Back from Greenbelt

Holiday over, blogging resumes :-) I’ve been away at the Greenbelt festival for the weekend – four days under canvas with 20,000 other people with music, art, dance, seminars, worship, food, toilets and lots more! It was a good festival this year. My highlights included, in no special order:

Camping with the Franciscans was good – provided structure to the day, lots of nice food and people willing to help entertain the children. Also, a good chance to be there for people who wanted someone to talk to.
Meeting friends I’ve not seen since last year (including a few I needed more time with to catch up!)
Much improved food stalls (favourites included the two bacon butty stalls [one organic], bangers and mash stalls [one veggie], Pie [as always!] and the pasta bar), including one that was giving away locally grown apples to children!
Weather was about right – neither too hot nor too cold, and not wet
The big screen outside the Tiny Tea Tent (which is less tiny every year) was an excellent thing, bringing mainstage to a calmer place
Meeting people from the GB Forum at the debate
The folk club was excellent – hope we get another next year!
Sunday service – singing Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven to the bassline from Eminem’s Lose yourself (from the film 8 Mile) was great. The service was pretty good this year and not too long. Would have been nice to have a real sermon, though, rather than the “Christian Aid is great” thing…
Sonia Sabri’s kathak dancing was stunning in both pure and expressive modes.
I managed only one seminar this year – with Jane Bartlett, about praying with your children. She had some good ideas, and some…odd…ones, too!

Adam and Ruth both had a good time there, too, which was great. The children’s area was very well organised and worked well. Anne and I thus got at least some time to ourselves, which was nice. But, as always, there wasn’t enough time to do everything I wanted, or even a fraction of it. Still, there’s always next year :-D