Greenbelt - Check it Out?

In a couple of days some of us will be descending on a field near Kettering for a few days for an event which the word eclectic was made for. I've been going through my daily diary and here are my top tips for the weekend at Greenbelt:

Music

Friday

Glade Stage - Hackney Colliery Band. I've discovered that there are two categories of brass. The first is the traditional English type of band which you listen to and the second is a more world music influenced type you dance to. The Hackney Colliery band come into the second category.

Glade Stage - Stornoway. Indie band where the jingle jangle and quirky lyrics are underpinned by a range of other instruments and voices joining in harmony.

Saturday

Canopy - Hannah Scott. This Ipswich born singer songwriter played Folk East last weekend has a smooth voice which sings popular acoustic which is gentle and melodic. If you want a pleasant break from the angst and righteousness you could do worse than escape here.

Glade Stage -  StanleyOdd. Last time this lot played Greenbelt it was to a handful of people in the middle of a crazy storm which saw tents washed away and parts of the site turned into a knee high quagmire whilst we danced. Hopefully this time the weather will be a little better for this Scottish indy hip hop outfit whose poetry can make you think and giggle in turns. Expect some insightful comment on the forthcoming independence vote.

Glade Stage - Luke Sital-Singh. There has been something of a buzz going on for this guy's set. Having listened to some of his stuff on You Tube it does grow on. If you enjoy films like Juno and Begin Again think soundtrack music and you'll have his sound.

Sunday

Big Top - The Cut Ups. This Exeter based band play proper political UK Punk and echo the spirit of '76/'77 but not in some kind of pastiche style. Really glad that they are on in the Big Top because they reflect an important part of the alternative spirit of Greenbelt which seemed to be getting side-lined.

 

The Canopy - Grace Petrie. Leicester based political poet. Over recent years she has become an integral part of the festival line up with her excellent Braggesque mix of politics and love songs. Look out for Farewell to Welfare as one of the best critiques of our current government going.

The Glade Stage - Sinead O'Connor. Apparently she's been doing some storming sets this festival season. Expect Take Me to Church from the current "I'm Not Bossy, I'm the Boss" to go down a storm.

Monday

 Big Top - Josephine and the Artizans. If you enjoyed the BBC Urban Proms last year this is for you. Mixing hip hop and urban poetry with a more classical approach and throwing in a drop or two of pop this is a really interesting result which works amazingly. Really looking forward to this.

Big Top - Martyn Joseph. Martyn at Greenbelt expressing his rage at what is going on in Gaza, Ferguson and elsewhere........it will be emotional; it will be worth hanging around for. Watch out for Luxury of Despair.

Talks and Panels

Friday

Living Room - Travelling Heavy, Marika Rose. Marika is one of the brightest UK theologians of the 21st century. She is the sort of person who can think things that would make most minds explode but communicate them in a really accessible way. She is now becoming a regular on the Greenbelt stage and this should be a really interesting talk.

Tree House - Rewriting Lutheran Liturgy, NadiaBolz-Weber. Tattooed American Lutheran Priest Bolz-Weber cuts the crap whilst retaining the awe. She's speaking at Greenbelt as part of a UK tour with Sara Miles which also takes in Manchester and London.

Leaves - Tenx9 - There is a Tenx9 session on in Leaves on both Friday and Saturday night. This is where 9 random people have 10 minutes to tell their story. The Friday theme this year is Travelling and the Saturday is Change. (Karl will be doing a slot on the Saturday session looking at some of the lighter side of his trans story). The Tenx9 team are also doing a Saturday afternoon session in the Youth Venue on the them Social Me.

Saturday

There is a huge decision to be made on Saturday morning due to it being impossible to move from venue to another without taking at least a couple of minutes. There are also lesser clashes going on and this is the day which will make it worth just buying the bundle of talks.

Glade Stage - The Four-Fold Path to Forgiveness, MphoTutu. This one speaks for itself.

Big Top - The Politics of Hope, Owen Jones. TheEstablishment, Jones' new book is out 4th September and will no doubt be immediately absorbed into the far left cannon and not without reason. Jones is becoming the contemporary voice of an alternative in the UK.

Big Top - Can We Reimagine Marriage? Adam Dinham, LindaWoodhead, Sara Miles, Vicky Beeching. This promises to be a highly academic panel but really accessible at the same time.  

Pagoda - What's Happening in Scotland? Alistair McIntosh. McIntosh is a Scot and a thinker whose work in books like Soil and Soul reflects a strong understanding of Scotland as a nation and its relationship with the rest of the UK and beyond. I have no doubt this will be an intelligent discussion of the Independence debate although you shouldn't expect it to be unbiased from this man of passion.

Pagoda - The Crisis of Religion in the UK: History, Causes and Consequences, Linda Woodhead. If you are a Sociology student about to enter A2 in an institution that does the Belief in Society unit get to this talk or buy the talk. If you are the parent of such a student buy them this one. Beyond that if you are anybody else this will be an interesting and useful listen.

Pagoda - A Political Theology of Climate Change, Michael Northcott. Northcott is the foremost Green theologian in the UK and always worth a listen.

