher and author of spirituality who calls the modern world to reawaken to the sacredness of Earth and every human being. We can’t quite believe he’s never been to Greenbelt. Yet. 

Against the backdrop of the wide societal concern and debate sparked by the Netflix series Adolescence, we are pleased to be joined by Rizzle Kicks’ Jordan Stephens, whose 2024 book Avoidance, Drugs, Heartbreak and Dogs is a brilliant story of self acceptance – exploring masculinity, mental health, addiction and heartbreak.

Lamorna Ash by Maria Ródenas Sáinz de Baranda, Leena Norms, Patrick Grant

Still only in her twenties, Lamorna Ash has been called “‘a new star of non-fiction” by William Dalrymple no less. She comes to Greenbelt to share the findings of her forthcoming book Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever: A New Generation’s Search for Religion. Leena Norms is a regular Greenbelter, pitching her tent among those who she has grown to see as ‘her people’. A writer, YouTuber and podcaster, Leena joins us to share about the wisdom in her new book, Half-Arse Human.

Liz Carr is best known for her role as formidable forensic examiner, Clarissa Mullery, in BBC One’s Silent Witness. In 2024, Liz hosted the darkly comic and painfully real BBC documentary Better Off Dead?, exploring the repercussions of assisted suicide, and why she believes it shouldn’t be legalised in the UK. It’s this she comes to be in conversation about at Greenbelt. And, recently awarded a Planet Earth Award by the Alliance of World Scientists, Mike Berners-Lee returns to Greenbelt with his new book Climate of Truth: Why We Need It and How to Get It.

Also known as ‘Birdgirl’ (after her longstanding blog and 2022 book), Mya-Rose Craig is a 22-year-old British-Bangladeshi birder, race activist and environmentalist campaigning for equal access to nature, to stop biodiversity loss and climate change, and to ensure global climate justice, all of which she believes are closely interlinked. Patrick Grant, star of BBC 2’s hit show The Sewing Bee, has a lot to say about clothes. How many we buy, how we value them, what they’re made from, and importantly who made them and where. He comes to Greenbelt to be in conversation with our ‘Craftivist in Residence’ this summer, Sarah Corbett – who returns to the festival with over a decade of honing her unique ‘Gentle Protest’ methodology, combining neuroscience, positive psychology, campaign strategy and beautiful handicrafts. 

And finally in this whistle-stop introduction to our emerging Ideas bill, Sophie Pavelle comes to us to talk about her new book, To Have or To Hold, which celebrates the interconnectedness between species and the relationships that underpin natural environments. 

No Fly Zone 

Dougald Hine by Ingrid Rieser, Crys Matthews by Laura Schneider, Harry Baker, Haleh Liza Gafori by Beowulf Sheehan

Daily shows hosted by festival favourites 

Martyn Joseph’s The Rising 
Each day, Martyn Joseph will host his much-loved Rising show, but this year with a twist – as he will be joined by a singer-songwriter online from another part of the world. Two of his confirmed guests at the time of making our first lineup announcements are Crys Matthews and Dave Gunning. Crys joined us online during lockdown for one of Martyn’s online Risings during 2020. Hailing from Nashville she is among the brightest stars of the new generation of social justice music makers, blending Country, Americana, Folk, Blues, and Bluegrass to make traditional melodies punctuated by raw lyricism. While Dave is a luminary in the Canadian folk music scene, his music characterised by its storytelling and melodic sincerity, often highlighting the lives of underdogs and tackling significant social and environmental issues. 

Harry Baker’s Worldwide Woken Spurred
As well as hosting his in-person Woken Spurred show this year, each day Harry Baker will be in conversation with a young performance poet from elsewhere in the world. Confirmed at the time of our first lineup announcements is Harry’s Australian guest, Luka Lesson. A former Australian Poetry Slam Champion (2011), Luka has featured at the mecca for slam poetry: the Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe (NYC), performed with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and toured with respected UK rappers Akala & Lowkey. 

Pádraig Ó Tuama’s homage to Poetry Unbound
Festival favourite and longtime Greenbelter Pádraig Ó Tuama will host a daily show loosely in keeping with his hugely successful Poetry Unbound podcast where he will be joined in conversation with poets from around the world, as well as sharing work from his latest collection, Kitchen Hymns: 44 Poems On Being With Each Other. Among his guests will be performance artist, translator, vocalist, poet, and musician Haleh Liza Gafori. Born in New York City and of Persian descent, Haleh’s own work circles around her translations of the Persian poet Rumi.

Plus, globally renowned authors, joining us online to be in conversation about their work and writing.

One of our greatest living novelists, Marilynne Robinson joins us online from the States to talk about the way in which her wonderful literary work is shot through with reverence, theological questioning and ultimately an insistence that we look more deeply at the things of life in order to unearth their real meaning. Her fans are myriad, famously including Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey, and we’re sure that all those of us who gather to hear her live this summer will be awe-struck by her singular grace and fierce intelligence. 

After an early career as a BBC journalist, Dougald Hine has gone on to co-found a series of organisations including the Dark Mountain Project. Together with Paul Kingsnorth, he authored Uncivilisation: The Dark Mountain Manifesto (2009) and his latest book, At Work in the Ruins: Finding Our Place in the Time of Science, Climate Change, Pandemics & All the Other Emergencies has become essential reading for many. Dougald will join us from his home in the small Swedish town of Östervåla – where he and Anna Björkman are creating a school called HOME, ‘a gathering place and a learning community for those who are drawn to the work of regrowing a living culture’.

A prolific award-winning author, Tim Winton has written no less than 30 books – his work being widely translated and adapted for film, television, stage and radio. His latest, Juice, is an epic cli-fi tale set in an apocalyptic future where the characters face a daily struggle for survival because of climate breakdown. His prophetic narrative is a wake-up call for a world where already much of what fills our news feels in keeping with the near dystopian future he describes. Tim joins us online from his wild west Australian home.

Other

Lost Voice Guy, Scarred Pots by Rachel Ho, The Empathy Museum presents A Mile In My Shoes by Tracy Kidd

One of the best and perhaps most unique things about the Greenbelt Festival programme is just how eclectic and diverse it is. To underline that, here are just three other bookings we wanted to highlight that demonstrate how rich and diverse our programming is.

The Empathy Museum presents A Mile In My Shoes
Visit an onsite ‘shoe shop’ housed in a giant shoebox, choose a pair of shoes – from a Syrian refugee, a war veteran or a neurosurgeon for instance – and then walk in them while listening to their story. A physical experience designed to explore our shared humanity and build empathy – brought to us by the wonderful folk at The Empathy Museum.

Lost Voice Guy
Headlining our comedy bill, Lee Ridley (Lost Voice Guy) is the first stand-up comedian to use a communication aid and the first comedian to win Britain’s Got Talent (in 2018). He’s travelled the UK extensively with his last two tours (I’m Only In It For The Parking and Cerebral LOL-sy), winning Ents24 Hardest Working Comedian Award in 2019. 

Scarred Pots by Rachel Ho
Inspired by kintsugi, an ancient Japanese method of mending broken pottery with gold, ceramicist Rachel Ho will be leaving 120 scarred pots throughout the Greenbelt site for festivalgoers to discover and keep as gifts. Intentionally scarred to symbolise the fragility of our lives, the scars are then filled with gold lustre, expressing the mystery of new beginnings and new life, even in our deepest pain. 

Plus much more to come
We’re not done yet! Expect more on children’s and families programming, comedy, workshops, and worship and spirituality over the next few weeks leading up to our April ticket deadline.

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