Building the Common Good

Building the Common Good

We’ve been working hard on ideas and invites to build the programme for Greenbelt 2017 : The Common Good. We’re really excited at how things are shaping up. We’ll be announcing the first lineup names at the end of February. Make sure you’re signed up to our e-news Dispatches to be the first to get the announcements when we make them.

In the meantime, here are some of the things you can expect and look forward to at Greenbelt this summer …

With our growing young adult audience (don’t forget the discounted weekend ticket for 18 – 25 year-olds – just £83 before the end of April), we’ll be programming later and louder in some venues (working within our licence provisions at Boughton House). We’ll also be laughing and dancing more. The world’s in a mess. We know that. And there will be plenty on offer for us to engage with on that. But we need to party too. To celebrate. Festivals are places of joy.

We’ll be introducing some brand new venues at the festival this year. We’ll be announcing more details about them over the coming weeks. They are borne out of our wanting to engage with and respond to the times we’re living in – and we’re really energised by the chance to host and programme in a way that deliberately challenges the status quo, setting up alternative, more imaginative and generous stories to live by.

We’ll be working to make the festival greener still, following on from winning our A Greener Festival Award. We’ll be composting all of our food waste this year, collaborating with our main partner Christian Aid on a joint lobbying initiative around climate change and also welcoming great speakers and artists who’s work and thinking is all about challenging us to live differently in the face of climate chaos.

As well as threading a truly global feel across our artistry and activism, we’ll also acknowledge that there are, of course, huge inequalities and injustices right here at home, too. That’s why we’re thrilled to welcome Citizens UK to the festival this summer – helping us think about and take action on the key issues that face us here and resourcing us with the tools to do something about them where we live, working together with others for change.

We’ll be re-naming our exhibitor space the Greenbelt Take Away – underlining the idea that we want Greenbelters to take inspiration and resources home with them from Greenbelt to their communities, to go on living the more generous, countercultural and imaginative lives we hope the space we create encourages. We’ll be increasing the ‘how to’ dynamic at the festival – making sure that Greenbelt is a festival where you are more than just an audience, where you can participate and be part of the action.

And we’ll be building on the idea of our ‘community Monday‘ again, celebrating the grassroots nature of so much of our programming – artistry and activism that has taken root and grown in Greenbelt soil.

All this and more at Greenbelt 2017 : The Common Good. Watch for announcements at the end of February.