Pagoda - Help, Thanks. Wow, Anne Lamott. Not heard of Lamott before the publicity for the festival came out but there has been a huge buzz coming out of the GB office about her. being over from the US. One worth checking out me thinks.

Sunday

Living Room - Let us Remember: Stories of Peace from WW1, Pat Gaffney. Gaffney is a well respected peace activist and this will no doubt be a moving and inspirational session.

Pagoda - Richer than God: Modern Football and Money, David Conn. No idea about this one but sounds really interesting from the title.

Living Room - Seeking Sanctuary, Sexuality and Staying Safe, NE Gay Asylum Group. This is one of those sessions which make Greenbelt and which you often just find by accident. It is where voices which may not normally be heard will be heard.

Pagoda - Is the Church of England Worth Saving? Linda Woodhead and Jane Shaw. Ok, so I'm probably recommending Linda Woodhead too much BUT heck the Sociology of Religion is the discipline I'm passionate about. Jane Shaw is also an academic I respect and this conversation has all the hallmarks of a discussion worth listening too.

Monday

Big Top - We're Not A Problem, We're A Gift, Rachel Mann, Padraig O Tuama, Karl Rutlidge (and others). This promises to be a really interesting session. I suspect you might hear part of the narrative which is often missed when LGBT people are being treated as either an issue or being treated as victims. Interesting blog from Mann this week about the need for LGBT people to be really listened to by institutions.

Playhouse - What did Brian Ever Do for Us? RichardBurridge. This is following a showing of The Life of Brian.

Pagoda - Politics in Your Village, Not the Westminster Village, Joe Walker, Mark Goodge, Sarah Hutt, Ruby Beech and Jessica Metheringham. I've only heard of one of the panel here, Ruby Beech is a former Vice President of the Methodist Church, but in a discussion of local politics than can never be a bad thing. What I do know about Greenbelt and discussions of this sought is that they are going to contain panels of experts in the area they're talking about. The title alone has a lot of potential within it.

 Worship

Friday

Grove - Blessing the Land, St Albans Forest Church. No experience of them but I have heard others speak very well of Forest Church, a group which have a spirituality of the earth and sky.

Saturday

The Mount - A Response to Violence Against Women, Christian Feminist Network. This promises to be moving worship with maximum integrity.

Treehouse - Discipleship and Journeying in a Digital Age, Bex Lewis. Lewis is part of CODEC who are out in force for Greenbelt. They are based in St. Johns College, Durham which is an environment which oozes theological reflection. Will be interesting to see what comes out of this and other sessions.

Forge - Outerspace Communion, Outerspace. This is the LGBT Communion for LGBTQI people and their straight allies which I have discussed the importance of before on this blog. Because of a clash with the Tenx9 event I am unlikely to be able to get along but this is always a really moving and well planned event which can provide deep healing for some people.

Sunday

Main Communion Service - this is always an experience, although it does differ from year to year and good and bad years can be identified. However, there is always something incredibly moving about seeing this many people gather together for communion. I always feel touched that for some Greenbelt is the only church they can handle doing anymore and so it may be the only point in the year they take communion. For others Greenbelt is the only place they feel able to be completely themselves before God and others and that also makes this coming together moving.

Grove, Ruach Blessing, Ancient Arden Forest Church. - Again this will have a huge spirituality to it.

Monday

Big Top - Still So Far to Travel. Not quite sure what this event will involve but I am sure it will be an important event.

Treehouse - Spirituality in a Digital Age, Rev. Dr. PeterPhilips. Pete is Director of Codec and a Methodist minister. He comes from a slightly different theological place to many of those inhabiting Greenbelt this year, being more conservatively evangelical and that is no bad thing. One of the great things about GB is the diversity of opinion it allows and the fact it always has a mix of theology coming together.

Aware that there is so much more to Greenbelt I haven't touched on but for me it has always been music, talks and worship so that's what I've focused on. For those who can't get there Clare Balding's Good Morning Sunday BBC Radio Two show will be broadcasting live from the festival again. 

More Festivating at IFMK and MK Fringe Festival

Ade Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds

This was my MK International Festival treat. I've wanted to see the Shepherds, who fuse my two favourite types of music, for years but never quite managed it. On Monday evening I wasn't disappointed as I heard the poetry of punk sung to music played on folk instruments.

To put this in context I am part of the generation which grew up on the Comic Strip....that bit too young for both Python and Not the Nine O'Clock News. Adrian Edmondson was one of my comedy heroes as a teenager. To see him singing my favourite songs was amazing, quality wouldn't have really mattered, although I was glad the quality was excellent. Edmondson and the two other musicians with him were really good players.

There were a few particularly strong songs in the set, which wasn't exclusively punk...The Smiths, Madness and Motorhead all crept in. Down in the Tube Station at Midnight, White Riot, Rise and Girlfriend in a Coma all stood out for me. There was moving moment was when he announced Ace of Spades was Rik Mayall's favourite song, before playing it.

