Woohoo!

This has been a woohoo! weekend. We've been to Greenbelt!

For those who don't know, Greenbelt is a mahoosive Christian Art Festival held every year at Cheltenham Racecourse over the August Bank Holiday weekend. Put 'Greenbelt Festival' into a search engine and you'll find it. One o the great things about GB is that it has room for everyone and everything, a hugely diverse range of people, lots of different ways of thinking, worshipping, and being. The music is everything from plainchant to Very Loud Rock, there is theatre, dance,circus stuff, comedy, challenging and thought provoking speakers, all sorts of alternative styles of worship, lots of creative stuff, family stuff, workshops, art exhibitions, a full programme for children and young people, and fun. The emphasis is on social responsibility, justice, and environment, so your lifestyle gets challenged, too.

There's no pressure to go to anything. In fact, the pressure is on choosing what to go to out of all the choices on offer at any time. And then there's the campsite (no, I didn't camp. I'm a wuss. I like hot and cold running water and a warm bed.) The stalls, the various food places. The Soul Space right t the top of a high building with fantastic views over the countryside. And the constant buzz as people of all ages, shapes and sizes, able bodied and not, some strangely dressed, weave their way from one venue to another among the stiltwalkers, jugglers, and people dressed up as bananas, monkeys, fairies... you have to be there.

These names may mean something to you - Milton Jones, Kate Rusby, the Unthanks, Rob Bell, John Bell, Oliver James, Jon Blake, Jo Enright, Adrian Plass, Paul Kerensa, Billy Bragg. They were all there. And so was I! Woohoo!

Oh, and I learned to play a hand drum.