Going out with a bang
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…