Lucie Lom: Les Reveurs (The Dreamers)

Ok, I've talked about these figures before. They have been moving around MK though & I wanted to talk about the way they worked in different contexts. In the Fred Roche Gardens they were most artistic. They seemed least out of place there, in the shadow of the dome of the Church of Christ the Cornerstone. It is in some ways a lost part of MK and they were almost like the ghosts of men who originally devised this new town whose dreams and visions have probably been fulfilled and destroyed in equal measure in the MK of today.

 

In the artificial atmosphere of the shopping centre they had less character, just confusing the kids as to whether they were living statues or not.

 

Ray Lee: Chorus

I encountered the large tripods in the Fred Roche Gardens where they looked like something out of one of those late '70's/ early '80's sci fi programmes which often included some future after nuclear war.

 

The ambient sounds coming out filled the gardens, spilling out on to Midsummer Boulevard. The office workers taking their usual route too and from the shopping centre for lunch had a mixture of mild amusement and WTF looks on their faces. This was the sensible reaction.

Yet the local glitterartsy who seemed to be out in force in the early summer sunshine had their usual earnest looks and polite smiles.

Me, I laid on the grass listening hoping in vain the bass beats would come in and the tempo would increase, which of course I knew they never would. Rather the intense sounds continued to merge like some kind of early '90's chill out room for those who would have been prog rock fans if born a decade earlier.

PITCH

Pup tents with artists plying their trade alongside local charities, including the Red Cross (whose tent is pictured below) and activists. This was a real community arts event, as all the Fringe events have tended to be. However, the site in the City Square, was like a sun trap and it was too hot to stay around for long.

 

Hilarie Bowman had the advantage you could sit under a tree and watch her short performance on climate change which was seeking to educate people about the fee and dividend campaign.

 

Rob Winn, the local Venture FX guy, was part of the LoveMK Volunteer Collective who were producing a World Vision child friendly space and giving out copies of Is it Morning by Deborah Fielding and illustrated by Toria Macleod which went out with Greenbelt tickets one year.

Extremely talented local artist Suzanna Raymond, whose photography and film I have enjoyed at MK Gallery exhibitions and events in the past was there with her Invisible Sketch project which invited people to draw their journeys.

The Actors Tent were in the amphitheatre doing a version of Whose Line is It Anyway. I have to say if it had been a bit cooler I may have enjoyed it more. They were a talented group of young local actors doing their best in difficult weather.
 

Festival of Nations

The Festival of Nations was the final MK Fringe event and involved a range of artists inside and outside of the Arts Central building.

Once I finally got in and up to the third floor, which is a mission in itself with the signing in and out involved where everybody has to stand around one book I caught the second half of the Harmanics set. This was a great set of traditional folk songs. I particularly enjoyed their rendition of Scarborough Fayre.

 

It was really good to see the place buzzing and lots of people from different ethnic backgrounds buzzing about.

During the time I was in there they had a couple of storytelling sets which showed why it is an art form. I underline this point having seen an email with a request from John Lewis in Milton Keynes recently which was asking for volunteers to come in and do storytelling slots over the summer. This email made me so angry because as I say telling is an art form done by professionals such as Theresa Kelleher and Red Phoenix who were giving great sets at Arts Central for the Festival or John Row who wasn't there but you may have seen at Glastonbury, Guildfest or Cambridge Festivals amongst other places. At the very least John Lewis should have been employing young actors such as those from the Actors Tent if they wanted more of the reading out of books and dressing up type of variation on the theme. The email and practice underlines how this apparently ethical business often still has a long way to go. (Anyway rant over and back to the festival).

The whole Festival of Nations was a testament to the hard work of a group of people including Chinwe Osaghae who was one of the key organisers. Chinwe is a poet, playwright, artistic lifecoach and a whole lot more and is one of the people based in Arts Central. Karen Kodish is also based in this arts hub. She is a professional photographer who was running around a lot during the event and I look forward to seeing some of the work she produces.

My favourite exhibit in the accompanying art exhibition was Melanie Watts Street Art from Valparaiso which was almost animation cartoon like in style but mixed the traditional with the modern in a clever way.

Tunde Jegede in the Pentalum

The Pentalum produced by Architects of Air and made in Nottingham is amazing. It is like a huge inflatable which you go and walk about inside, through a range of amazing shapes and colours. It has several domes which are connected. It's located in the shopping centre. At £4 a go for wander round I'd recommend it.

 

I went in during the week and felt it was a special space which is probably best described as walking about inside the Tardis and that I really wanted the chance to chill in it at a point there weren't loads of kids getting excited and to hear some music in it.  That's how I found myself getting a ticket to listen to a kora and cello player when I don't really do classical music. Now it turns outs I really like the sound of the kora which is a 21 string instrument and can bear the cello when I have pretty shapes and colours to distract me and there is space I can wander around in when my attention goes.

 

Tunde Jegede's music was I have to admit beautiful and whilst I sat in a pod a little bit removed from the main dome he was in I could see real music lovers were absolutely captivated watching him play. I recognised one or two of the people in the audience as people who I know have a really professional knowledge and know what's outstanding, they were lapping it up.